DES MOINES (AP) &#8212 Kirk Ferentz, you’re number one.

Not in football, mind you, where the Iowa Hawkeyes have a 5-5 record this year, but in salary – Ferentz, with a more than $2 million salary, is the highest paid state employee in Iowa.

In fact, the salaries of head coaches at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University are among the highest in Iowa’s public sector pay, according to the most recent state payroll numbers.

Outside of sports, top experts in medical and research fields at the University of Iowa are among the highest for public employees in Iowa.

Public salaries represent about $2.65 billion total in the fiscal year 2007. Athletic coaches still take up the highest individual numbers.

Ferentz sits atop the compensation heap with an annual pay package of $2,765,000. The top non-sports salary belongs to University of Iowa professor and cardiothoracic surgery specialist Mark David Iannettoni, who will take in $695,743 in salary during the 2007 fiscal year.

In all, five of the top 10 highest-paid state employees are coaches – a statistic Sen. Majority Leader Mike Gronstal said is lamentable.

“I don’t quite know what to do about it and I don’t plan to do anything about it, but I think our priorities are out of whack in this state,” he said.