Contract Dispute May Cost Ex-Coach a Year's Salary

Utah State University and former basketball coach Tim Duryea are in a contract dispute that might prevent him from receiving one year's salary.

When Duryea was hired in 2015, he signed a contract that would pay him $379,000 annually "for a term of five (5) years." But the contract then went on to say that the agreement commenced "on March 30, 2015, and ending on June 30, 2019" — a period of four years.

"We are working to resolve a discrepancy in the dates," USU spokesman Tim Vitale confirmed in an email to the Tribune. "Our counsel is in conversations with his attorney to try to resolve the differences."

CacheValleyDaily.com first reported the dispute.

Duryea declined to comment on the situation when reached by the Tribune this weekend. Duryea, 53, started as a Utah State basketball assistant coach in 2001 and was promoted to head coach in 2015.

"We have supporting documents that says it is five years," Angie Duryea, the former coach's wife, said according to CacheValleyDaily.com. "The intent was five years and they are trying to weasel out of it. Seventeen years and this is what we get."

Duryea's teams went 47-49 during his three seasons as the Aggies' head coach. Utah State athletics director John Hartwell fired the coach in March, citing concerns with the program's trajectory, falling season-ticket sales and "fan apathy".

On March 26, the university hired Craig Smith from the University of South Dakota to be the Aggies' new head coach. Smith is set to make $3.5 million over the course of his five-year contract with USU.

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