Miscellaneous

The Muschamp Thing

By Chris Stevenson

When I first heard the news that UT had named Will Muschamp as the successor head coach to Mack Brown I thought it was a horrible stunt.  Almost immediately, though, I began to see the genius in the move.  My first thought was of Florida State, where they've had Bobby Bowden's successor named for several years - the offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher.  The problem there is that Bowden has seemingly overstayed his success and the offense has struggled mightily.  Most people associated with that program have probably started to drop off the Bowden bandwagon and not only do the probably want to go in a different direction altogether, they certainly do not want to hand the reins over to someone whose stock has dropped precipitously.  The Brown-to-Muschamp deal is much different, though.  For one, Mack has no timetable for his departure (neither does Bowden, but he could go any year; retire I mean, not expire). Brown looks to be at UT for at least the duration of his current contract - 8 years.  And as a sort of nice side effect of this feel-good announcement, Mack made it clear that he is going to finish out his career at Texas and that it could be a long time, more than eight years, before he steps down.  The second distinguishing thing is that Muschamp is probably the hottest coordinator out there in line for one of the many coaching vacancies.  This move locks him in as the D coordinator until he takes over the head coaching job way in the future.

Perhaps the most important thing about all of this is that UT football is guaranteed continuity and stability for the long term.  We could be talking 20 years here where the program maintains all of the elements of its current character.  Given the success of the past ten years, that's a very, very good thing.  It's such a win-win-win that it's almost unbelievable.  Here are some of the pros and cons listed out:

Pros

1. Horns keep the current best defensive coordinator in the country indefinitely.
2. Horns keep that same guy from going somewhere else and succeeding with a different program.
3. Continuity and stability in the program.
4. Muschamp gets to take his time learning from Mack Brown how to run the program for many years before taking the helm.

Cons

1. If the Horns start losing at some point, especially if Mack gets old and appears to be doddering, then it could start to look like the game is passing him by.  At that point no one is going to want the Mack Brown era to continue through Muschamp.  (Counterpoint:  If it hasn't happened to JoePa, it probably won't happen to Brown.)
2. The defense sucks.  What if the defense becomes the Achille's heel of the team and Muschamp starts to be viewed like Greg Davis used to be?  (Davis pulled out of it, though not totally, given enough years and the right players.  Muschamp could too if he took over the head job during a peak.)

What I love about this is that it is bold and innovative.  No other program in the country is doing anything like this.  I think the message it sends is that Texas is the elite program in the country, built from within and with staying power for the next two decades, at least.  That has to be good for recruiting, donors, you name it.  In the next few years, I think you see a college football dynasty at Texas; something along the lines of 3 national championships in 5 years.  I know that's an extremely bold and overly optimistic projection, but I really think the program is making all of the right moves.

Full post as published by Cursed With Ambition on November 19, 2008 (boomark / email).