With Liberty University being a private institution, it is very difficult, nearly impossible to get complete information on head coach salaries like is frequently reported for other schools. Liberty does have to file annual tax documents which are made publicly available.

The school’s recently filed tax documents for July 2023-June 2024 has become public. In this, we are able to see what Liberty head football coach Jamey Chadwell’s compensation is for this time period. His total compensation for this period was $5,877,112. This includes base compensation of $4,000,000 and bonus and incentive compensation of $1,759, 806. While we don’t have a copy of the contract to know for certain, much of the bonuses received were likely for Liberty’s 2023 CUSA Championship and Fiesta Bowl appearance.

USA Today releases annual salary information for all FBS coaches. Their most recent report was published in October 2024. Based on this information, Chadwell would have ranked as the 37th highest paid coach in the country. This puts him ahead of such names as Deion Sanders, Mack Brown, and Dave Aranda.

Chadwell also ranks as the highest paid coach in the Group of Five, ahead of South Florida’s Alex Golesh ($2,053,099), UTSA’s Jeff Traylor ($2,500,000), former East Carolina head coach Mike Houston ($2,457,363), Army’s Jeff Monken ($2,350,000), and Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield ($2,200,000).

His salary for this time period would also make him the highest paid head coach in Virginia. Chadwell ranks ahead of Virginia Tech’s Brent Pry ($4,775,000), Virginia’s Tony Elliott ($4,251,000), Old Dominion’s Ricky Rahne ($845,000), and James Madison’s Bob Chesney ($766,500).

Here’s where USA Today has the rest of Conference USA’s head football coaches:

$1,056,000 – Rich Rodriguez, Jacksonville State
$1,000,000 – Sonny Cumbie, Louisiana Tech
$1,000,000 – Derek Mason, Middle Tennessee
$927,180 – Tyson Helton, Western Kentucky
$800,000 – Scotty Walden, UTEP
$750,000 – Mike MacIntyre, FIU
$625,000 – KC Keeler, Sam Houston
$600,000 – Tony Sanchez, New Mexico State
$376,000 – Brian Bohannon, Kennesaw State