Will Muschamp returns to USC as a coach for Georgia. How should fans feel about it?
Will Muschamp’s tenure as the 35th head football coach at the University of South Carolina lasted just shy of five years. He won 28 games and lost 30.
Muschamp didn’t coach the final three games of 2020 after being fired Nov. 15, seven games into the Gamecocks’ pandemic-shortened season. The last three games he did coach were losses — 52-24 to LSU, 48-3 to Texas A&M and 59-42 to Ole Miss — compounding the bad mood that had settled around the program after a 7-6 finish in 2018 and a 4-8 season in 2019.
He joined Kirby Smart’s staff at Georgia in 2021 and returns to Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday as the Bulldogs’ co-defensive coordinator. While no one predicts his presence in Columbia will be met with much fanfare, there aren’t necessarily pent-up hard feelings either.
Even the team’s official game notes for this week’s matchup called Muschamp an “old friend.”
Radio host Phil Kornblut and the SportsTalk Media Network asked through a Twitter poll what kind of reception Muschamp will receive from USC fans this week. The results: mostly ignored (50.2%), loud booing (46.1%) and polite applause (3.7%).
Whether you plan to clap, boo or neither, let’s revisit some highs and lows of the Muschamp era at South Carolina.
High: The recruiting wins
Part of Muschamp’s reputation as a coach was his skill as a recruiter, and he spent much of the first few years of his tenure modernizing USC’s recruiting operation. That started to pay dividends as South Carolina cracked the top 20 of 247Sports class rankings in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and signed its fair share of blue-chip talent. That included five-star hometown kid Jordan Burch and five-star Zacch Pickens from the Upstate — both now defensive leaders for the Gamecocks.
Low: The turnover at offensive coordinator
At the end of the 2017 regular season, Muschamp fired offensive coordinator Kurt Roper, who he had brought with him from Florida, citing the need for more production out of a unit that played at a slow pace and put up relatively pedestrian numbers. Bryan McClendon held the role for the next two years. After a 4-8 season in 2019, almost half of Muschamp’s staff turned over. Mike Bobo was brought in to run the offense, a hire that marked Muschamp’s last big swing to save his job.
High: The 2017 season and Outback Bowl win
By far Muschamp’s best season in Columbia, 2017 featured eight regular-season wins that included five one-score games and a lot of thrilling football. Quarterback Jake Bentley took over the offense, setting career highs in completions, attempts and completion percentage, while tight end Hayden Hurst emerged as a top-end NFL talent. The defense also led the SEC in turnovers and finished 25th nationally in points allowed per game. The Outback Bowl win over Michigan would prove to be the peak of Muschamp’s tenure.
Low: Momentum fades in 2018, ends in Belk Bowl disaster
Coming off the high of that Outback Bowl win, the Gamecocks entered the 2018 season with big expectations, including the team’s only appearance in the AP poll (ranked No. 24) during Muschamp’s tenure. That ended with a 41-17 rout at the hands of Georgia in September that set the tone for a frustrating 7-6 season. In the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, USC fell flat on its face in a 28-0 defeat to the Virginia Cavaliers.
High: Beating No. 4 Georgia in 2019
The Gamecocks were expected to be thrashed soundly in Athens by a superior No. 4 Bulldog squad competing for the College Football Playoff. Instead, the Gamecocks relied on three interceptions of QB Jake Fromm by Israel Mukuamu, just enough offense from QBs Ryan Hilinski and Dakereon Joyner, and a missed UGA field goal in overtime to pull off the biggest upset of Muschamp’s tenure.
Low: The rest of 2019
The season started with South Carolina blowing an 11-point fourth-quarter lead to North Carolina and losing 24-20. The Gamecocks also lost QB Jake Bentley for the season from an injury in that loss. A 1-5 slide ended the year, including a home loss to Appalachian State and one-sided affairs against Texas A&M and Clemson. As fans’ discontent grew throughout the 4-8 campaign, USC’s new president, Bob Caslen, made several remarks that seemed to imply Muschamp’s future wasn’t secure, forcing him and athletic director Ray Tanner to issue further public statements backtracking those comments. All in all, it was a messy situation befitting a messy end to a messy season.
Highs: NFL talent
Though the losses outnumbered the wins over his five years, Muschamp coached a number of players at South Carolina who went on to NFL careers. Among them (listed with the teams that drafted them): Hayden Hurst, TE, Baltimore; Javon Kinlaw, DL, San Francisco; Deebo Samuel, WR, San Francisco; Bryan Edwards, WR, Las Vegas; Jaycee Horn, CB, Carolina; Shi Smith, WR, Carolina; Ernest Jones, LB, LA Rams; and DJ Wonnum, DL, Minnesota.
Low: A costly end of an era
Expectations weren’t high for South Carolina in 2020. After four games the team was 2-2, with a disappointing opening loss to Tennessee offset by an upset of No. 15 Auburn. Then came the one-two punch of consecutive blowouts to LSU on the road and Texas A&M at home. The Gamecocks then went on the road to Ole Miss and lost 59-42. Muschamp was fired a day later. USC in December 2020 hired Shane Beamer as their new coach — and then paid the school’s former coach a lump sum contract buyout of $12.9 million.
