Who Lasts Longer: Kirby Smart or Will Muschamp?
When analyzing the recently disappointing SEC East, you can really see the affects of losing. South Carolina and Georgia are replacing coaching legends in Steve Spurrier and Mark Richt because both couldn’t break through. Now, one was asked to leave, but the other couldn’t stand losing so bad, he just had to quit on everybody. We’ve got 2 emerging coaches in Butch Jones and Jim McElwain, but can Kirby Smart or Will Muschamp steal the spotlight?
Maybe, but I’m guessing if either of them did manage to steal that spotlight, the other one would be a total failure. Total failure may be a bit strong, but by that I mean not the head coach after 3 seasons or less. Well, considering who they are replacing, hiring someone that lasts 3 seasons or less would in fact be a complete and total failure. Not to mention, the SEC East seems to be stacked with promising new coaches, and those who fall behind early will probably also be handed an early exit.
So, if you were given a 1,ooo dollars to bet while in Vegas, but you had to bet on who has the longer coaching career at their current school, who would you choose? Will Muschamp of South Carolina, or Kirby Smart of Georgia? That is an incredibly tough question to answer, but I’m intrigues equally by both the known and the unknown.
Kirby Smart
Argument for Kirby Smart:
Kirby Smart knows what it takes to win. He has been with Nick Saban in some capacity since the ’06 Dolphins. In his time with Nick Saban, he has coached a defense that went on to lead the way to 4 national championships. Nick Saban would seem to be the perfect person to groom an assistant coach or coordinator into a successful head coach. The discipline. The expectations. The pressures. I am sure they are all higher than most head coaches in the country. That’s what comes with coaching at Alabama. And, that is also what happens when you coach under Nick Saban.
SEC fans will recognize Florida head coach Jim McElwain as a prior offensive coordinator of Nick Saban. He didn’t make the jump straight to a job like Georgia, but he proved he could make a winner from scratch with his job in Colorado State. He then took over a disappointing Florida team, and led them to an SEC East title in his first year. Could Kirby Smart fill the shoes at Georgia similarly to the way Jim McElwain has done at Florida?
Argument against Kirby Smart:
Georgia need not go out of the SEC East, they don’t even have to go out of Gainesville to show the other possibility for defensive coordinator promoted to big time job. That’s right. I’m talking about Will Muschamp. We’ll discuss whether or not Will Muschamp’s tenure at South Carolina will be longer than his tenure at Florida, but Georgia fans have to be worried about the similarities. It is what we do as sports fans. We hate the unknown, and we always want to compare it to something we’ve seen before. Well, I don’t think Georgia fans like what they’ve seen before.
Sure Muschamp led his Florida Gators to an 11-2 season in 2012, but his combined record in the other 3 seasons was an embarrassing 17-19. Florida had an amazing defense, but Will Muschamp’s inability to get out of the way on offense held his teams down in a major way. Defense does win championships, but you can’t have an offense that loses them. Could this happen to Kirby Smart?
Despite a great recruiting class, Kirby Smart is left with an ugly offense with a lot of questions. Who will play quarterback? Who will be the play makers on the outside? Is Nick Chubb healthy? Those are a lot of tough questions to answer, and especially tough for a defensive guy to answer. Jim Chaney seems like the right hire on paper, and all the numbers back that up. But, can Kirby Smart get out of the way?
Will Muschamp
Argument for Will Muschamp
Will Muschamp has been there and done that before when it comes to head coaching. He took over one of the best jobs in the country, and developed the best defenses in the country year after year. Will Muschamp surely has learned and now understands the importance of offense and recruiting a solid quarterback. He understands how to handle situations with staff members, assistant coaches, kids’ parents, kids getting in trouble, kids backing out of commitments and all sorts of other issues that just mean more to you when you’re the head coach.
Leaving Florida, and then being given this opportunity has to be a breath of fresh air for Will Muschamp. He was brought into a much higher pressure situation at the University of Florida and took over a program that honestly looked as if it had not been cared for recently. Urban Meyer will never admit it, but part of his heart issues seemed to be the lack there of when it came to staying committed to the University of Florida program. In his last couple of years, his recruiting numbers dipped. His team’s performance showed the effects of talent not working out. Then, right before it got bad, he left and Will Muschamp came in to pick up the pieces.
