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Smart: Will Muschamp is still involved with Georgia football

On3 imageby: Jake Rowe07/15/25JakeMRowe
Kirby Smart, Will Muschamp, Georgia
Kirby Smart, Will Muschamp, Georgia - © Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

ATLANTA — It turns out that Will Muschamp hasn’t completely stepped away from the Georgia football program. After DawgsHQ and other outlets reported earlier this week that the long-time coach wouldn’t be with the team in 2025 based on his absence from the media guide, Kirby Smart called those reports “erroneous” when he met with the UGA beat prior to his team’s spot at SEC Media Days.

It doesn’t sound as if Muschamp will be with the team day-to-day but Smart was clear in the fact that he will still be a resource for the program.

“Yeah, Will’s still going to be with us and helping us in some capacity,” Smart said. “So he’s just I guess not in the media guide. Y’all need to ask Leland about that. That didn’t come from me. So he’ll be doing some stuff with us.”

Three years as a full-time, on-field assistant on Georgia’s coaching staff from 2021 to 2023, Muschamp took a step back last season. He was essentially a Monday through Thursday coach who helped in practice. Instead of traveling with the team to games each week, he was spending time in Nashville where his son, Whit, plays for Vanderbilt.

Muschamp initially came to Georgia in an off-field role. He was hired as a senior analyst prior to the start of the 2021 season with a salary of $300,000 annually. When Scott Cochran, the team’s special teams coordinator, stepped due to well-documented personal issues, Muschamp was promoted to the on-field coaching staff.

He worked with defensive backs and helped coach special teams that season as Georgia won its first National Championship since 1980. Defensive coordinator Dan Lanning was hired away by Oregon after that season and Smart tapped Glenn Schumann and Muschamp as co-defensive coordinators. The former called the defensive plays while Muschamp worked with Fran Brown in the defensive backfield.

That went on for two seasons before Muschamp took a lesser role. Smart and Muschamp go all the way back to their playing days together at Georgia where they overlapped for one year. Muschamp brought Smart to Valdosta State with him 2000 to coach defensive backs. It was Smart’s first on-field job.

The two next worked together in 2004 at LSU with, again, Muschamp serving as the defensive coordinator and Smart coaching defensive backs. That lasted one season before Nick Saban moved on to the NFL and the Miami Dolphins and Muschamp followed.

Smart joked with reporters that he considered putting it out there that Saban would actually be taking Muschamp’s role. Reports surfaced on Monday suggesting that Saban might be looking to return to the sidelines.

“I was going to fill y’all in that Nick was taking his spot,” Smart said. “That’s not happening. I don’t think Nick’s coming back. I think he’s too happy where he is. It’s just… I think y’all were lacking buzz, and they needed some buzz yesterday. That was the only thing that could generate some buzz besides Lane and Hugh’s’ feud over the internet. There’s just not a lot there. But I talk to Nick pretty regularly, and I don’t see it. It’s one of those things that if he wanted to, he’d be unbelievable at it. But he’s overqualified for our positions.”

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