HARRISONBURG — A year, a day and a championship removed from signing his first contract at James Madison, football coach Mike Houston now has a more valuable one.
The school and its coach agreed to stay together for the foreseeable future on Thursday, when Houston signed a restructured contract that includes an additional year and a bump in pay.
His annual base salary was upgraded to $375,000 and the deal runs through the 2021 season.
A year ago, Houston signed a five-year deal at $300,000 per year to run through the 2020 season.
“The big thing is I think is that it shows a commitment by the university and by the athletic department to myself and our program,” Houston said in a phone interview Thursday. “It also rewards you for the way you’ve come in and done things.”
In his first year at Madison, Houston guided the Dukes to an FCS national championship, an outright Colonial Athletic Association title and a program-record 14 wins. On its way to the title game, JMU dethroned five-time defending champion North Dakota State at the FargoDome in the semifinals of the FCS playoffs.
Houston was named American Football Coaches Association FCS National Coach of the Year and CAA Coach of the Year.
Under Houston, JMU finished the year with the nation’s second-best scoring offense and fifth-best rushing offense. The defense led the country with 21 interceptions. His quarterback, Bryan Schor, was the CAA’s Offensive Player of the Year and won the Dudley Award, while his running back Khalid Abdullah finished first in FCS in rushing yards (1,809) and rushing touchdowns with 22. Fourteen JMU players were named to the All-CAA team.
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne said the school had to be proactive with Houston following the successful season.
“We thoroughly understand that any time a coach achieves at the level he did that there would be opportunities for them,” Bourne said. “Our goal is to make sure that we’re keeping our coach inline on a national front and in a position where they are competitive at the highest levels at the CAA with their compensation levels.”
Before taking the job at JMU last January, Houston had a two-year stint as coach at The Citadel after a three-year run at Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, where he led the Bears to the 2013 national championship game.
For leading JMU on its run in the 2016 postseason, Houston earned incentive-bonuses netting $87,500.
The postseason incentives remain the same, but JMU added incentives into Houston’s restructured contract that would reward him should the school win the conference or he earn conference coach of the year honors or national coach of the year honors.
Houston said his wife, Amanda, and their two young sons are extremely happy in Harrisonburg, which is part of the reason why he wanted to sign the addendum.
“That’s easily half the equation right there,” Houston said. “With the kids the age that mine are, you don’t want to yank them around. We’ve moved three times in the last four years with the move to Lenoir-Rhyne, to The Citdael and to The Citadel here, and certainly, I don’t want to keep doing that. You want to establish stability.”
It’s the same stability Bourne said JMU is yearning for after the school had three coaching changes in the last four years.
Houston said he could now tell recruits and their parents that him and his staff are secure at JMU.
Bourne said he is working with Houston to get contracts renewed for the nine of the 10 assistant football coaches. Defensive coordinator Bob Trott is the only assistant from the 2016 staff that was signed for beyond the championship season — his three-year deal runs through the 2018 season.
“We’ve been working on those diligently,” Bourne said. “There are obviously more individuals at stake, but it was important to get Mike’s contract done first, but we hope to bring closure to these very shortly.”
The extension and raise JMU gave Houston is the second its given to a coach in the last year. JMU softball coach Mickey Dean earned a $20,000 raise after leading the Dukes to their first-ever Super Regional in the spring.
