Bac Totrong/photo@bgdailynews.com Western Kentucky University athletic director Todd Stewart speaks Monday at Hunting Creek Country Club in Prospect.

Western Kentucky did what it had to do to give football coach Jeff Brohm some security Wednesday with a four-year extension and a $200,000 raise.

Despite some significant assistant coaching turnover this offseason, WKU athletic director Todd Stewart said he’s comfortable with that aspect as well.

“I would prefer to go undefeated and keep every coach, but I don’t think that’s realistic that that would happen,” Stewart told the Daily News last week. “Certainly when you go 12-2 and finish in the top 25, the likelihood of all your people coming back is really pretty small. You kind of expect it. We probably got lucky a year ago, in that we only lost one assistant coach. I really do think the important thing is, ‘Who are we losing them to?’ “

WKU has lost six staffers who coached positions this offseason, including five full-time assistants.

Offensive coordinator Tyson Helton and offensive line coach Neil Callaway left for Southern California. Helton is serving as quarterback coach/passing game coordinator, and Callaway is still in charge of the O-line.

Receivers/special teams coach JaMarcus Shephard left to coach inside receivers at Washington State, and defensive ends coach Ken Delgado took an assistant defensive line coach position with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.

Graduate assistant/tight ends coach Ryan Wallace left for his first full-time job coaching tackles and tight ends at Tennessee Tech.

The one coach who made about a lateral move was cornerbacks/special teams coach Ricky Brumfield, who left to become special teams coordinator at Conference USA foe UTSA.

WKU lost one coach after the 2014 season. Running backs coach Greg Nord took a position at Florida, so the theme has been coaches advancing their situations, Stewart said.

“Five years ago, that wasn’t something that was happening,” he said. “It’s something that comes with success. But you keep the head coach, you keep the defensive coordinator, there will still be a tremendous amount of continuity.”

WKU has invested significantly over the last few seasons in its assistant salary pool, which was $1,040,100 in 2015-16.

That’s up 47.3 percent from a $706,176 pool in 2012-13.

While the Tops’ current pool ranks them toward the bottom of C-USA, the margin between WKU and most top schools is relatively slim in terms of dollars. Defensive coordinator Nick Holt is also tied for the conference’s highest-paid assistant at $300,000 per year, along with Middle Tennessee defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix.

WKU has hired two new coaches to its staff in the last week – offensive assistant Chris Barclay and defensive assistant Reggie Johnson.

“When I look at our peer conferences, it’s not at the top, but it’s not far from the top,” Stewart said of the assistant salary pool. “That’s not the biggest challenge we have – our assistant coaching pool. We’ve grown that. Now, where it was wasn’t really ideal, just like where (former coach Willie Taggart’s) contract was wasn’t ideal for a head coach. But I think now we’ve really grown the head coaching portion, as well as the assistant coaching pool. That’s certainly helped (former coach Bobby Petrino) and Jeff hire assistants. When these jobs open up, they become desirable.”

— Zach Greenwell