Steve Sarkisian’s actions Wednesday showed that pretty good isn’t good enough for Texas football.
As a result, many can’t wait for Mack Brown’s former head-coach-in-waiting to take over the 2026 defense.
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Will Muschamp is back as defensive coordinator and Pete Kwiatkowski and legendary secondary coach Duane Akina are out as part of the biggest staff shakeup in Sark’s five seasons on campus.
1/7/2010 – Jay Janner/AMERICAN-STATESMAN – Coach Will Muschamp yells at one of his players in the second quarter at the National Championship Game at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, on Thursday Jan. 7, 2010.
Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman
But this feels, um, weird.
Muschamp was always an elite coordinator before he became a head coach and résumé-wise this is an upgrade but color me surprised to find out PK was on his way out of here or worse yet, that he was the coordinator who got let go and not one of his less-than-productive colleagues.
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Sarkisian obviously saw the need to shake things up after a the Horns missed out on the College Football Playoff and bringing in Muschamp signifies he isn’t satisfied with a 9-3 record and kiddie-table status during the bowl season. Sark firing a coordinator for the first time in his Texas tenure says as much.
But why Kwiatkowski? The hire has created some buzz but it feels like a scapegoat situation with PK drawing the short straw.
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If you told me Wednesday night that he would be firing a coordinator the next day, my money would have been on his buddy Kyle Flood whose offensive lines have been far from elite over these last two seasons. PK can’t be blamed for the scant 83 yards rushing on 77 carries in the three losses to Georgia. He can’t be blamed for Texas averaging 3.95 yards per rush in 2025 which ranked 101st nationally, He can’t be blamed for Arch Manning getting sacked six times by a Florida team that supposedly had no pass rush during the loss that effectively put the Horns in dire straits when it came to their playoff hopes. He can’t be blamed for Texas failing to top 21 points in each of its six losses over the last two seasons.
But to his credit, his defenses held the rival Oklahoma Sooners out of the end zone in three of the last four meetings. Texas A&M mustered just 24 points in the last two matchups and was held without an offensive touchdown in 2024.
So we must give PK some flowers on his way out the door.
It’s the offensive staff that figured to see the most movement in the offseason and Sarkisian did bring in Jabbar Juluke to replace fired running backs coach Chad Scott but this Kwiatkowski firing came out of nowhere.
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Why Muschamp will work at Texas
PK is a good coach but Muschamp, who will attend the Citrus Bowl but only as an observer — assistant Johnny Nansen will call the defense — has been great as a coordinator. He has the ability to make some real noise here after spending the last few seasons working as an analyst at Georgia. His defenses at Texas routinely ranked in the top 10 in sacks, total defense and rushing defense.
What we heard from Sarkisian this week when discussing his new hire was trust and respect. He said now that Muschamp is aboard, he can spend more time with QB Arch Manning and won’t have to keep the headset on during games while the team is on defense, which was as much a compliment to his new hire as much as a diss to the outgoing coordinator.
“Will is a guy I’ve known for a long time, always admired and is as good of a defensive mind and coach as I’ve ever coached against,” Sarkisian said. “His defenses are relentless. He absolutely gets the best out of his staff and players and is such an extremely well-respected coach. I know Longhorn Nation knows him well. He led some incredible defenses here on the Forty and I’m so fired up to be bringing him back to Texas. He’ll be an awesome addition to our staff.”
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I get it because Muschamp knows these SEC streets as well as anybody. He played for Vince Dooley at Georgia, worked as a 31-year-old defensive coordinator for Nick Saban at LSU then Kirby Smart at Georgia in addition to head coaching stints at South Carolina and Florida. It won’t hurt that Muschamp has worked for Smart over the last few seasons and can give Sark a first-hand look at the defense that has terrorized the Horns over the last three meetings.
“One of the unintended consequences of this is we do get a little bit of intel into the Georgia theme,” Sarkisian said Friday. “The reality is, we’re going to go against that a lot more in practice, whether you call it spring football practice, training camp, summer, whatever that looks like for all our good-on-good sessions. So can that help us down the road? Hopefully that’s one of the unintended consequences, but it wasn’t the main theme.”
One more thing about Muschamp: he will bring the energy, something the program needs if it is going to continue to compete for league titles, which could lead to even bigger opportunities in the CFP era.
“With what Coach Sark has done in rebuilding this program — knowing there are even better days ahead — I was fired up for the opportunity,” Muschamp said in a statement. “I have tremendous respect and admiration for Sark, how he leads his program, develops his team and players, builds culture and goes about his business. I’m excited to be a part of it and can’t wait to get started. Hook ‘em!”
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This will play well on the field as well in the living rooms of blue-chippers who want to compete with and against the best. Muschamp won’t have to introduce himself to parents.
His record speaks for itself.
Football head coach Steve Sarkisian attends the Longhorns game against Virginia at the Moody Center in Austin, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025.
Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman
The end of the PK Era
Kwiatkowski madę his mark here by coaching a unit that finished third nationally in total defense in 2024, a season that will go down as the high mark of his tenure since the Horns were within eight minutes of playing for a national title.
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His final season came with a drop in production, which isn’t a shock since the Horns lost Thorpe Award winner Jahdae Barron, All-SEC safety Andrew Mukuba, starting tackles Vernon Broughton and Alfred Collins and defensive end Barryn Sorrell — but it was enough for Sarkisian to see fit and run PK in favor of Muschamp who was the DC in Austin for Mack Brown’s second- and third-best teams (2008 and 2009) and his worst (2010) when the wheels came off.
Under Kwiatkowski this season, the Horns dropped 33 spots in total defense after ranking third in 2024 and the pass defense plummeted from seventh all the way to 102. Total defense was third in 2024, 36th this season.
Muschamp will bring accountability and a fiery intensity that will occasionally boil over on the sideline. Maybe the Horns need that.
At Texas, he coached standouts like safety Earl Thomas and linebacker Brian Orakpo, who went on to prominent NFL careers. During his tenure, the Longhorns had 12 defensive players drafted, 10 within the first four rounds.
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The 2025 defense had three All-Americans in linebacker Anthony Hill Jr., edge rusher Colin Simmons and safety Michael Taaffe but it wasn’t enough production to save PK’s job. There was too much slippage in Year 5 and two games come to mind.
We will be talking about that 29-21 loss at Florida in 20 years because it remains a head-scratcher. The defense showed up not ready to compete and it will go down as the game that essentially kept the Horns out of the College Football Playoff. Florida running back Jaden Baugh looked like Emmitt Smith at times with 107 yards on 27 punishing carries and the Horns wanted no part of him that day.
Worse yet, gimpy quarterback DJ Lagway, regarded as somewhat of a bust early in his career, beat the Horns literally on one leg with season highs in passing yards (298) and completion percentage (.750) along with a passer rating of 180.8 that’s far better than his career number of 127.0.
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The other? Mississippi State. Yes the Bulldogs were much improved but watching Baylor castoff Blake Shapen roll up Texas with 381 yards passing and four touchdowns in a 45-38 overtime loss before Hail State dropped its last three games by at least 19 points may have served as the writing on the wall.
Muschamp will bring some needed energy around here but his hiring doesn’t solve any of the issues that have plagued this team on the other side of the ball.