AP Images

Some of the most exceptional football minds who have ever nervously paced a sideline have publicly admitted that they need help. They're tossing egos aside. They're tapping enormous financial reserves. They're acknowledging their weaknesses in plain sight.

As a result, help is coming. In some places, it's already there.

The latest arms race in college football isn't about state-of-the-art weight rooms, luxurious locker room waterfalls or excessive mass-recruiting mailers printed on premium parchment. It's about investing in the sideline and seeking out the appropriate sidekicks required to break through.

When Auburn announced it had hired Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator last week—reportedly to the tune of $1.6 million per season, according to Brandon Marcello of AL.com—it added an enormous personality to its team. It also, more importantly, addressed its most glaring weakness with a deafening response.

By adding Muschamp, the Tigers acquired the mindset and influence that has been absent of late. And to put that robust salary to good use beyond the practice fields and game days, they also landed a 5-star recruiting weapon.

"I'm excited to welcome Will back to Auburn as our new defensive coordinator," Malzahn said in a statement released by the school. "Will is one of the top defensive minds in college football who has great passion and energy for the game. He is a tremendous addition to our staff."

That undisclosed but heady salary undoubtedly will make Muschamp the highest-paid coordinator in college football. While life as a head coach didn't pan out in Gainesville, a buyout of more than $6 million on top of a lucrative new salary will make for a jam-packed Christmas tree in the Muschamp household.

Brynn Anderson/Associated Press

More significant than the enormous wealth being tossed in his direction is what it signifies and the precedent it is poised to set: Powerful, revenue-churning programs are diving into their rainy-day suitcases filled with cash and adding known assets without hesitation.

Although compensation for assistant coaches was already skyrocketing, this is about more than the finances attached. Larger-than-life personalities are willingly hopping in the sidecar and tossing on their helmets while giving a simultaneous thumbs-up. This is radical change from where we were not too long ago.

Following the Iron Bowl, a game in which Auburn allowed 55 points and 539 yards in a loss, it became abundantly clear that change was necessary for the Tigers. Even before this regular-season destruction, you had a sense that new leadership was likely imminent.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

With competition and vacancies at Texas A&M and South Carolina—two other SEC schools with robust personalities in place, blank checks and defensive coordinator spots to fill—Auburn aggressively secured its most significant recruit of the year.

In doing so, it followed a blueprint laid out by its rival less than a year earlier.

After offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier left Alabama for Michigan following the 2013 season, Nick Saban used the opportunity created by the surprising departure to overhaul his team's offensive philosophy.

Lane Kiffin, seemingly untouchable and radioactive at the time, received the modest sum of $680,000 to reshape the Alabama offense. This yearly salary made him the No. 25 highest-paid assistant coach in 2014, according to USA Today.

At the time, the hire wasn't given its true appreciation and dissection. It was difficult to see beyond the overall shock value of having two of the most polarizing figures operate on the same sideline for the same football factory.

"We are excited to have Lane join our staff," Saban said in a statement when the Kiffin hire became official, via AL.com. "He is an outstanding and creative offensive coach who has great experience both at the college and NFL level. He has a very good understanding of the game and I have always been impressed with what I saw in the games he called."

This personnel decision identified perhaps the lone weakness in Saban's game—if you can even call it that. As brilliant as Saban is in so many arenas, Alabama has lacked ingenuity on the offensive side. It brought in Kiffin to change that.

More significantly, Alabama hired Kiffin to win games like the Iron Bowl, 55-44 marathon matchups that Saban has openly anguished over. Even for a program that consistently attracts, recruits and develops top-tier defensive talent, the occasional shootout in this era of the sport is not inevitable.

"The way we're headed in college football, there are going to be games like this," Saban said following the Iron Bowl victory, bringing the Kiffin hire full circle.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Even though Kiffin will take home less than half the salary of defensive coordinator Kirby Smart—the second-highest-paid coordinator in 2014, according to USA Today—his hire was significant given his high-profile, on-the-tarmac firing at USC.

He was perceived to be damaged goods, yet the nation's most consistently astute evaluator of talent brought him in knowing the attention and potential scrutiny that would follow.

The decision, as it turns out, worked brilliantly. Even without a starting quarterback defined in the spring, Kiffin helped mold Blake Sims into one of the conference's most electric talents with the helping hand of wideout Amari Cooper. Most importantly, Alabama is headed to the first College Football Playoff as the No. 1 seed.

Auburn hopes it has found its answer to Kiffin in Muschamp, an unproven commodity as a head coach—like Kiffin—but a master when it comes to his side of the ball. How these hires impact the sport's most fascinating rivalry is certainly a story that will garner plenty of attention, although this is not a trend that will be limited to the state of Alabama.

It wasn't long ago that $1.6 million was a robust salary for a head coach. Now, in a booming, paycheck-packed time for the sport, it's no longer unreasonable to see teams dole out that money to coaches down the organization chart.

Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

With so much money pouring into schools through newfound revenue streams—thanks in large part to conference-centric networks—power programs now have the financial freedom to pay coordinators like head coaches. It's still an enormous gamble, but the financial ramifications aren't as significant to the bottom line as they once were.

For high-profile coordinators like Muschamp and Kiffin—along with the big names to follow—latching on to a favorable coordinator job in a well-funded program offers tremendous perks.

Beyond the obvious dollar signs, it offers a far less pressure-packed spotlight from which to polish a tarnished image. It's a place to reboot and regroup. While expectations will remain robust, they'll be tempered in their new role.

And for the leaders of these enormous businesses, the prospect of teaming up and putting all emotionally driven interests aside has become a no-brainer. Hiring the premier specialists to work their magic is not a knock at their own value as head coach; if anything, this open conversation only drives home just how much winning matters.

Job security, more than anything, is what Saban, Malzahn and the next batch of coaches are after. It's why they're seeking out the appropriate tag-team member and, in many ways, their anti-self.

The personalities will get bigger, and the paychecks will continue to blossom. The state of Alabama is ahead of the curve in college football's wingman era, but it likely won't be for long.