Paying an assistant coach $1.7 million? Venables is worth every penny

If the old saying is true that “you get what you pay for,” then Clemson’s Brent Venables, preparing for his sixth season as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator, is worth every penny.

Even if all those pennies add up to a tidy $1.7 million a year – which, in fact, makes Venables only the second-highest paid assistant coach in college football.

Excessive, you say? Ask Clemson’s rabid fan base how much that 2016 national championship was worth.

It’s nearly time for the Tigers to begin defense (literally) of that crown, won over perennial champion Alabama in last season’s title game in Tampa. And Venables, who is best known (besides his paycheck) for his sideline intensity, was already in midseason…