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More than a year after his hiring at New Mexico State, head football coach Jerry Kill finally signed his employment contract last month, the university announced Tuesday.
He had worked a full regular season in 2022 without a signed initial contract, which was unusual and carried risks for both sides, as USA TODAY Sports reported in November. NMSU athletic director Mario Moccia said the “extended time frame to sign was never once about extra compensation.”
He said instead it was because Kill “wanted to make sure that NM State athletics and the University had a commitment to specific infrastructure items which had been long neglected would be addressed quickly to ensure the best chance for long term success for the football program.”
That included Kill’s desire to have a certain parking lot paved, which is currently a dirt parking lot by the NMSU football offices, Moccia confirmed Tuesday to USA TODAY Sports.
Kill finished with a 7-6 record during his first season in 2022, including a 24-19 win against Bowling Green in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit Dec. 26. He didn’t sign his initial contract with NMSU until Dec. 21, which was not announced by the university at the time as the team prepared for the bowl game.
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The university previously said Kill still was paid $550,000 for his first year on the job despite not working under a signed contract. He is due to make $600,000 in 2023, with other escalators and incentives through 2027.
As Moccia alluded to, Kill used his leverage as a first-year coach to win a number of infrastructure agreements. They are spelled out in Kill’s contract to incentivize upgrades for a program that has been one of the hardest places to win in college football. Since 1972, NMSU has had 10 non-interim head coaches before Kill, nine of whom were fired.
The contract calls for the installation of a new video board, new home locker room and an artificial grass practice field prior to the first home game of 2024. It also calls for the paving of NMSU’s “parking lot 35” prior to that first home game of 2024.
If these improvements do not happen by then, the contract states Kill can leave his contract voluntarily without having to pay the university for damages. Otherwise, he generally would owe the university half of what is left on his contract after Feb. 1, 2024, though he also can voluntarily leave before then without paying such damages.
“I have no idea if the parking lot will be paved by then,” Moccia said in an e-mail Tuesday. “The turf and the locker room will be completed by then. Working on getting financing for the scoreboard and will know by the end of March.”
Kill’s contract also gives him some protection as to who is boss will be and says he can leave without penalty to accept a full-time assistant coach’s job at another program in major college football. If Moccia leaves for any reason and he is not replaced by Moccia’s current deputy, Braun Cartwright, Kill also can leave his job without penalty.
Kill, who has battled health problems and previously coached at Minnesota, has already earned at least two bonuses according to the contract — $25,000 for seven wins in 2022 and $10,000 for win against rival New Mexico.
NMSU was 2-10 in 2021, before Kill’s hiring was announced in late November 2021. The 2022 season was the Aggies’ first winning season since 2017, which also was the last time the football program was affiliated with a conference. The Aggies are joining Conference USA in July after being an independent in football since then.
“I appreciate New Mexico State and the administration, but more so I love the players and Las Cruces,” Kill said in a statement released Tuesday. “We’re far from where we’re going to be. However, we’re building facilities and doing what it takes to succeed as we move into Conference USA.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
