Steve Berkowitz

USA TODAY Sports

The University of Texas is set to employ its entire football assistant coaching staff under multi-year contracts for the first time, according to terms that have been negotiated by university officials and submitted for consideration by the University of Texas System Board of Regents at its meetings this week.

Each of the nine full-time assistants to new head coach Charlie Strong would get a guaranteed two-year deal that could be renewed for an additional year, according to term sheets included in the board's meeting agenda book posted on the UT System's website.

In addition to having a new head coach for the first time since Mack Brown was hired following the 1997 season, Texas is operating under a new athletics director – Steve Patterson, hired in November to succeed DeLoss Dodds, who had held the job since 1981.

Texas highest-paid assistant is slated to be defensive coordinator Vance Bedford, who would get $800,000 for the 2014 season – $760,000 in base salary, $30,000 for speaking appearances and $10,000 for working camps. Bedford also would be eligible for a maximum of $185,000 in bonuses if Texas wins the Big 12 championship, the national championship and he wins the Frank Broyles Award as the national assistant coach of the year.

None of Texas' assistants made more than $650,000 this past season, and none could get more than $123,500 in bonuses.

Bedford's proposed package means there likely will be at least 11 public-school football assistant coaches making $800,000 or more for the 2014 season, up from eight this past season.

As a group, Strong's assistants are set to be guaranteed $3.84 million for 2014, a figure that is comparable to the payroll originally set for the 2013 staff. The 2013 payroll grew when defensive coordinator Manny Diaz was reassigned early in the season and replaced by Greg Robinson.

Though multi-year contracts have become common for Bowl Subdivision football assistants – especially for coordinators – since USA TODAY Sports began tracking assistant coach pay in 2009, only one Texas assistant has been employed under a contract of any kind. That was then-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, who got a rolling one-year deal in 2009 when he also became Brown's designated successor and was given guaranteed compensation of $900,000 – which, at the time, was one of the most lucrative deals ever for a public-school assistant coach. (Muschamp left after the 2010 season to become Florida's head coach.)

Otherwise, Texas' assistants have been employed on an at-will basis, meaning they served without a fixed employment term and without assurance of compensation if fired without cause. However, Texas did honor Diaz's $650,000 annual compensation rate when it removed him as defensive coordinator and assigned him to other duties.

Under the new set of proposed agreements, if Texas fires any of the nine assistants without cause, it would owe the coach all of the base salary remaining on his contract. But if any of the assistants voluntarily terminates his deal without cause, he would owe Texas 25% of the remaining base salary, subject to the AD's and the head coach's discretion.

Assistant head coach for offense and quarterbacks coach Shawn Watson is set to be paid a total of $650,000, not including potential bonuses; offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Joe Wickline $575,000. The next-highest-paid would be assistant head coach for defense and defensive line coach Chris Rumph at $415,000.