FAYETTEVILLE -- Dan Enos signed a three-year contract with an opening salary of $1.1 million to rejoin the University of Arkansas football staff this week, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette learned Friday through a public records request.
Enos, in his second stint at Arkansas following a three-year stretch from 2015-17, has built-in raises of $75,000 per season that would take his annual pay to $1.175 million in 2024 and $1.25 million in 2025. His contract, signed by himself, Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek and Coach Sam Pittman on Wednesday and UA Chancellor Charles Robinson on Friday, also includes a pair of automatic one-year extensions triggered on Feb. 28 each year that would bump his salary by $75,000 per year unless he is notified by Dec. 31 of the previous year that he will not be extended.
The contract maximum is for five years, with scheduled salaries of $1.325 million in 2026 and $1.4 million in 2027 if the extensions are granted.
Enos' deal includes a no-compete clause that would prohibit him from taking another job in the SEC with the exception of a head coaching role. The UA will also pay up to $135,000 to buy out his contract at Maryland, where he has spent the past two seasons on Mike Locksley's staff.
Per terms of the contract, Enos will draw a $500,000 annual salary paid by the university and the rest of his contract will come from other compensation.
Pittman pivoted quickly to Enos on Wednesday after news broke that third-year offensive coordinator Kendal Briles was likely to reach agreement with TCU to join Coach Sonny Dykes' staff. In fact, sources with knowledge of the transition said Pittman was ready to move on when stories broke that Briles was negotiating with the Horned Frogs after he turned down a reported offer from Mississippi State earlier in the month and said he was ready to run it back with the Razorbacks in 2023.
Briles was in line to receive a raise from the $1.25 million he was due to earn at Arkansas in 2023. His salary at TCU, a private institution, has not been released.
Enos, 54, will be earning at a much-higher clip than his first stint with the Razorbacks, when he made $550,000 in 2015, $700,000 in 2016, and $800,000 in 2017.
According to published reports following his hiring as offensive coordinator at Maryland prior to the 2021 season, Enos was scheduled to make $550,000 in 2021, $750,000 last season and $950,000 in 2023.
Enos' new deal with Arkansas includes various levels of incentives for performances, such as half a month's salary for playing in the SEC Championship Game, a month's salary for winning the SEC Championship Game and other tiered incentives for postseason competition.
If Arkansas fired Enos for convenience, he would be owed what he would have earned through the rest of the contract period in monthly installments.
Enos can also buy out the contract by paying 20% of what would remain on his contract. If he is informed that the extensions will not be exercised, the buyout drops to 10% of what remains on the contract for the final 15 months of the deal.
Briles' buyout payment, according to terms of his contract, was for 30% of what remained on his deal, though the amount could have changed based on agreement from both parties.
Sam Pittman discusses the Razorbacks' National Signing Day signees Wednesday Dec. 21, 2022 at the Broyles Center in Fayetteville. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. Wampler)