UTEP Football Dana Dimel Ranks as Lowest-Paid Coach in C-USA

UTEP football head coach Dana Dimel, who is leading the Miners on a 5-1 start to the 2021 season, is the lowest-paid coach in all of Conference USA, according to USA Today.

However, C-USA football coaches make between $746,000 and $1.9 million, which isn't a very significant pay gap. What is significant, though, is the starting salary for first-year coaches compared to a seasoned coach like Dimel. For example, Will Hall ($800,000 per year) and Charles Huff ($755,500) are making more as a first-year coach compared to Dimel, who is entering year four.

Some of these numbers are a little low for the quality of the coach. Skip Holtz, who holds the best win/loss record (149-112) of any coach in the league at La Tech, is being paid $779,00 as a base salary, and has about $395,000 in bonuses that raise his contract significantly per year.

Dimel is in the fourth year of his five-year deal that he initially signed after the 2017 season. His base salary is $748,966, which is comparable to Western Kentucky head coach Tyson Helton ($751,470). The report also shows that Dimel also took a $41,533 contract reduction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His buyout is $830,666 with UTEP.

Coming into this season, UTEP football had won just five games under Dimel. The Miners have started off the 2021 season with a 5-1 record, searching for their first bowl appearance since 2014. Dimel has helped turn the program into a more competitive product than the winless program that he inherited in 2018.

Here's the list of C-USA's highest-paid football coaches by USA Today. This takes into account COVID-19 reductions as total pay. This also doesn't include bonuses or other contract incentives that the coaches could earn in 2021.

Seth Littrell (No. 69 in FBS) — $1,900,000
Bill Clark (No. 71 in FBS) — $1,550,000
Butch Davis (No. 84 in FBS) — $1,093,956
Mike Bloomgren (No. 87 in FBS) — $934,171
Rick Stockstill (No. 88 in FBS) — $910,504
Jeff Traylor (No. 91 in FBS) — $830,000
Will Hall (No. 94 in FBS) — $800,000
Will Healy (No. 96 in FBS) — $793,901
Skip Holtz (No. 98 in FBS) — $779,000
Willie Taggart (No. 100 in FBS) — $775,000
Ricky Rahne (No. 101 in FBS) — $762,296
Charles Huff (No. 102 in FBS) — $755,500
Tyson Helton (No. 103 in FBS) — $751,470
Dana Dimel (No. 105 in FBS) — $748,966

Team	Head Coach	Years at School	Overall Record >2020	Record at School before 2021	CUSA Record
Louisiana Tech	Skip Holtz	9	149–112	61–41	41–21
Middle Tennessee	Rick Stockstill	16	94–92	94–92	71–45
FIU	Butch Davis	4	86–64	23-21	14–13
Florida Atlantic	Willie Taggart	2	61–66	5–4	4–2
Southern Miss	Will Hall	1	56–20	0–0	0–0
UAB	Bill Clark	6	51–26	40–22	26–10
UTEP	Dana Dimel	4	35–66	10-28	3–19
North Texas	Seth Littrell	6	31–31	31–31	21–18
Charlotte	Will Healy	3	22–31	9–10	7–5
Western Kentucky	Tyson Helton	3	14–11	14–11	10–5
Rice	Mike Bloomgren	4	7–23	7–23	6–15
UTSA	Jeff Traylor	2	7–5	7–5	5–2
Marshall	Charles Huff	1	0–0	0–0	0–0
Old Dominion	Ricky Rahne	2	0–0	0–0	0–0