Maybe it's a good thing Will Muschamp left

[ReidMcLain 75]

Will Muschamp and good offenses absolutely do not mix it seems. It was the case for Florida for 4 years. Auburn last year. And now South Carolina who ranks dead last in the country with a meager 14 PPG on offense. Maybe it's something about Muschamp's aggressive style of defense that puts too much pressure on the offense to perform? I prefer the bend but don't break personally.

[WeagleAU 594]

Muschamp is a great defensive coordinator, but I think he has proven that he is a below average head coach.  I don't think he will be at South Carolina for more than a couple of years before he is let go.

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

I don't think WM is cut out to be a great head coach. That said, Spurrier didn't leave him a ton of talent to work with. USCe under Spurrier didn't recruit that badly overall in comparison to the rest of the country, but in comparison to the SEC only, the Gamecocks have been pretty far down the list. Muschamp isn't as good as Spurrier was at taking just a few really special players and building a winner around them. Will is gonna need more talent to work with. Even then, I think he struggles to field a consistent top team. But what's happening to USCe right now is about what I expected.

[thaitopher 807]

Yes. I think Spurrier left the cupboard bare. Probably spent more of his time at Augusta than recruiting.

[boisnumber1 2,828]

I'm very glad WM didnt stay any longer than he did, but not necessarily for the reasons you gave. We are better off not having him around very long. Jmo and I will leave it at that. We are fine without him.

[GwillMac6 20,794]

1 hour ago, WeagleAU said:

Muschamp is a great defensive coordinator, but I think he has proven that he is a below average head coach.  I don't think he will be at South Carolina for more than a couple of years before he is let go.

One of the reasons for that is South Carolina when it does not have a all time great coach in Spurrier to prop it up and make it look like a pretty good program for a few years is a absolutely horrible job! It has hardly any tradition to speak for and in most years is a pretty weak state for recruiting. South Carolina arguably is the least talented team in the SEC. Boom took a huge risk taking this job because if he fails here and I bet he will because they will be very bad for at least 2 more years he will get fired and never get a shot as a head coach again. Having said that I do not think he is that good of a Head Coach anyways.

[Randman5000 4,235]

I think Boom could have been a defensive legend here but he has always wanted to be a head coach. Instead of being patient he jumped and we are lucky to get Coach Steele. I hope he stinks it up but I think in a couple of years they'll be okay when they get a qb.

I'm bitter because he jumped ship, so I'm happy we got Coach Steele and he is getting our guys to perform as a defense that we haven't seen in years!

[Mikey 16,777]

I didn't like it when we hired Coach Hothead for the third time, therefore I was happy when he left for the third time. May that be the last we see of him on the AU staff.

[AUApostle 7,663]

I agree, for some reason wherever he goes poor offenses appear to be the norm.  2006 got worse the longer he was here, 2007 was terrible.  UF was bad, last year was bad, this year is bad.  Maybe Texas was good on O while he was there?  I think they got worse, too.

[Shift 350]

Well, we have the benefit of knowing how well our defense has played thus far this season.  That in itself, creates some bias toward CWM.

[AUloggerhead 2,269]

2 hours ago, Randman5000 said:

I think Boom could have been a defensive legend here but he has always wanted to be a head coach. Instead of being patient he jumped and we are lucky to get Coach Steele. I hope he stinks it up but I think in a couple of years they'll be okay when they get a qb.

I'm bitter because he jumped ship, so I'm happy we got Coach Steele and he is getting our guys to perform as a defense that we haven't seen in years!

When Muschamp was hired as DC, I thought it was a great move by Gus at the time because: (1) AU needed immediate defensive help and like others have said, that's his specialty; (2) he was a hot commodity & would have landed somewhere else.  That said, I really didn't expect him to stay for much more than a year for the same reasons.  Football coaches tend to be nomadic anyway.  He definitely helped to change the "culture" on the defensive side last season.  It's obvious the tackling has improved -- less arm tackling & more hit/wrap-up/drops.  Kevin Steele should get the bulk of the credit but can't ignore Will for helping to build the foundation.  

As HC at USC, he's got his hands full to recruit like crazy to rebuild both offense & defense -- figure 3 years minimum.  It's going to be lean over there until he gets some Jimmys & Joes.  I looked at his staff and he has implemented a "Co-OC" arrangement between Kurt Roper & Bryan McClendon.  I don't know what drives some HCs to do this.  I keep thinking back to Tubb's Nallsminger experiment.   Pick one and be done with it!

[imaolgatiger 523]

7 hours ago, Mikey said:

I didn't like it when we hired Coach Hothead for the third time, therefore I was happy when he left for the third time. May that be the last we see of him on the AU staff.

This....I Don't like him and I'm glad that he is gone. I didn't think he would be here for more than a couple of years and I was glad he left to be a HC vs. leaving to be a DC. I am sure that the lazy "sports reporters" already had their "you can't have a good defense with Gus's offense" story penned and there would have been a lot more negative publicity about him leaving and taking a lateral move. 

