Derrick Johnson on Will Muschamp: When Players Rave, You Listen
The greatest living Longhorn defender and College Football Hall of Famer, Derrick Johnson spoke to Inside Texas about what makes the Will Muschamp hire by Steve Sarkisian so exciting.
“I don’t know Will Muschamp all that well. But, players are great judges and I trust his ex-players.
He was here a few years after I left Texas, when I was with Kansas City, so I don’t have a personal relationship with him. But what I do know is what I’ve heard from former players, and I’ve only heard great things. Guys like Alex Okafor speak very highly of him.
They rave about him. They rave about his energy. They rave about his toughness. They rave about his mindset when it comes to playing defense. He’s aggressive. He’s smart. And he’s a name I’ve known for a long time, even if I didn’t overlap with him personally.
To me, when players rave about a coach like that, it tells you a lot.
Players are great observers. They see everything. They know who prepares them, who believes in them, and who puts them in position to play fast and confident. So when you consistently hear former players speak highly of a coach, that matters. A lot.
Is it a big change? Yeah, it’s a big change. Will Muschamp is a big name, with a big personality who has been a head coach. And it’ll be different, because I think Pete Kwiatkowski did a really good job at Texas. This year was a little more leaky than the last two, but my hat’s off to PK. He had a great run—and a lot of success.
I’m short on details about the hire itself because I don’t personally know Muschamp like that. I’m just going off what I’ve heard, and what I’ve heard has been nothing but positive. He’s a coach I definitely would have wanted to play for when I was at the University of Texas.
And when players talk the way they talk about him, that tells you something worth trusting.”
