ORONO – Jack Cosgrove had no plans to leave the University of Maine. Now the Black Bears’ head football coach has a new five-year contract to reinforce that fact.

Cosgrove and the university have agreed on an extension that will keep him in his present position through June 30, 2008, UMaine athletic director Patrick Nero announced Wednesday at a Dexter Lounge press conference.

The contract, retroactive to July 1 when his previous deal expired, will pay Cosgrove $115,000 in its first year. That represents a $9,000 raise over 2002-03, when he ranked among the lowest-paid Atlantic 10 football coaches. The raise makes him one of the higher-paid UMaine employees.

With annual raises, Cosgrove will earn $140,000 in the final year of the contract, which includes the 2007 football season. Under current pay levels, Nero said that would rank Cosgrove seventh among the 11 conference coaches.

“This contract means a lot to me,” said Cosgrove, a 1978 UMaine graduate and former two-time All-Yankee Conference quarterback with the Black Bears. “This is an investment in my future and my family, and I’m certainly appreciative for that.”

While Cosgrove went without a contract for more than a month, both he and Nero said the gap was due more to logistics than deep disagreements. The contract negotiations lasted about 90 days, a time frame Nero called typical for such a process.

“It was a fairly simple process because the university and Jack were on the same page at all times,” said Nero. “Jack certainly has the intention of being here for a very long time, and we desire to keep him here for a very long time.”

Cosgrove said part of the delay could be attributed to the continuing acclimation of Nero to his new post. Nero became the UMaine athletic director April 15 after serving as an assistant AD at the University of Miami.

“There wasn’t as much back and forth as people thought,” Cosgrove said. “The thing that was a little difficult in all this was that the university was going through an athletic directorship change. Patrick had a lot of things on his plate, and he had to learn how contracts work in our system because it’s different from what he was used to at Miami.”

Cosgrove, 47, is coming off his most successful coaching season since becoming Maine’s 34th head coach on Feb. 22, 1993. He guided the 2002 Black Bears to a school-record 11 victories and a second straight Atlantic 10 co-championship – the first conference team to win back-to-back titles since Delaware in 1991 and 1992.

Maine then advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA quarterfinals for the second straight season. The Bears are one of only three teams, along with Montana and Georgia Southern, to reach the national quarterfinals each of the last two seasons.

Cosgrove’s coaching record in 10 years at Maine is 53-61 overall, 47-34 over the last seven seasons. He was named Atlantic 10 coach of the year in 1996 and 2001.

“There were really two things about Jack’s tenure that sold me,” said Nero. “One is his team’s graduation rate. I checked his graduation rate compared to other teams and the overall student body, and the football players have excelled academically.

“The results on the field since the commitment to the new stadium and increased scholarships was the other obvious area,” he added.

UMaine President Peter Hoff in January admonished Cosgrove and interim AD Paul Bubb for failing to enforce the school’s code of conduct after star linebacker Stephen Cooper, who admitted to steroid possession, was allowed to play in the team’s last four games.

Also last season, team members Paris Minor and Stefan Gomes were kicked out of school after they were allegedly involved in an off-campus sexual assault. No criminal charges were ever brought against the men.

The announcement of Cosgrove’s new contract coincides with the first day of preseason practice for the 2003 campaign, which begins with an Aug. 30 home date against Montana.

Junior running back Marcus Williams, for one, is glad his coach’s contract negotiations are out of the way.

“It’s a great feeling, not only for myself and the team, but for coach Cosgrove and his family,” he said. “You’re talking about a man’s job, and five more years in a profession where guys are fired all the time is a big thing, and he definitely deserves it.

“He’s not just a good football coach, he’s a good guy who happens to coach football.”