Inside Muschamp, Mack Brown's unique relationship

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

It’s been almost nine years since Mack Brown and Will Muschamp shared a sideline, something that will change sooner rather than later.

The two former Texas coaches will reconvene at the start of this season, this time coaching against each other rather than together, their two roads finally converging after a unique marriage ended nine years ago.

“Will brought a whole lot to us. The reason we did the coach in waiting, was not that I was getting out, which people thought. It was not that Will was going to be the head coach at Texas at that point. We thought that he was a good enough coach and if we could keep him we could win a national championship, and we nearly did. To be able to pay him enough, and at that time we paid him about 900,000,” Brown said. “By giving him a new title, we could pay him a bunch more.”

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Muschamp arrived at Texas in 2008 one of the fastest up-and-coming assistants in the country with stops at LSU, Auburn and the Miami Dolphins of the NFL before landing with Brown, who was just three years removed from a national title.

Because the hotshot coordinator’s meteoric through the coaching ranks, Muschamp wasn’t brought on just as defensive coordinator but as the Longhorns’ head coach in waiting, the heir apparent to Brown whenever he decided to hang up the headset.

The first two years the two enjoyed unbridled success, going 25-2 over that stretch with a Fiesta Bowl win their first season and coaching in a national title game the year after that.

They’d hit hard times, going 5-7 with questions about both Muschamp and Brown’s qualifications starting to surface in Austin.

Then, roads started to diverge as Brown stayed put at Texas while Muschamp started to entertain other head coaching vacancies.

The man destined to take over the Texas program left three years and 30 victories later to take a job in the SEC at Florida, using some of the advice he got from his now-former boss.

“He was great. I think it was great for both of us. Our third year we didn’t have as a good a football team as we wanted to have and I think that put some stress on both of us from a standpoint of the fan base asking, ‘do we really want this guy to takeover our program and when are we getting rid of the other guy?’" Muschamp said. "I think from that standpoint that created some difficulties, not between he and I, but those questions you get tired of hearing. It was a wonderful situation and Texas and I had the opportunity to go to Florida, a place I had grown up. Coach brown understood the opportunity I had in front of me.”

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Now the two, who were split up after the 2010 season will get the chance to coach at the same stadium this season when South Carolina and North Carolina open the season at Bank of America Stadium Aug. 31.

For Brown, it’ll be his redemption story, coming back after a five-year hiatus from coaching, spending the majority of that working for ESPN.

Muschamp—while he said he wants Brown to have a successful coaching career at North Carolina after his first game of the year—is genuinely happy to see an old colleague get another shot.

“I think the biggest thing as a competitor, and I know him very well, things didn’t end the way he wanted it to end at Texas and now he’s got another opportunity to right that,” Muschamp said. “That’s something that I’m glad he got that opportunity.”

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Brown now gets a chance to coach against a former assistant, one he’s followed closely in his role as an analyst for the Worldwide Leader.

He’s seen it up close and personal how Muschamp runs his program in his second stint as a head coach, down to calling the Gamecocks’ spring game in Muschamp’s first year, and likes what he’s seen.

“He’s embraced the entire head coaching position now. When you’re first a defensive coordinator and take a job it’s hard to do. You jump from a group to having all three phases, all the alums, it’s an overwhelming jump especially at a place like Florida where the expectations are so high,” Brown said. “I think he’s grown tremendously as a head coach.”