How much will Auburn pay its new on-field football assistant coaches in 2025?

Auburn football has had relatively minimal staff turnover this offseason, something the program has not often enjoyed in recent years.

Head coach Hugh Freeze has had to replace just two on-field coaches since the end of the 2024 season. The moves included promoting special assistant to the head coach TJ Rushing to safeties coach after former safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator Charles Kelly was hired to be the head coach at Jacksonville State.

Auburn also hired a new outside linebackers/edge coach, Roc Bellantoni, to replace Josh Aldridge, who left to become the defensive coordinator at East Carolina. Bellantoni was most recently the defensive coordinator at Florida Atlantic, but coached outside linebackers at Auburn under Bryan Harsin in 2022.

The other major contract news on Auburn’s defensive staff was defensive coordinator DJ Durkin receiving a raise and extension, making among the highest-paid coordinators in college football.

Here’s how much Rushing and Bellantoni will be paid at Auburn, according to copies of their contracts obtained through a public records request by AL.com:

TJ Rushing

Length of contract: Two years

Base salary: $550,000 with a $50,000 increase on Jan. 1, 2026

Roc Bellantoni

Length of contract: Two years

Base salary: $525,000 with $25,000 increase on Feb. 1 of each term year

All of Auburn’s assistant coaches have identical performance bonus structures, which are as follows:

• A bonus equal to 25% of their current salary should Auburn win the national championship
• A bonus equal to 20% of their current salary should Auburn finish as the national runner-up
• A bonus equal to 16% of their current salary should Auburn make a national semifinal game
• A bonus equal to 12% of their current salary should Auburn make the 12-team College Football Playoff
• A bonus equal to 8% of their current salary should Auburn make the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, ReliaQuest Bowl or Citrus Bowl
• A bonus equal to 6% of their current salary should Auburn make the Music City Bowl, Texas Bowl or the Duke’s Mayo Bowl
• A bonus equal to 4% of their current salary should Auburn make the Birmingham Bowl, Liberty Bowl or Independence Bowl
• A $30,000 bonus should Auburn win the SEC Championship Game
• A $15,000 bonus should Auburn play in, but lose the SEC Championship Game

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com