Georgia football's Kirby Smart on Will Muschamp: 'I think he missed it'
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Nearly two years ago, Will Muschamp coached his last game on the Georgia football staff.
The former Bulldog safety and SEC head coach at Florida and South Carolina dialed it back with the program first as an analyst in the 2024 season and then in a more reduced role this season.
Now, he’s back as defensive coordinator at Texas.
“Oh, I’m so happy for him,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said on Monday Dec. 22, four days after Texas announced Muschamp’s hire. “He loves coaching. He loved coaching when he was here. It was hard for him to step away, and he felt like he needed to, and I had so much respect for him. And, shoot, he helped us replace him with the guys we got, and he helped us tremendously in that role. He helped us tremendously this year throughout the year. And he’s been really good to me personally, and he’s been great to Georgia, and he’s been really good to a lot of players that he’s recruited.”
Muschamp, a former Smart teammate with the Bulldogs and a good friend, joined the Georgia staff in 2021 in an off field role after five seasons at South Carolina, but stepped up to coach the special teams when Scott Cochran took a leave.
He shared the title of co-defensive coordinator with Glenn Schumann in 2022 and remained in that role in 2023 after Schumann became defensive coordinator.
He moved to analyst in 2024 so he could be able to go to Vanderbilt games where his son Whit was a freshman quarterback. Georgia hired Travaris Robinson to replace Muschamp. The two had worked together at other schools.
Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian landed Muschamp and fired defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski to make room for him. Muschamp was defensive coordinator at Texas from 2008-10 and also was defensive coordinator at LSU and Auburn.
Texas is 0-3 against Georgia under Sarkisian the last two years including a 35-10 loss on Nov. 15 in Athens.
Texas had just 23 rushing yards and 274 total yards.
“His style of coaching and the way we’re going to play defense is something that makes sense to me of what is needed in this conference,” Sarkisian said, according to the Houston Chronicle. “It’s not only, how do you beat Georgia? We’re going to go against that now in practice.”
Georgia is scheduled to play Texas next in 2027 in Austin.
The Bulldogs won’t go against Muschamp before that unless it’s in the SEC Championship game or the College Football Playoff.
“When he had an opportunity to jump back in, I know he loves it,” Smart said. “I think he missed it dearly. He talked to his family about it, his wife and his boys, and they all supported him. And he’s going to a great place to work for a great man. There’s not many better opportunities out there to go coach and play than a place like Texas where you’ve got a lot of infrastructure in place to help you. So wish him nothing but the best.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia’s Kirby Smart ‘happy’ for Will Muschamp to return as DC at Texas
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