Will Muschamp and Kirby Smart at UGA: It’s like ‘two peas in a pod’

Who coaches the coaches?

For Kirby Smart this spring, the answer to that question is his old buddy Will Muschamp.

Muschamp joined the Georgia program this spring as a senior defensive analyst. He spent the previous five seasons coaching South Carolina to a 28-30 record before being fired in November.

Smart and Muschamp’s history dates back to 1994. They were both defensive backs at Georgia that year, Muschamp a fifth-year senior and Smart a redshirt freshman. The pair later found themselves working on the same coaching staff at Valdosta State.

Now, after 20 years and plenty of competition between the two in the SEC over the last decade, Smart and Muschamp are back together on the same staff. For Smart, there are plenty of benefits to having another former SEC head coach in the building.

“He’s probably the guy I lean on the most in terms of coaching the coaches and drill selection,” Smart said. “I know he’s done things a lot of different ways. When you’re out there and in between drills or a drill’s going on, you can walk over there and say, ‘How did y’all do this? Is there a better way? What do you think about this?’ It’s helpful.”

Muschamp will make $300,000 in the UGA role, the university confirmed. South Carolina paid Muschamp a lump sum of $12.9 million as part of his contract buyout after his dismissal.

For the Bulldog players, the sight of a former SEC East rival in Athens certainly came as a jarring one. Senior punter Jake Camarda said it took him at least a day to get used to the sight of Muschamp in red and black, but he’s now become accustomed to it.

For senior inside linebacker Channing Tindall, seeing Muschamp brought back memories of home. Tindall hails from Columbia, South Carolina and received plenty of recruiting interest from Muschamp and the hometown Gamecocks.

“The first day Coach Muschamp was here, I was watching some extra film with a coach,” Tindall said. “They were like, ‘There’s a surprise upstairs.’ So I look up and when I see (Muschamp), I was like, ‘What? What are you doing here?’ We had a nice little conversation. It’s good to have someone from my hometown here. With Coach Smart and Coach Muschamp, I feel like I have a piece of home here.”

On the practice field, Tindall said, it’s easy to tell Smart and Muschamp are old friends. They argue at times, but at the end of the day, Tindall said there’s still that ever-present “brotherly love.”

For all of Muschamp’s administrative experience as a head coach, he also is another quality defensive mind for Georgia to have on staff. Along with Smart and defensive coordinator Dan Lanning, the Bulldogs boast one of the top defensive-minded staffs in the entire country.

“He’s been helping all the young guys out a lot, drilling and scheming to us and making sure we all know what’s going on, not as far as just football-wise but just the little stuff that adds up to help you improve your game and be better at what we do,” senior defensive back Ameer Speed said.

Smart and Muschamp are alike once they get on the practice field. Tindall said they have similar tendencies in the way they coach, all the way down to how they talk to the players. They can even both be seen sporting visors during practice.

As the spring rolls on and fall draws closer, the influence of Smart’s old friend will only grow.

“As soon as I see Coach Smart, I’ll see Coach Muschamp,” Tindall said. “It’s two peas in a pod.”

This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 9:11 AM with the headline "Will Muschamp and Kirby Smart at UGA: It’s like ‘two peas in a pod’."