Will Muschamp returns to Georgia as analyst on Kirby Smart's staff

Will Muschamp’s career has taken him to four SEC schools including twice on the sideline as head coach in the SEC East where he went up against his alma mater.

Now Muschamp has officially returned to Georgia as part of the football program.

The former Bulldogs safety has taken an off-field role as a defensive analyst, coach Kirby Smart said Wednesday.

Muschamp and Smart were former Georgia teammates and are good friends. They were roommates for a time when they were both defensive coaches in 2000 at Valdosta State and later worked together at LSU in 2004.

Muschamp, 49, was fired at South Carolina in November during his fifth season at the school. He was Florida’s head coach from 2011-14 and has a 55-51 as a head coach.

“I know he’s not through with his coaching days,” Smart said. “That's really important for him to be able to go out there and have the relationships and develop a position group and coach. His family has been his focus here recently. I know he feels like he's moved his family all over the country and this is an opportunity to give back to them and be with them and be able to watch his son play.”

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Muschamp will make $300,000 annually, according to Georgia.

He was due to be paid $12.9 million by South Carolina on or before Dec. 31 from a settlement agreement for a contract that ran through the end of the 2024 season, according to USA Today.

Mushchamp was spotted around town back in December and around the football facility but the school last month put out a statement that Muschamp was not “currently employed at the University of Georgia”

He is now.

“As of last week, we were able to get things completed with Will," Smart said. "He’ll be joining our staff in an off-the field role. We call it an analyst. He’s already made a lot of strides in terms of helping me, helping out staff. He’ll be able to help coach the coaches. He’ll be working with the defensive side of the ball."

His son, Jackson, just redshirted as a Georgia freshman walk-on quarterback.

“Obviously I’ve got tremendous respect and trust in Coach Smart and how he runs his program and how he’s going to treat my son,” Muschamp said in February 2020. “I’m glad Jackson’s doing what he wants to do.”

Robert Muschamp, Will's nephew, has also joined the program as a defensive quality control assistant, according to his Twitter profile. He was a graduate assistant last year at Tennessee and was a tight end at Auburn.

Will Muschamp was an invited walk-on who played for Ray Goff. He earned a scholarship in the spring of his redshirt season and started twice as a junior and nine times as a senior when he had 84 tackles and two interceptions.

Muschamp was a senior in 1994 when Smart was a freshman. His coaching career also included two stints at Auburn and another at Texas.