Financial terms were not immediate available, but are said to be not much different than his previous contract. Crowe was making $150,000 annually in the previous contract he signed that was set to expire after this coming season.
Crowe declined to comment on the new deal since JSU had yet to formally announce the signing. It is expected to do so today.
University president Bill Meehan approved a two-year extension of the 63-year-old coach’s current contract two years ago, but Crowe in the past has blamed his own procrastination in part for any delay in signing it.
The signing comes less than a month after Warren Koegel was hired as the Gamecocks’ new athletics director. It came after a brief meeting between Koegel and Crowe Thursday morning.
Attempts to reach Koegel and Meehan Thursday night were unsuccessful.
Crowe, who took over the program following the turmoil of Mike Williams’ midseason resignation in 1999, is 74-48 in his previous 11 seasons with the Gamecocks.
He will tie Bill Burgess as the second-longest tenured football coach in school history this season. Only Don Salls, with 18 seasons from 1946 to 1964, has coached JSU football longer.
Crowe’s JSU teams have posted eight consecutive winning seasons and produced all three of the program’s Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearances, including its first home playoff game since 1992 in December.
University policymakers have been pursuing the idea of moving up to the FBS, Division I’s highest level of football. The move is contingent, among other things, on the Gamecocks getting an invitation to an FBS conference.
If that happens before 2012 — and the NCAA moratorium on programs moving within divisions ends in August — the Gamecocks would play their first FBS season in 2014.
The length of Crowe’s new contract will allow him at least to coach the Gamecocks in guarantee games with Florida (2012) and Auburn (2013), where he served as offensive coordinator from 1982 to 1985, and Michigan State (2014).
The team plays at Kentucky this coming season. It beat Ole Miss in last year’s season opener.
Al Muskewitz covers Jacksonville State sports for The Star. He can be reached at 256-235-3577.
