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The Toledo Rockets are having a great season. After suffering back-to-back road losses in SEC country to start their season, they've won five of the past six games, with the only loss in that stretch coming against Ball State. The Rockets even beat their heated rivals, the Bowling Green Falcons, on a thrilling late fourth quarter drivethis past Saturday for the fourth straight year. Toledo is very much still in the hunt for a MAC West crown with just five weeks left in the season./p>
Now there's even more reason to celebrate: The Toledo athletic department announced that it signed head coach Matt Campbell to a one-year contract extension Wednesdaywhich should keep him in Northwest Ohio through the 2017 season.
Campbell: "I’m honored to be the head football coach head coach at this great University." #GoRockets
— Paul Helgren (@UTPaulHelgren) October 30, 2013
In his second full season as the head coach of the Rockets, Campbell, 33, is 15-7 including a win in the 2011 Military Bowl, his first game as the head coach. The second-youngest head coach in the FBS (only Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck is younger at 32) Campbell is a rising star in the coaching ranks.
He was promoted to head coach after just three seasons of serving as the team's offensive coordinator under Tim Beckman. It's likely that the weird timing of this extension (they usually happen before or after seasons, not in the middle of them) is a chess move to hopefully prevent Campbell from leaving for a bigger job come the end of the season, something his predecessor did.
If Campbell stays through remainder of contract he will have served at Toledo for nine seasons and six as head coach.
— Ryan Autullo (@AutulloBlade) October 30, 2013
Before that he spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Bowling Green, after helping lead Division III Mount Union (his alma mater) to back-to-back national titles during his two seasons as an assistant on the Purple Raiders' staff.
In an article by Ryan Autullo back in April the terms of Campbell's original contract were revealed. His original deal, which ran through 2016, gave him a base salary of $235,000, set to increase by $10,000 until the final year of that deal, plus an additional annual marketing salary of $125,000. The terms of the extension haven't been released.
UPDATE: 10/30/13 2:25 P.M.
Shortly after this article was published, Autullo was able to find out the updated terms of the extension. Based off of Campbell's new deal the coach is expected to make an extra $60,000 annually, bumping his 2013 salary up to $430,000. He's still set to receive a $10,000 pay bump each year through 2017. As expected this extension has clauses that make it costly for Campbell to leave for a bigger job. If he leaves in 2013 or 2014 he will owe Toledo a $330,000 buyout. The buyout's for the other years of the contract remain the same as the original deal.
There are other incentives added to his contract as well based on certain goals, such as team GPA, and personal achievements. Check out the Blade's article for all the juicy details.