Will Muschamp transitioning to new role at Georgia
Will Muschamp stepping into a different role at UGA. The Georgia co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach is moving into an analyst role to spend more time with his family according to a statement from UGA on Saturday. The Bulldogs have already announced that Travaris Robinson has been hired to fill Muschamp’s spot with the on-field coaching staff.
Muschamp helped the Bulldogs win back-to-back National Championships in 2021 and 2022 and the team went 42-2 while he was on the sideline. Kirby Smart hired Muschamp, who had just been fired from his head coaching post at South Carolina, in after the 2020 season as a senior analyst. He was set to make a $300,000 salary, quite robust for an off-field coach, but he soon took on a different role.
With Scott Cochran stepping down as special teams coach and away from the team to deal with some personal matters, Muschamp stepped in and helped out with special teams and the defensive back field. Georgia went on to go 14-1 and it beat Alabama for the National Championship, breaking a 41-year drought.
The two-time SEC head coach came back as the safeties coach in 2022 and the Bulldogs ran roughshod through the sport, amassing a 15-0 record and beating TCU 65-7 in the National Championship game. That Georgia defense, despite losing five players in the first round of the prior draft, was one of the nation’s best.
The Bulldogs made another run at it in 2022 with Muschamp, again, coaching safeties and co-coordinating the defense. They went 12-0 in the regular season for the third straight year but fell to Alabama in the SEC Championship game. Georgia earned a berth in the Capital One Orange Bowl where he stomped FSU 63-3 and Muschamp got to see his son, UGA walk-on quarterback Jackson Muschamp, see the first action of his career.
Muschamp had head coaching stints at Florida and South Carolina and was fired at both spots. He had defensive coordinator jobs at Auburn (twice), Texas, and LSU. He comes from the coaching tree of the recently-retired Nick Saban, just like Smart. Muschamp and Saban won a National Championship together at LSU in 2003. He was also responsible for Smart getting his first on-field coaching gig back in 2000 at Valdosta State. Muschamp was the defensive coordinator and advised Chris Hatcher, the head coach, to hire Smart as defensive backs coach.
