By many metrics, Oregon's defense in 2016 was its worst ever, putting up numbers never before seen at UO.

In its attempt to fix college football's 126th-ranked unit, Oregon is now paying a key assistant a salary never before seen at the school.

Jim Leavitt, the Ducks' new defensive coordinator, will earn $1.15 million per year as part of his four-year contract according to public records released Thursday afternoon, becoming the first UO assistant coach ever to earn more than $1 million.

That paycheck easily eclipses the $700,000 that Brady Hoke, Leavitt's predecessor, was set to earn in 2017, which would have been a record salary for a UO assistant.

(Read the Leavitt contract here)

It also more than doubles the $511,900 Leavitt earned this season at Colorado, per USA Today's annual assistant coaching salary database, and puts him in an exclusive club of high-earners: Only 12 assistants in all of college football earned more than $1 million this season. Of those dozen, 10 are defensive coordinators.

Leavitt was the first assistant coach hired to Willie Taggart's staff. Taggart, hired Dec. 7 as Mark Helfrich's successor, has also officially hired Jimmie Dougherty, an offensive analyst at Michigan the past two seasons, to coach receivers. Dougherty will be paid $275,000 annually on a two-year deal that expires at the end of January 2019.

The seven other open assistant coaching positions are expected to be filled soon given Taggart's former team, South Florida, capped its record 11-win season Thursday with an overtime victory in the Birmingham Bowl.

Leavitt also becomes the highest-compensated assistant at a public Pac-12 Conference institution. UCLA's Adrian Klemm held that distinction in 2016, at a salary of $760,000.

Colorado athletic director Rick George told the Boulder Daily Camera earlier this month he was "somewhat surprised" Leavitt made the intra-conference move, but not when he saw the money being offered.

"I wasn't going to touch that money," George said Dec. 16, the same day Leavitt signed his contract. "I want people that want to be in Colorado and we want to pay them fairly, no question about that; but we don't want to overpay and overreact because somebody is throwing a ton of money at him."

UO is "not obligated to use state general fund money" to fund Leavitt and Dougherty's deals, with the money coming "only from revenues of the Department of Athletics" or the UO Foundation, according to language in the both coaches' contracts.

UO will owe 100 percent of Leavitt's salary if it fires him without cause. Should Leavitt leave his job prior to Jan. 31, 2018, he would owe UO $500,000; if he leaves after that date, but before Jan. 31, 2020, he will owe $250,000.

However, Leavitt does have a very specific loophole in his buyout clause: He won't be required to pay anything "should he voluntarily terminate this agreement to become the head football coach at Kansas State University."

Leavitt coached for six seasons, from 1990-95, under coach Bill Snyder at Kansas State amid the Wildcats' turnaround from one of the worst Division I programs to a contender not only in the Big 12 but nationally. Snyder is now 77, and in his second stint as head coach at KSU, and the prospect of his retirement is an annual topic.

Leavitt and Dougherty each are eligible for perks standard in coaching contracts, including use of a courtesy car and tickets for home UO games. They also are eligible for financial bonuses tied to performance and Academic Progress Rate scores. On-field bonuses begin at $10,000 (for winning the Pac-12 North or playing in a College Football Playoff semifinal) and increase to a maximum of $35,000 for winning the national championship.

In his two seasons at Colorado, Leavitt built an impressive defensive turnaround in his return to the college game after four seasons as an assistant coaching linebackers with the San Francisco 49ers under Jim Harbaugh, the tie that binds UO's staff to date. Harbaugh recruited a teenaged Taggart to Western Kentucky in the 1990s to play quarterback for his father Jack Harbaugh, and later hired Taggart to his staff at Stanford. When Harbaugh left Stanford for the NFL, he hired Leavitt. And when he left the NFL for Michigan, he hired Dougherty.

-- Andrew Greif

agreif@oregonian.com

@andrewgreif