Satterfield Receives New Five-Year Contract, Base Salary Rises To $500,000 in 2020

Appalachian State football head coach Scott Satterfield new five-year contract approved by ASU’s Board of Trustees on Friday ensures that Satterfield will be coaching at The Rock until at least through 2020 if all goes as planned.

The new five-year deal begins on Jan. 1, 2016 and runs through Dec. 31, 2020.

The contract, which includes terms of an extension he signed in 2014, pays Satterfield at least $2.8 million, which includes a $125,000 retention bonus. From 2015 to 2020, Satterfield will see raises of $25,000 from his $375,000 annual pay for 2015 to $500,000 in 2020.

Satterfield is currently in the second year of a three-year contract that he signed when Appalachian State began competing in FBS in 2014. His new five-year contract will replace the final year of his current deal.

Coincidentally or not, Satterfield’s new contract was approved on the same day that USA Today published a report listing all of the football coach salaries at public universities. Satterfield’s current contract, which puts him at $375,000 through 2015, places him 10th out of 11 in the Sun Belt Conference.

While this is a nice pay bump for Satterfield, he’s still not making nearly as much UL Lafayette head coach Mark Hudspeth, who earns $1.05 million this year and tops the Sun Belt Conference. Nor does he make as much as Alabama’s Nick Saban, who is making more than $7 million in 2015.

“We have the right coach leading our football program in Scott Satterfield,” Appalachian State director of athletics Doug Gillin said. “In nearly three years as head coach, he has stayed true to his convictions, built the program the right way and set Appalachian State football up for sustainable success both in the Sun Belt Conference and at the national level.

“As impressed as I’ve been by the on-field results, I am especially proud of our football program’s academic integrity and its campus and community involvement under Coach Satterfield,” Gillin continued. “I’m thankful to him for his commitment to Appalachian State and am excited that he and his family will remain a part of the Appalachian family.”

Satterfield was named the 20th head coach in Appalachian State history on Dec. 14, 2012 and has guided the Mountaineers through the transition from NCAA Division I FCS to Division I FBS, the highest level of college football.

Appalachian began the NCAA-mandated two-year transition from FCS to FBS in Satterfield’s first season as head coach. The Mountaineers went 4-8 in his first year at the helm in 2013 and started 1-5 in 2014. However, Appalachian reeled off six-straight wins to close the 2014 campaign with a 7-5 overall record. With a 6-2 record in Sun Belt Conference play in ‘14, App State finished alone in third place in its first season in the 11-team league.

The Mountaineers are 3-1 through four games this season, including their first-ever victories over opponents from Conference USA (a 49-0 win at Old Dominion on Sept. 26) and the Mountain West Conference (a 31-13 win over Wyoming last Saturday). With nine wins in the last 10 games, Satterfield’s career record stands at 14-14.

In all, Satterfield has spent 20 of the last 25 years at Appalachian State as a student-athlete (1991-95), assistant coach (1998-2008, 2012) and head coach (2013-present). He was an all-conference quarterback for the Mountaineers during his playing career and coached running backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks during his initial 11-season stint as an assistant coach. He left App State for three seasons to serve as the passing game coordinator at Toledo (2009) and offensive coordinator at Florida International (2010-11) before returning as the Mountaineers’ offensive coordinator and assistant head coach in 2012.

“It’s exciting for my family and me to know that we’re going to be at Appalachian for the foreseeable future,” Satterfield said. “I’m living a dream by being the head coach at my alma mater and can’t wait to continue to work hard to help this program reach heights that it has never reached before. I’m grateful to Chancellor (Dr. Sheri N.) Everts, the Board of Trustees and Doug Gillin for their commitment and support of our football program. It’s great to be a Mountaineer!”