He was doomed for failure from the beginning, but he was still able to lead a team to an 11-2 record in his 2nd season on basically just his defense. He has hired Kurt Roper, who I believed, and still believe, was a great hire for him when he was at Florida. Roper tried to install an offense with players that weren’t built for it. Roper is now listed as co-offensive coordinator at South Carolina, but it is hard to believe he won’t be the one calling the shots. Roper proved he could install a powerful offense under David Cutlciffe at Duke. If he can build an offense there, he can build an offense anywhere. He just needs the time, and being at South Carolina should buy him a little more time than it did at Florida.
Argument against Muschamp
Will Muschamp has been there and done that before when it comes to head coaching. Yes, I am completely aware that is how I opened my argument supporting Will Muschamp, but come on, lets get real. What couldn’t Will Muschamp learn in 4 years at Florida that he all of the sudden knows at South Carolina? Who is to say that Will Muschamp isn’t going to make the same mistakes that seemingly doomed his head coaching career the first time around?
Will Muschamp has been noted for the greatness of the defenses that he has produced at every stop he has ever made, no matter the coaching position. As good as Will Muschamp is at defense, he is equally as bad at offense. He just cannot get out of the way, and he apparently doesn’t trust his own decisions. Muschamp went through offensive coordinators that had seen success at their prior stops. Charlie Weis couldn’t get Muschamp’s offense going. Brent Pease, former offensive coordinator at Boise State, did an even worse job than Charlie Weis. Kurt Roper didn’t produce either in his one year either with the talent he had at Florida. How is he going to do better at South Carolina?
After 3 seasons, Kirby Smart and Will Muschamp will be…
Kirby Smart is an exciting hire. He’s already proven himself to be a bit more of a disciplinarian than his predecessors by blocking AJ Turman’s transfer to Miami. If he hadn’t coached under Nick Saban, nobody would be saying “oh my God, that’s what Nick Saban would do.” Now, because he did coach under Nick Saban, we all want to run and declare Kirby Smart the Nick Saban 2.0. To me, it shows Kirby Smart is already power tripping. Apparently, prior to Smart’s arrival, players had been allowed to transfer wherever they wanted the previous 15 years. Does this move by Smart give him power and earn respect in the locker room, or does it show he is already out of touch with his team and this is the beginning of tumultuous times in Athens?
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Keep in mind, tumultuous times in Athens does not stack up equally to tumultuous times in South Carolina. I’m not saying that South Carolina is going to accept Will Muschamp stringing together losing seasons, but I am saying that he won’t be run out of town for going 7-5 and 8-4 while being relevant in the conference. I believe Will Muschamp believes in Kurt Roper. “Believes” is an understatement. Muschamp is basically
as saying that if he had hired Roper earlier in his Florida stint, he’d still be the Florida head coach. While there’s not a ton of statistical evidence to back that up, the improvements in the Gators offense after one year with Roper were significant. Without all the pressures and stress on Muschamp that there were at Florida, I expect Muschamp to be able to relinquish responsibilities to his offensive coordinator with a little more ease, and his separation from that side of the ball should lead to a good offense.
I believe that if I had to pick which one was more likely to take their team to a national championship before their time was up, I’d have to say Kirby Smart. The ceiling is much higher at Georgia, there’s no doubt about that. The talent and the tradition make it an easy place to recruit kids, and your brand is already sold. With those blessings though, come enormous expectations. Sometimes unrealistic expectations. Keep in mind, the last head coach was fired for basically not competing enough for championships. With the bar set that high, I’m also going to have to say that Kirby Smart is also more likely to be fired after 3 seasons than Will Muschamp. The similarities between Smart taking the Georgia job, and Muschamp taking the Florida job are just too much for me to ignore. After 3 seasons, Muschamp will be golfing in Myrtle Beach with his South Carolina assistant coaches, and they will be discussing recruits over 18 holes of golf. Kirby Smart will be attending job interviews.