Kirby Smart clears the air on Will Muschamp, status on Georgia's coaching staff

There was a recent stream of reports that defensive analyst Will Muschamp had left the Georgia coaching staff. Now, Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart has pushed back on that.

The main reason for those reports stemmed from Muschamp being left off the Georgia coaching staff. The implication of that, of course, is that he’s no longer working with the team. However, Smart shared that Muschamp is still with the program and it was actually just a clerical error.

“Will is still with us,” Kirby Smart said. “He’s still going to help us. I guess Leland left him off the media guide, y’all gonna have to take that up with him.”

Will Muschamp has been with Georgia since 2021. Initially, he came to the program to become the defensive coordinator there. However, ahead of the 2024 season, he stepped into a smaller role as a defensive analyst. In his place, Glenn Schumann, who had been the co-defensive coordinator, moved into the role full time.

Now a longtime coach, Muschamp has been known as an excellent defensive mind. A former defensive back and team captain at Georgia, Muschamp quickly got into coaching following his college career. Following a brief GA stint, he found himself as a defensive backs coach. He’d get his first defensive coordinator role at Valdosta State in 2000. Just a couple of seasons later, he’d be the defensive coordinator at LSU under Nick Saban. Immediately prior to his first head coaching job, he was the defensive coordinator at Texas under Mack Brown.

As a head coach, Will Muschamp took over at Florida in 2011 and would spend four seasons there. That included taking them to the SEC Championship Game in 2012. However, he was let go after going 28-21 overall and 10-13 in his final two seasons there. He’d later become the head coach at South Carolina, where he went 28-30 over about four and a half seasons. Again, he struggled in his final two seasons there, going just 6-13 in 2019 and 2020.

In the end, Muschamp landed in Athens, coaching his alma mater. He did so under Kirby Smart, who was also a defensive back at the school, though they didn’t spend time on the team at the exact same time. They’ve also both coached for Nick Saban and were on the LSU staff together in 2004.

Since getting to Georgia in 2021, the Bulldogs have won two national championships. Now, two years removed from their last, the Bulldogs are hoping to get back to the mountaintop in college football next season. It appears, Muschamp will continue to try and help in his analyst role.