Members of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees compensation committee approved a new five-year contract for head UAB football coach Bill Clark Wednesday. UAB President Ray Watts said Clark would remain the Blazers’ coach when Watts announced the team’s reinstatement in June, but an agreement did not come for more than three months.
The five-year contract runs from June 1, 2015, to June 1, 2020, and is for a base salary of $555,000 a year, plus incentives.
In 2014, his one season as UAB’s coach, Clark led the Blazers to a 6-6 record and bowl eligibility for the first time in a decade. Then in December Watts announced he was ending the football, bowling, and rifle programs because their expense.
The decision met with strong pushback from students, faculty and alumni, with Watts losing three no-confidence votes from campus governing bodies. Subsequent fundraising commitments from athletic boosters of more than $17-million over five years led Watts to bring the programs back.
The football team is expected to return to play fall 2017.