Indiana has officially secured its next defensive coordinator, former Georgia defensive backs coach Charlton Warren, and the Hoosiers have spared no expense to make it happen.
Warren will be paid $700,000 in the first year of his contract, according to IU, and then $725,000 in the second. By comparison, IU paid its last defensive coordinator, Kane Wommack, $460,000 a year. Wommack is now the head coach at South Alabama.
While an official contract has yet to be inked by Warren, these are the agreed upon terms, per IU, and they will make him the highest paid assistant on Tom Allen’s staff. Warren will be on par with Aaron Wellman, the program’s strength coach, who was offered a compensation package totaling $700,000 a year to come over from the New York Giants in 2020.
Warren was paid $600,000 a year, according to multiple reports, as Georgia’s defensive backs coach. So he’s earning a raise of $100,000 to come to IU and take on the program’s defensive coordinator duties.
Warren, 44, has been a secondary coach since 2014, but he held defensive coordinator responsibilities at his alma mater, Air Force, from 2008-2013.
“I am humbled Coach Allen has given me the opportunity to lead this awesome group of young men as Indiana University’s defensive coordinator,” Warren said in a release. “I cannot wait to help this team achieve greatness on and off the field.”
Warren was the defensive backs coach at Georgia for two seasons, where he was a renowned recruiter. In fact, he was rated by 247Sports as the No. 18 recruiter in the country during the 2020 cycle. He helped Georgia secure several high-profile commits, including five-star cornerback Kelee Ringo.
Prior to Georgia, Warren also had stints as a secondary coach at Florida (2018), Tennessee (‘17), North Carolina (’15-16), and Nebraska (’14).
“Charlton is a man of high character, a strong leader, a great recruiter and has the ability to pull greatness out of his players,” Allen said in a release. “I look forward to him capturing the hearts and minds of our defensive players and coaches as he continues to build our defense. We are pleased to welcome Charlton and his family to Bloomington.”
At IU, Warren will coach linebackers, the same position group as Wommack, so there will be no need to otherwise shuffle the defensive staff. This is a new role for Warren, however, who has never specifically coached linebackers.
Regardless, Warren has experience working at some of the top football programs in the SEC, and he has coached on defenses that excel at creating takeaways, which Allen has long prioritized. IU led the country last season in interceptions, producing 17 in its first seven games.
At Florida, Warren coached on a unit that went from tied for 81st nationally in takeaways, with 17, to tied for 11th, with 26, during the 2018 season. Georgia’s defense in 2020 ranked in the top 25 nationally in total defense (12th), scoring defense (16th) and takeaways (24th). Cornerback Eric Stokes was a first-team All-American, while safety Richard LeCounte was first-team All-SEC.
With a defensive coordinator secured, Allen still has one position coach to hire. Mike Hart, who was IU’s running backs coach, recently left for the same position at his alma mater, Michigan.
This will be the third season in a row where IU has broken in a new coordinator. Kalen DeBoer and Wommack were new leaders of the offense and defense, respectively, in 2019, and DeBoer then returned to Fresno State as head coach in 2020. Allen promoted former tight ends and quarterbacks coach Nick Sheridan to offensive coordinator ahead of the 2020 season.
