The Colorado St. Rams are expected to hire the Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Jim McElwain as their new head coach at a news conference on Tuesday. The hire has not been confirmed by Colorado State, but with Alabama's Nick Saban holding a staff meeting all signs points to McElwain leaving for Colorado State.
Details of McElwain's contract are coming out and that he has agreed to a five-year contract worth $1.5 million per year, this according to ESPN's Mark Schlabach. That amount would more than double Fairchild's base salary of $700,000.
Schlabach is also reporting that McElwain will stay on as Alabama's offensive coordinator through Jan. 9 to coach in the BCS Championship game against the LSU Tigers. This means that McElwain will have one month where he is doing both jobs, and by doing that he would not be able to fully concentrating on either position.
The only positive thing to be gained for Colorado State to have McElwain coach through the BCS Championship game is that he would be mentioned as the Colorado State head coach, and that could help in recruiting.
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