From "Coach-In-Waiting" At Texas To Head Coach At Florida: Muschamp a Gator

Perhaps it was a foregone conclusion that Will Muschamp would come back to the Southeast. The North Georgia native, born in the shadow of Lookout Mountain, near the Tennessee and Alabama borders, has just been named the head football coach of the Florida Gators.

In hiring Muschamp, Florida is again going the route of hiring an up-and-coming assistant coach, as they did with Ron Zook. Perhaps the proven head coaches they looked at simply didn't want the challenge of rebuilding the UF program.

Muschamp, who was named "Head-Coach-In-Waiting" to succeed Mack Brown at Texas, apparently decided he didn't want to wait on Brown to give up the reins of the Longhorn in Austin. He was a walk-on safety at Georgia and went on to make his name as a defensive coordinator under Nick Saban at LSU and then held the same position under Tommy Tuberville at Auburn, before being hired at Texas.

Florida is replacing Urban Meyer—an offensive guru—as their head coach, with a coach that has spent his entire playing and coaching career on the defensive side of the ball. They obviously are putting their hope and faith in the old adage that defense wins championships.

Muschamp becomes the second Saban protege to be named a head coach in the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division in as many years. Both he and Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley coached under Saban both at LSU and in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins.

Prior to being named head coach in Gainesville, he had been mentioned prominently in connection with other top head coaching jobs, most notably at Clemson, Tennessee, Washington and Auburn. He obviously will know his way around the SEC in both recruiting and coaching.

Muschamp faces the daunting task of rebuilding a Florida offense that has struggled since the departure of quarterback Tim Tebow. With the state having a wealth of talent, he is taking over at a time that Miami is also searching for a new head coach and Jimbo Fisher is just finishing his first year at Florida State. Whoever he hires as his offensive coordinator will be a key to his success with the Gator Nation.

Interestingly, the Florida-Georgia rivalry has just been ratcheted up a notch. Many at Georgia had wanted Muschamp to return to his alma mater and replace Mark Richt in Athens. Now he will be facing off against Richt and the Bulldogs annually in what has always been dubbed the "World's Largest Cocktail Party" in Jacksonville.

Muschamp enters the most competitive conference in America. Saban won the National Championship in only three years at Alabama. Gene Chizik is playing for a National Championship after only two years at Auburn. With Meyer having won back-to-back National Titles during his tenure at Florida, the pressure on Muschamp will be enormous to get the Gators back in the title hunt not only for the SEC but nationally as well.