(I thought this posted yesterday. It did not, and I don’t know why. Carry on!)

Here’s something interesting regarding Joe Wickline, Matt Caponi and WVU.

The new offensive coordinator signed a two-year contract last week that will pay him $425,000 in the upcoming season and $450,000 in 2017. It’s guaranteed, too, meaning he’s getting all the money if WVU decides to go in a direction that doesn’t involve Wickline. The new safeties coach signed a one-year deal for $200,000.

Included in both deals, though, is a rare liquidated damages clause. Wickline and Caponi will pay WVU a quarter of his salary if he leaves during the length of the contract. That fee jumps to 100 percent if he takes a new job in the Big 12.

Second sentence, third paragraph. That’s the need for and the essence of this inclusion. And it’s an inclusion because it’s new to WVU pacts. I have to think it’ll be a part of all future contracts.

Last year, Ron Crook, JaJuan Seider, Lonnie Galloway, Brian Mitchell, Tony Gibson and Joe DeForest signed amended contracts. Bruce Tall and Mark Scott signed first-time contracts. (Damon Cogdell simply transitioned from year one to year two.) Crook, Seider, Galloway, Mitchell and Gibson had an identical clause in their contracts. 
(C.) was carried over from previous versions of their contracts, each signed by then-Athletic Director Oliver Luck. Tall was hired after Luck left, and his contract with that clause was signed by the interim AD. After last season, those five had time and money added to their deals — some received more money two times — and each alteration was signed by Luck or the interim AD.

DeForest was the outlier, which was consistent because his arrangement has always been different. Like Seider, Galloway and Mitchell, DeForest’s expiring contract was renewed after last season. (Crook was covered through 2016 and received an additional year on top of that). Unlike Seider, Galloway and Mitchell, who received two-year deals, DeForest was given one year, had his salary cut from $500,000 to $325,000 and lost his associate head coach title.

But DeForest’s original contract included unique buyout language.

That was with Luck in charge, and the changes last season were executed by the interim AD. Lyons wasn’t in office yet. He was when Mark Scott was hired in March, and Scott’s contract has the Wickline/Caponi buyout clause.

It’s not much beyond protecting the investment — and funding the salary of a replacement — but we’re getting an idea how Lyons handles contracts, as these new buyouts (and Wickline’s fully guaranteed deal) follow last spring’s dip into the salary pool and last month’s revision to Gibson’s contract.