Jarvis Hayes' Georgia basketball salary, football assistant raise revealed

The salary for former NBA first-round draft pick Jarvis Hayes to serve as a Georgia basketball assistant was released on Thursday April 16.

So was a significant boost in pay to a Georgia football assistant coach.

They both were obtained by the Athens Banner-Herald in an open-records request.

Hayes, who started on April 7, will make $300,000. That's the same salary at which assistant Todd Abernethy was hired when he joined the staff last year.

Hayes is a former Georgia State assistant who was a two-time Georgia All-SEC first-team selection before becoming the No. 10 overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. He led the SEC in scoring at 18.6 points per game in 2002.

His brother, Jonas, who also played at Georgia, was also hired as a Bulldog assistant coach on April 15.

As for the football assistant raise, special teams coordinator Kirk Benedict got a boost in pay of $247,000 to bring his total pay to $650,000.

The 38-year old Benedict is in his fifth season coaching special teams under Kiby Smart at Georgia.

Benedict served as special teams analyst for the first two and was promoted to special teams coordinator in 2024.

Georgia’s specialists stood out last season. Punter Brett Thorson won the Ray Guy Award for nation’s top punter, Beau Gardner won the Patrick Mannelly Award for nation’s top snapper and kicker Peyton Woodring was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award.

Georgia’s special teams ranked No. 3 nationally in the final 2025 ESPN SP+ rankings.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: The pay for Georgia basketball's Jarvis Hayes, football's Kirk Benedict