On Thursday Will Muschamp announced that he was leaving Georgia to become the new Defensive Coordinator for the Texas Longhorns. Muschamp has been at Georgia for five years now, but the last two years he has been an analyst off the field so it was likely just a matter of time until he left UGA.
But why did he leave Georgia? Why did he want to go to a program that is going to be regularly competing against Georgia going forward?
Muschamp released a statement on Thursday answering these questions, and his reasoning is as simple as this being a better opportunity for his career and something his family wants to do.
“This is an exciting day for the Muschamp family,” Muschamp said dawgnation.com. “We loved our time in Austin and truly enjoyed everything about working with Texas Football. We’re thrilled to be coming back to a program with one of the richest and proudest histories and traditions in college football. With what Coach Sark has done in rebuilding this program – knowing there are even better days ahead – I was fired up for the opportunity. I have tremendous respect and admiration for Sark, how he leads his program, develops his team and players, builds culture and goes about his business. I’m excited to be a part of it and can’t wait to get started, Hook ‘em!”
Will Muschamp shares why he ditched Georgia for Texas
While Muschamp has a lot of history with Georgia now, his career has taken him to many different programs. This includes Texas where he was their Defensive Coordinator from 2008 to 2010. So this is a place where he has already been, and it sounds like he and his family really enjoyed their time there.
On top of that, Texas offered Muschamp something that Georgia could not. Now that Glenn Schumann is finding success as Georgia's Defensive Coordinator that job will not be opening until he decides to leave the program on his own. So Muschamp likely was never going to be Georgia's Defensive Coordinator again, so he had to look elsewhere to get that role.
Texas also is offering Muschamp a lot more money than Georgia has been paying him, so that is a good enough reason to change job on its own.
Seeing Muschamp leave is tough for Georgia fans because he is a big reason why UGA won both of their National Championships, but the program is in as healthy of a spot as ever before so the future is still very bright in Athens.