The two teams that played in the NCAA national volleyball championship match have been noteworthy in the offseason.
Start with 23rd-year Texas coach Jerritt Elliott, who has won back-to-back NCAA national championships.
He recently set a new standard for volleyball coaching compensation.
Elliott, who won his first NCAA title at Texas in 2012, signed a new contract extension to keep him guiding the Longhorns through 2029. His total compensation of $800,000, excluding performance bonuses, makes him the highest-paid college volleyball coach. Previously, Nebraska coach John Cook was at the top of the sport with a base pay of $750,000 for 2024.
Elliott signed his contract, obtained through an open records request, on February 26 and was announced by Texas on March 11.
The new deal lowers his base pay from $557,500 to $500,000. However, Elliott will receive $300,000 in 2024 for “Professional Services Payments.” This includes sublicensing intellectual property as well as for personal and media appearances. These clauses are more common in football and basketball coaching contracts but are a novelty in the volleyball world. The payments increase annually to a maximum of $425,000 in 2029. The base pay does not change during the same time frame.
The contract also contains another wrinkle: The additional payments don’t go directly to Elliott but rather to DREJ, Inc., a corporate entity registered in the State of Texas. (The corporation was formed on February 23, three days before he signed the extension.) Elliott is listed as the corporation’s registered agent.
DREJ, Inc., is set up as an S-Corp, allowing it to pass its taxable income, credits, deductions, and losses directly to its shareholders. While they require more accounting paperwork, S-Corps are often set up as a tax planning vehicle, which allows individuals to lower their tax burden.
With the new contract, Elliott also received a new title of Director of Volleyball in addition to Head Volleyball Coach. Based on the contract language, he will serve as the head coach of Texas’ indoor team and oversee the second-year beach program and coach Stein Metzger.
Elliott will receive bonuses based on each program’s performance. He can receive a maximum performance bonus of 37 percent of his base salary for marks such as conference titles or advancing in the postseason. He can also receive up to a 30 percent increase for metrics met by the beach program. If Elliott were to max out his performance bonuses, he could earn as much as $1.135 million in 2024.
The contract also contains non-monetary compensation, such as a percentage of the net proceeds from camps, club membership and spouse travel. The extension added that the university will provide him with a car.
Huskers determined
The team Texas faced in the national-championship match is determined to make it back to the final.
Nebraska returned to spring practice two weeks ago and sophomore setter Bergen Reilly said the loss to end the season was the elephant in the room.
“We’re just learning how to get that one game better,” Reilly said. “We were one game away. We’re just really focusing on nailing down the fundamentals and so we can get just one game better this year.”
Nebraska returns almost all of last year’s team and has even more outstanding freshmen — including outside hitter Skyler Pierce and defensive specialist Olivia Mauch — coming in.
Coach John Cook said he wants the Huskers to remain hungry. He cited the examples of opposite Merritt Beason and libero Lexi Rodriguez, who served as captains last year. They both earned All-American awards in December but still have room to grow.
“Those two can get better and take everybody with them,” Cook said. “We’re getting better as a team because they have the biggest challenge on improvement and because they’re already at such a high level. The other big focus is how those guys get better. And so they have goals they’ve set and things they’re working on and they’re held accountable to it every day.”
Cook said Nebraska is making offensive adjustments, including speeding up the timing, finding a better rhythm and terminating more out of system. They will likely receive a boost from incoming transfer Taylor Landfair, the 6-foot-6 outside hitter who was the 2022 Big Ten player of the year at Minnesota, and 6-4 middle Layla Blackwell from San Diego.
Reilly was named the top setter in the Big Ten last year.
“I got all of those freshman jitters out of the way, just kind of being scared of being a freshman,” she said. Now, I’m nailing down my offense, and I’m just running what I want to run.”
Even with the exodus of three transfers between semesters, the Huskers still have enough bodies in practice to play six-on-six. Ally Batenhorst, who will be leaving for USC after she finishes her degree in May, is still working out with the team, and middle blocker Bekka Allick and setter Kennedi Orr returned to practice after sitting out the beach season.
Cook said even though the entire team isn’t playing together yet, it’s better than the alternative. In past years, the Huskers have had to use practice players to scrimmage or not play any spring matches because they didn’t have enough bodies to field a full team.
In addition to the spring match against Denver on May 4, the Huskers will also play a closed scrimmage on April 20 against an undisclosed team.
“It’s just really nice having this big of a group in the last couple of years,” Cook said. I think it really, really helps jumpstart us for the 2024 season.”
Murray cited for DUI, 4 other charges
Nebraska sophomore outside hitter Harper Murray was cited with aggravated driving under the influence early on Friday morning, April 5, according to the Lincoln Police Department. Murray was a second-team VolleyballMag.com All-American as a freshman after being second on the team in kills and leading in aces.
Murray, 19, was pulled over for suspected driving under the influence around 12:45 a.m., according to a police report. A breath test registered a blood alcohol level of .169, more than twice the legal limit.
She was also charged with careless driving, minor in possession, possession of a fake identification and obstruction of a peace officer.
A statement released Friday night from the Nebraska athletic department read: “The Nebraska Athletic Department is aware of the incident. We are awaiting more information and will have no additional comment at this time.”
On Wednesday, NU assistant coach Kelly Hunter said Murray is still practicing with the team this week. She said they were trying to help Murray through the challenging time.
“She’s a young adult, a young child, who needs help, and so we’re here to support her,” Hunter said.
Murray was one of the standouts during Nebraska’s run to the national championship match last year. The 6-foot-2 outside hitter started every match, averaging 3.2 kills per set on a .237 hitting percentage. She was the Big Ten freshman of the year.
