Details on Todd Golden's pay raise, contract extension with Florida

INDIANAPOLIS — Florida released the new contract details Thursday for second-year coach Todd Golden, who led the Gators to their first SEC title game in a decade. The deal raises Golden’s annual salary by over a million dollars.

Golden will earn an average salary of $4.1 million per year in his new deal, which extends him through the 2029-30 season. The extension will pay $4.4 million and $4.6 million in the final two years of his deal, respectively.

Golden was hired in March 2022 on a six-year deal worth $18 million after leading San Franciso to its first NCAA Tournament in 24 years. He now has the Gators in the Big Dance for first time in three years.

Florida’s 21 regular season wins are the team’s most since 2016-17. UF also won its final eight SEC home games, the team’s longest SEC home win streak since posting a program-record 20 in a row from 2013-15.

The Gators have four wins over top-25 teams this season and have six total under Golden. He is the only Florida coach besides Tommy Bartlett (1966-73) to earn six ranked wins in his first two seasons at the helm.

“Obviously it was a great honor for Scott [Stricklin] and Linda [Tealer] to believing in what we’re doing, and obviously, the results speak for themselves. I don’t think we would have been able to get that if it wasn’t for the success we’ve had,” Golden said of his two-year extension. “Knock on wood, our program’s healthy, man. We have really great guys in our program. I have a really good staff. We’re on the right track. We’re in where I feel like we have a lot of room to grow still.

“We’ll just try to keep going and keep chopping wood. This league is really, really good, though. We’re going up against the best every day whether it’s competing on the floor or recruiting and so the bar is really high. But, we’ve done a good job this year, proving that we can compete and beat pretty much everybody in the league with the exception of Tennessee this year … that we knocked off most of the top teams. So, we’ll just keep going and keep building and seeing where we can take it.”

The highlight of the season was a 94-91 overtime win at Kentucky, marking UF’s first road win over an AP top-10 team since 2003. The Gators also had an 81-65 win over Auburn and a 105-87 victory against Alabama, their sixth sellout of the season.

Golden revamped the roster this offseason and produced the highest-scoring team in school history, led by a starting five all signed from the portal. Three transfers earned All-SEC honors in Zyon Pullin, Walter Clayton Jr. and Tyrese Samuel.

Pullin is on pace to set the program record with a 3.76 assist-to-turnover ratio, which currently ranks third in the nation. Clayton, UF’s leading scorer, averaged 18.3 points in league play. They are Florida’s first All-SEC backcourt duo since 2013.

Samuel leads the SEC in field goal percentage (56.3) and has a team-high 7.6 rebounds per game and 36 steals this season. Florida’s frontcourt also features Marshall transfer Micah Handlogten and SEC All-Freshman Alex Condon.

Handlogten, who’s out for the tourney following leg surgery, ranks fifth nationally with a 17.8% offensive rebounding percentage. Condon has recorded 6.8 rebounds per game and 43 blocked shots, both of which lead all SEC freshmen.