UVA Football offensive coordinator Des Kitchings and defensive coordinator John Rudzkinski each signed three-year contracts when they were hired in January 2022, which tied them to the program through the end of the 2024 season.
Three-year deals for coordinators hired by a newly hired head coach are the industry standard.
For some reason, though, UVA Athletics decided to sign both to extensions earlier this year, with a year left on their deals, running now through the end of the 2025 season, expiring on March 31, 2026.
Let’s explore.
I have all of this from a pair of Freedom of Information Act requests, one answered by the University of Virginia on Friday, the follow-up with their original 2022 contracts made available to me on Monday.
Special thanks to the folks in the UVA FOIA office, who hear from me way too much.
I need to add them to the Christmas card list, and maybe slip a Panera gift card in the envelope.
The new deals for Kitchings and Rudzinski give each more money – their base salaries remain at the $200,000 a year that they have been getting since Year 1, in 2022; the supplemental and licensing compensation in 2022 was at $625,000 annually, increasing to $675,000 in 2023, $725,000 in in 2024, and $775,000 in 2025.
Overall, then, the total compensation for each was at $825,000 in 2022, $875,000 in 2023, $925,000 in 2024, and will increase to $975,000 in 2025.
It’s notable that Kitchings’ resume was thinner coming in than that of Rudzinski – Kitchings had two one-year stints as a coordinator, at Vanderbilt and NC State, neither of which retained him for a Year 2; Rudzinski had served as the defensive coordinator at Air Force for four years, and his 2021 unit was fourth in the nation in total defense, and his 2020 unit ranked third nationally in scoring defense.
Their numbers at Virginia didn’t necessarily suggest an early extension for either – Kitchings’ offense ranked 103rd nationally in total offense and 126th in scoring in 2022, and 95th nationally in total offense and 95th in scoring in 2023; Rudzinski’s D ranked 44th nationally in total defense and 49th in scoring in 2022, but slipped to 104th nationally in total defense and 119th in scoring in 2023.
The 2024 numbers: Kitchings’ offense ranked 93rd nationally in total offense and 105th in scoring; Rudzinski’s defense ranked 103rd in total defense and 95th in scoring.
So, what’s going on here?
I have to guess, because we’ll never get an official word on this – but guessing, it was clear going into the 2024 season that 2024 was going to be a sort of make-or-break year for head coach Tony Elliott, whose first two teams finished at 3-7 and 3-9.
The 5-7 finish in 2024, with six losses in the final seven games after a 4-1 start, has things leaning away from make and very much in the direction of break.
Elliott is under contract through the end of the 2027 season, but the case can be made that he’s got one more shot at it, and that 2025 is that shot.
I have to presume that he wouldn’t have wanted to go into a one-more-shot-at-it season with new guys directing his offense and defense.
Ergo, extensions for guys who hadn’t necessarily earned them.
Elliott pushed the AD, Carla Williams, to sign on to his desire for continuity with his staff.
The flip side of continuity, with the results that we’ve seen the past three years, is along the lines of the classic definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Video: Examining the Kitchings, Rudzinski contract extensions
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Chris Graham
