parted ways with Pete Kwiatkowski<\/a>, who had been with him five seasons. Coach Kwit was hardly a problem on his staff or remotely a liability, but Muschamp has proven to be one of college football\u2019s best defensive minds. Anyone who hires Muschamp has made an upgrade.<\/p>\nAnd Muschamp has changed little from the fiery, driven, uncompromising coach who was the master at in-game adjustments and maximized the potential of the talented roster he helped assemble and tutor.<\/p>\n
Brown knew what a stud he was and, in fact, even steered the decision to name Muschamp his head coach-in-waiting, if only to hang onto this talent. It didn\u2019t come to be. He wasn\u2019t interested in waiting and instead took head coaching jobs at Florida and then South Carolina.<\/p>\n
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Neither of those panned out. In his nine collective seasons, he had losing records in four of them. He won more than seven games in a season just twice, both in his second years on the job. His Gators went 11-2 in 2012 and finished in the top 10. His Gamecocks were 9-4 in Year Two. Overall, he won just 56 games and lost 51.<\/p>\n
But he helped Georgia win a pair of national championships in 2021 and 2022 as co-defensive coordinator and served as Kirby Smart\u2019s defensive analyst in 2024.<\/p>\n
Is he still interested in being a head coach again?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said without elaboration.<\/p>\n
Not every great defensive coordinator translates to a great head coach. Didn\u2019t work out for another Longhorn defensive legend, David McWilliams. He won in his first and only season at Texas Tech with a 7-4 record, but had three losing seasons in five years at his alma mater. As brilliant a defensive mastermind as he win, it didn\u2019t translate to his job at the top. He finished with a 38-30 record and had one outstanding season in 1990 when the Longhorns reached No. 3 and shocked the nation until Miami shocked them in the Cotton Bowl and plummeted them to 12th.<\/p>\n
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Same for Leon Fuller, who was one of the best to ever coach here and a huge proponent of strong, man-for-man coverage like Muschamp. He excelled in Austin but had one winning season in seven years as Colorado State head coach.<\/p>\n
Only Gene Chizik, Brown\u2019s defensive chief in 2005 and 2006, did outstanding work here and also succeeded as a head coach later, winning a national title as Auburn\u2019s head coach in 2010.<\/p>\n
Muschamp might be in a category all to himself. He\u2019s that good.<\/p>\n
He did joke a bit during his first media availability since his hiring. Muschamp confided that he rarely gets on social media platforms. He doesn\u2019t use a computer, preferring to write longhands on notepads. By his own admission, he can\u2019t even turn on a TV.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI would just say coaching. I can grill out all right,\u201d he said. \u201cOther than that, I\u2019m not very good. I have no technological skills at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
From his intense demeanor to his attire with a message, he was all business.<\/p>\n
He good-naturedly chided certain reporters about their aging looks and explained the significance of his black T-shirt with \u201cNT=NP\u201d emblazoned in white letters.<\/p>\n
The translation of his choice of wardrobe?<\/p>\n
No thud equals no play. In other words, no nonsense.<\/p>\n
Pretty straightforward, just like his blunt coaching style.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t thud at practice, and you don\u2019t throw your face in the fan at practice, that means you\u2019re probably not going to be a good tackler,\u201d Muschamp said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t thud at practice, that means you\u2019re not going to be a good tackler. The best defenses I\u2019ve been a part of, they tackled extremely well.\u00a0And right now in offensive football, you better be able to tackle and play in space.\u201d<\/p>\n
His players on that side of the ball should take that as an ultimatum unless they want to be standing on the sidelines next to him.<\/p>\n
This guy, as always, doesn\u2019t mince words.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we got some guys, not many, but they don\u2019t want to thud at practice,\u201d he said. \u201cI call it a turn down. If you turn down too much, you won\u2019t get on the bus to go to the game. You\u2019ll be watching it from home. So if you don\u2019t thud, you won\u2019t play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muschamp also made it clear he\u2019s got some personnel that wants to thud and want to make a difference.<\/p>\n
By name, he singled out types like hybrid outside linebacker-defensive end Colin Simmons and safety Jelani McDonald.<\/p>\n
Muschamp is a huge advocate of press coverage, something Texas did less and less of, probably to an extent of maybe 20% at best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited about the guys that we\u2019ve got,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got really good competition in the secondary, especially at corner. That\u2019s something we believe in\u00a0\u2014 denying the ball, making the quarterbacks got to throw in some tight spots. You\u2019ve got to give them some different looks. You can\u2019t live in it, but we certainly believe in getting our hands on people.\u201d<\/p>\n
He does sound a bit nervous about the lack of experience at linebacker with only Ty\u2019Anthony Smith back out of last year\u2019s regular rotation at that position.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a little bit of a concern,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n
Finally, I asked him if he was hired by Sarkisian, in part, to help Texas beat the Bulldogs. Sarkisian is 0-3 against Georgia, Muschamp\u2019s alma mater and former employer.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d he said. \u201cI think he thinks we\u2019re going to do a good job here.\u201d<\/p>\n
That much is a given. But it can\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Will Muschamp returns to Texas after most recently serving as an advisor at Georgia. Icon Sportswire\/Icon Sportswire via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-243464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-texas","9":"tag-texas-headlines","10":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}