BY JIM VERTUNO
Texas hired former Florida and South Carolina coach Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator on Thursday.
Coach Steve Sarkisian announced the staff shakeup after his team missed the College Football Playoff.
Muschamp was the defensive coordinator at Texas from 2008-2010 and was a defensive analyst at Georgia this season.
Sarkisian fired defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski after five seasons. Also dismissed was passing game defensive coordinator Duane Akina, a previous longtime Texas assistant who had been brought back on staff this year.
Texas started the season ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history with a defense that boasted three preseason All-Americans. But the Longhorns went 9-3 and missed the playoff for the first time in three years. In one late-season stretch, Texas surrendered at least 30 points in four consecutive games.
“We just felt it was best for our program to move in a different direction, and having the opportunity to hire Will Muschamp provides us the leadership to take our defense to another level,” Sarkisian said. “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. His defenses are relentless.”
Muschamp’s previous stint with the Longhorns included Texas going undefeated in the 2009 regular season and winning the Big 12 before losing to Alabama in the national championship game.
Muschamp was under contract as the “head coach in waiting” under Mack Brown but bolted for the job at Florida after the 2010 season. He was with the Gators until 2014 and then was coach at South Carolina from 2016-2020.
He was co-defensive coordinator at Georgia from 2022-2023 before shifting into a defensive analyst role the past two seasons.
“We loved our time in Austin and truly enjoyed everything about working with Texas football. We’re thrilled to be coming back to a program with one of the richest and proudest histories and traditions in college football,” Muschamp said.