[Plainstalk 32]

I like WM and am grateful for the job he did last year.  The defense improved during the season last year and played well enough to win several of the games we lost.  The problem we had last year was on offense, particularly at the QB position.  WM also brought a lot of talent to Auburn and we are seeing some of that talent grow up this year.  Having said all that I think Steele is doing a great job and I wish WM nothing but good.....

[BornAU76 398]

We knew he was gone, 2 years tops, and would find another coaching gig anyway. 

But I agree we are better off without him.  He set the fundamentals in place then Steele came behind him and refined everything.  I enjoy WM's fire but we are better off without him and his short tenure.

UF is definitely on WM, USC not so much...they are totally devoid of talent.  Spurrier set the dumpster on fire then got on his golf-cart and headed for the clubhouse.  He will garner some recruits over there but competing against Clemson is going to be tough.  He may make it another 2 years and they'll run him off IF they don't see much improvement from year to year.

[au_bsci_04 407]

I'm glad things worked out the way they did. He brought immediate help in recruiting and those kids are playing great for us now. As others said, he laid the technique foundation for the CKS hire. It was great timing that we were able to keep fairly common systems in place between those guys. Haven't been this happy about our D in a decade. In a good place overall!

[NoALtiger 3,873]

Like a lot of others say, I think Boom is a great D coordinater and that maybe that's what he should stick with. Hey nothing wrong with that at all, not everyone is HC material and all that entails. Until Boom proves otherwise, that's gonna be the label. 

I will say that the South Crackalacky gig is not the right job for a variety of reasons and he probably should have waited-but I think he had tunnel vision and would have taken almost any gig, certainly an SEC school. 

[nutspanther 73]

I was angry at him for leaving early, and I think that USCe is possibly the worst job for HC in the SEC. Had he been patient and we had a good defense this year under his tutelage, he would have been on the shortlist for LSU, in my opinion. Given the talent that they already have, with a good OC that team wins immediately with Boom.

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

Having CWM last year absolutely saved Gus' job this year. CWM coached the "sissy" out of the D and laid the foundation for this years D. Without this years D, Gus would already be gone IMO.  

[alexava 6,973]

Will may be better as a d. Coordinator. Gus may be better as an o. Coordinator. They are both getting chances because of that success. That is how it works. 

[tigeraddikt 1,621]

29 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Having CWM last year absolutely saved Gus' job this year. CWM coached the "sissy" out of the D and laid the foundation for this years D. Without this years D, Gus would already be gone IMO.  

Kinda diggin this post.

[Eisenhower_1952 87]

I don't think we would have gotten Cowart, Holland, and C. Davis without WM. But his antics on the field are a little overboard. Especially during last years Iron Bowl.

[Timeslider 6 269]

I, for one, hopes he fails at USCe just to prove he made a poor move. The reason for his failure as a HC is obvious, he is a defensive minded coach. He doesn't fully understand the offense and therefore, don't put the necessary attention toward it. In recruiting or coaching he focuses on his strong point first. Finally, i think he is too stubborn to change and will therefore continue to fail as a HC, one of the best qualities a HC can have is his ability to adapt and be flexible, this is part of Gus's failures. Think of the most successful coaches and they all have the ability to adapt and adjust when they sense they have hit a wall. His shortcomings are in his personality and that is hard for some people to admit and change. No, i am glad he left when he did and glad he never was hired here as a HC.

[tbon986 1]

Deshaun Davis says Hi..

[YankeeTiger24 98]

11 hours ago, Mikey said:

I didn't like it when we hired Coach Hothead for the third time, therefore I was happy when he left for the third time. May that be the last we see of him on the AU staff.

Oh, I don't think we'll see the likes of Mr. Muschamp at Auburn again.

[Strychnine 1,804]

3 hours ago, BornAU76 said:

We knew he was gone, 2 years tops, and would find another coaching gig anyway. 

But I agree we are better off without him.  He set the fundamentals in place then Steele came behind him and refined everything.  I enjoy WM's fire but we are better off without him and his short tenure.

UF is definitely on WM, USC not so much...they are totally devoid of talent.  Spurrier set the dumpster on fire then got on his golf-cart and headed for the clubhouse.  He will garner some recruits over there but competing against Clemson is going to be tough.  He may make it another 2 years and they'll run him off IF they don't see much improvement from year to year.

 

I agree about Muschamp, but I disagree about Spurrier setting the dumpster on fire at South Carolina.  South Carolina was a dumpster fire long before Spurrier set foot in Columbia.  They have won the SEC East once.  They have a winning record over only Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Mississippi State.  Mizzou has been more relevant in the SEC, in their short time here, than South Carolina has been.  There was never a cupboard for Spurrier to leave bare.  If anything, Spurrier's time at South Carolina revealed just how difficult it is to build a consistent winning program there.  I would say he reduced the dumpster fire to embers while he was there.

That said, it was a headscratcher to me for Muschamp to go to South Carolina.  If you fail at a program like Florida, South Carolina does not seem like the best choice for a reboot.