We knew that Lovie Smith was going to have himself a healthy budget to hire a coaching staff. He was approved for $4 million, to be exact.

According to a report from the Champaign News-Gazette, Smith approached that number, but didn’t quite reach it. The report said that Smith is only at $3,245,000 with all of his assistants in place.

He could still use that money on scouting or a strength and conditioning staff, but for now, here are the yearly salaries for each Illini assistant, according to the News-Gazette:

NAME COACHING POSITION SALARY
Garrick McGee Offensive coordinator, QBs coach $650,000
Hardy Nickerson Defensive coordinator $550,000
Mike Phair Defensive line $440,000
Luke Butkus Offensive line $325,000
Bob Ligashesky Special teams/TEs $300,000
Paul Williams Defensive backs $285,000
Andrew Hayes-Stoker Wide receivers $265,000
Tim McGarigle Linebackers $215,000
Thad Ward Running backs $215,000
TOTAL $3,245,000

If you’ll recall, McGee was one of the highest paid assistants in the country when he was the offensive coordinator at Louisville. He was ranked 19th among all FBS assistants at $850,000, according to USA Today.

In other words, he took a $200,000 pay cut to join Smith’s staff. There could be incentives in his contract that would bring that number up, but the base salary is indeed $200,000 less than what he made at Louisville.

Phair also took a pay cut to shift from co-defensive coordinator to the defensive line coach. But a $10,000 pay cut to go from a coordinator to a position coach isn’t a raw deal at all.

In 2015, Illinois paid its assistants $2,011,208, which ranked 56th among FBS schools. The 2016 budget of $3,245,000 would’ve ranked it 24th in 2015. If the Illini had spent the allotted $4 million, it would’ve ranked behind only Michigan and Ohio State in the B1G, and it would’ve been 10th nationally.