South Carolina Football: The Rundown on Will Muschamp
The SEC East has welcomed three new head football coaches since the 2015 season ended; South Carolina football went with former Florida head coach Will Muschamp.
Steve Spurrier, Mark Richt and Gary Pinkel are all out of the SEC East. Many would have ranked these three as the top three coaches in the SEC East before they all left rather unceremoniously.
Steve Spurrier resigned due to a variety of reasons, but mostly because his Gamecocks stunk.
Mark Richt was fired/resigned/mutually parted ways with Georgia after 15 years and his replacement has an incredible legacy to live up to.
Gary Pinkel had a terribly disappointing season in 2015 and resigned due to health concerns.
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Southbound and Down will provide you with the rundown on all three and afterwards tell you we’d pick to be taking over as the face of our program. It’s tough to pick, as only one (Will Muschamp) has previous head coach experience in the SEC. We got things kicked off with Barry Odom (Missouri) and Kirby Smart (Alabama). Just like both Odom and Smart, Muschamp spent 2015 as a defensive coordinator in the SEC. He had more of a winding road to his current destination than his new coach counterparts, however. Regardless, Muschamp is the new South Carolina football coach. South Carolina football fans have to have mixed feelings about this hire.
Muschamp spent his playing career as a safety at Georgia before joining Auburn as a graduate assistant in 1995. He couldn’t stay away from Georgia football, though, joining the staff at West Georgia as their defensive backs coach. He spent only one season there and continued one-year stints as a defensive backs coach for Eastern Kentucky and Valdosta State. He was also the defensive coordinator at Valdosta State. Then Muschamp hit the big time.
Like Smart, Muschamp comes from the Saban coaching tree. He joined Nick Saban’s staff at LSU in 2001 as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, remaining there until he left with Saban to go to the Miami Dolphins. After serving as assistant head coach under Saban with the Dolphins, Muschamp made the move back to where his coaching career began.
Muschamp spent the 2006 and 2007 seasons as the defensive coordinator for Auburn before leaving for the same job at Texas. While at Texas, the Longhorns made Muschamp the head coach in waiting. He wasn’t ready to wait, though, and jumped at the chance to become the Florida Gators head coach in 2011. The Gators were up and down under Muschamp before Florida began to look elsewhere after the 2014 season.
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Muschamp returned to Auburn as their defensive coordinator (again) in 2015 and remained only one season. We know Muschamp can field an outstanding defense (even as a head coach his D was never questioned at Florida) and is an ace recruiter. Will that translate to more success in his second stint as an SEC head coach? South Carolina football fans are definitely hoping so.