$$$ for Dabo

The first few college football games of the 2017 season have been played! College football is officially back and we’ll get our first live look at the 2017 Clemson squad this weekend as they take on Kent State.

The big news from last week? Dabo Swinney agreed to a new 8-year contract. In terms of actual cash being paid per-year, Coach Swinney is the second highest paid coach in all of college football (with other benefits and perks included, he’s third after Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh). The contract is slightly backloaded, but has a $1.5 million signing bonus (as well as other bonuses early in the contract) so while it’s an average of $6.75 million per year, he’ll get paid $7.5 million initially. It’s unlikely he’ll ever make it to the back end of this contract (assuming he keeps up this performance he’ll undoubtedly get a new contract again in 3-5 years. I won’t even mention ‘Bama).

The buyout if Coach Swinney leaves before January 1, 2019 is $6 million. After that date it drops to 4 million. After January 1, 2021 it drops to $3 million. It drops to $2 million and to $1 million in the subsequent years. Unfortunately, once it drops from $6 million in 2019 the buyout isn’t enough to stave off all potential suitors.

Kent State’s Head Coach will miss Clemson Game

Kent State’s Paul Haynes will miss the first few games of the season, including the Clemson game, due to an undisclosed medical issue. OC Don Treadwell will take over while he’s out. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious.

Finally, not to look too far ahead at the beginning of the 2017 season, but here are some Trevor Lawrence highlights from last week. Next year’s QB battle should be an interesting one.

Edits: As you all may have noticed, a lot of good writers have been laid off recently by their publications. Some of them (including Stewart Mandel and Ken Rosenthal (for writing only) are now with new subscription-based website the Athletic. They did a Q&A with Coach Swinney and the website is free today as a launch celebration, so check it out before it goes back up under paywall tomorrow.

Clemson’s depth chart for Kent State has been revealed.

Some notable items:

1. True freshman Logan Rudolph is listed as backup to Austin Bryant at DE, with Justin Foster behind him.
2. Judah Davis is backup to Tre Lamar at MLB (is this because of Reshaun Smith’s injury?) beating out Chad Smith.
3. Marcus Edmonds backup is listed as Mark Fields OR Amir Trapp.

Of course, we’ll see what actually happens in game. The depth chart isn’t always a perfect indication of the pecking order.