Muschamp named Coach-in-waiting at Texas

The AP Release

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp has been designated head coach-in-waiting by the university, expected to take over the Longhorns when coach Mack Brown retires.

Muschamp is in his first year with the Longhorns, but athletic director DeLoss Dodds said Tuesday he and Brown know they want to keep him at Texas. To do that, they will more than double his salary from $425,000 to $900,000 in January. He will remain defensive coordinator.

Dodds said he wants the 57-year-old Brown to coach for a long time but said he wanted to line up Muschamp now to avoid the "trauma" of a coaching search when the day comes that Brown steps down.

This will all hinge on whether Muschamp really wants this over one of the lucrative opportunities open to him now. Mack Brown has 8 years on his contract, how long does Muschamp want to wait? This is going to be longer than Jimbo Fisher has to wait at FSU. As far as I can tell, nobody has made him a concrete offer of a job with salary numbers. Rumors were that he was to be interviewed soon for the Clemson job, since Texas is off this weekend.

The story as reported by the Texas site is here.

""When I first came here in January and my wife, Carol, and boys, Jackson and Whit, stayed back in Auburn, I got such a great feel for the community and people. When Carol and the kids moved here in May, they fell in love with Austin. If I would have left, I would have left on my own because she was staying here. She really loves the community and the people, and our kids love their schools. It's just a special place and somewhere I want to be for a long time."

I can't disagree with him, Austin is a very nice city to live in. That is not to say I'm happy about it, as I'm not as thrilled with the other candidates as I was Muschamp.

Just so long as its not Bobby Johnson.

This, along with previous comments, probably puts Bud Foster in the forefront, but any interviews with current head coaches will wait until the regular season is over.