How Will Muschamp's Departure to Florida Impacts Texas Football and the Big 12
Will Muschamp has accepted an offer from the University of Florida to become the school's next head football coach.
The Texas defensive coordinator the last three seasons, Muschamp was designated the Longhorns' coach-in-waiting back in November 2008 but has instead chosen to take the money and run. It is a sure bet that he will at least triple his current $900,000 salary by becoming the new coach of the Gators.
This is great news for Florida's fans. They are getting one of the hottest names in the college coaching ranks. They have found someone young and energetic who may be able to lead their program for years to come.
For fans of the University of Texas, this news comes on the heels of the "resignations" of former offensive coordinator Greg Davis and a host of other Longhorn coaches last week.
Who exactly is left on the Longhorn staff? Mack and the towel boy? This can't be good.
The following is a list, in no particular order, of how this affects the Texas football program and the all-new Big 12-2=10 Conference.
Adios, No. 1 Recruiting Class
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Say you're a highly-recruited high school football player. You're young and think the whole "everybody loves me" thing is pretty cool.
You've had a lot of schools show interest but you already know where you are going. You like the coaches and it is one of the top college football programs in the country. You gave a commitment well before signing day, maybe to cut down on distractions.
This past football season you saw your soon-to-be team, just removed from the BCS title game, struggle badly with the worst season you can remember.
Now the coaches who have been talking to you and recruited you are no longer there. In the span of a week, the teams coaches have all but disappeared. It may be just you and Mack Brown on campus when you get there.
Nervous yet?
Don't think for a moment this won't make at least a few of these young men think twice.
A Program in Turmoil
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If a tree fell near the Texas coaching staff, would anybody hear it?
Seriously, who do they have left as coaches? I'm not talking graduate assistants, I mean real paid coaches.
UT not only has to replace both coordinators but also both line coaches. A help wanted ad is not going to do the trick here.
Leave out the fact the future of the Longhorn program is in limbo, head coach Mack Brown and athletic director DeLoss Dodds are going to be doing the Texas two-step just to put together a competent coaching staff.
It is going to take some fancy footwork for the Longhorns to dance to the tune this band is playing.
Maybe Texas will be innovative next year and go without any lines on either side of the ball. The Longhorns can get the rules changed to allow them to send out 10 receivers every play.
Nobody's ever tried that.
Back to the Future
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Mack Brown, setting aside this season, has done a fantastic job as the Texas head coach. He has brought the program back to prominence after some rather dismal years preceding his tenure.
Mack has added to the Longhorns' rich football tradition and brought home a few championships. He will be remembered as one of the greats in Texas coaching but, let's face it, he's not getting any younger.
Many associated with the program figured Brown would retire within the next few years, leaving the team in the capable hands of Will Muschamp. The University of Texas made Muschamp the highest paid assistant in the country at $900,000 a year and named him head-coach-in-waiting.
Well, somebody popped a pooh in the pudding.
Not only does Mack have to spend the offseason trying to figure out whether his uber-recruit quarterback is color blind or if his SAT scores were a fraud, but now UT must now find someone to come in as Mack's understudy and be ready to take the lead in a few short years.
The stability and future of Texas football are shadowed in doubt. A heavy darkness seems to have descended on the Longhorn program and those distant drums you hear can't be good.
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Next Year Could Be Worse
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Let's face it: When you are Texas and you go 5-7 on the year with home losses to UCLA, Iowa State and Baylor, neither side of the ball exactly excelled.
Instead of growing more comfortable in the system and with their coaches, these returning players do not even know for certain what next year's system will look like. The new coordinators will not know these players' strengths and weaknesses or vice versa.
This past season could have been a cakewalk compared to what the Longhorns will get next year. The conference, despite the defections of Nebraska and Colorado, will be tougher next year with the new round-robin nine-game schedule.
Longhorn fans, you are going to have someone telling you not to worry. You may be told something along the lines of Davis had to go and Muschamp's D wasn't so great, either.
Pay attention and you will notice these are the same Longhorn fans who told you not to worry before the season began. The same Mensa members who predicted McCoy, Shipley and the other great players Texas lost wouldn't really be missed. In fact, they said the players replacing them would be even better.
Austin, we have a problem. Losing Muschamp, Davis and the other coaches will be a bigger blow than the loss of those players.
Texas stunk it up like roadkill at the picnic this year, and next year is going to be worse.
Red River Rampages
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Speaking of conference games next year, doesn't Texas have some sort of rivalry with a team in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma will return a pretty good team next year...and probably the year after and the year after that, too.
While the Sooners did lose an offensive coordinator of their own, the staff itself is not likely to change much. OU is most likely going to promote from within and benefit from the continuity of the same system they currently run.
With Oklahoma winning this seasons and seven of the last 11 Big 12 titles, Texas cannot afford to fall behind in the conference. Going 2-6 in conference this year did not help.
With the uncertainty facing the Longhorns' program and knowing the team from Norman is probably going to be even better next year, the Sooners could be on the cusp of another Red River winning streak like they enjoyed at the beginning of the millennium.
Texas' other main rival, the A&M Aggies, also beat them this year. In fact, with Nebraska gone to the BIG 10, Texas Tech is the only remaining conference team that Texas defeated.
The prospect of losing streaks to both the Sooners and Aggies is enough to keep many Longhorn fans up at night tossing like an insomniac on No-Doz.
I guarantee Mack Brown is not getting a lot of sleep right now.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
