FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas offensive coordinator Joe Craddock has signed a three-year contract that runs through the 2020 season.
Craddock's contract, which was approved Friday with the signature of University of Arkansas President Donald Bobbitt, is the longest of any of the 10 assistant coaches hired to Chad Morris' first staff at Arkansas. The contract expires Feb. 28, 2021.
Craddock will earn $600,000 annually - $400,000 in base salary and $200,000 for TV, radio and speaking appearances. He also is eligible for up to $133,333 in taxable bonuses in each year, the maximum amount of which would be owed if the Razorbacks win a national and SEC championship in the same season.
More from WholeHogSports
http://www.wholehog…">Arkansas assistant salary database
Craddock, 32, has spent the past three seasons as offensive coordinator at SMU where he led an offense that ranked No. 12 nationally in scoring offense and No. 15 in total offense last season. In addition to his coordinating duties, he also will coach Arkansas' quarterbacks.
His $600,000 annual salary is $250,000 less than his predecessor, Dan Enos, was scheduled to make in 2018. He will be the second-highest paid assistant on the new Arkansas staff, behind defensive coordinator John Chavis, who in in line to make $995,000.
Arkansas' total assistant salary pool for 2018 is $4.345 million. Nine assistants have multi-year contracts and Chavis has a one-year contract with a two-year option that he can activate anytime before Dec. 1.
The multi-year contracts are a stray from past years when almost all assistant coaches worked on 12-month agreements that ran from July 1-June 30, consistent with most university employees. Enos was the only assistant with a multi-year contract in 2017.
None of the 10 assistants this year signed a no-compete clause that prohibits them from taking other jobs within the Southeastern Conference, but their contracts do include a language that prohibits them from disclosing "trade secrets" with other SEC programs should they be hired away. Trade secrets are broadly defined and include general methods related to recruiting, game planning, coaching philosophies, player evaluations and practice drills.
All of Arkansas' assistant coaches in 2017 signed no-compete agreements at the request of former head coach Bret Bielema. Three of those coaches - Enos (Alabama), Michael Smith (Kentucky) and Vernon Hargreaves Jr. (Missouri) - have since been hired by other SEC teams.