Rivals debates if Will Muschamp would fit as Michigan DC

The Rivals.com team debated whether or not the former SC and Florida coach would fit in Ann Arbor and we give our thoughts.

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While we disagree with them at times, we’ve said over and over again, we’re big fans of Rivals’ Mike Farrell and Adam Gorney. One of our favorite segments they do regularly is ‘fact or fiction,’ where they debate some college football-specific hot topics multiple times a week.

There’s been speculation who Michigan football’s new defensive coordinator will be with Don Brown being dismissed last week. Perhaps the most popular as of late is former South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp, who hasn’t had a stellar tenure as a head coach, but fielded elite defenses as a defensive coordinator.

Farrell and Gorney debate if Muschamp could work out in Ann Arbor if he was given the chance.

1. Will Muschamp would be a good fit at Michigan as defensive coordinator.

Farrell’s take: FACT. Muschamp has experience at Texas and head coaching experience at Florida and South Carolina, so all of that will bring a fresh look to the Big Ten. He can also recruit on defense very well as he showed especially at Florida and Auburn (for a brief time) and he and Jim Harbaugh are similar personalities. This would be a nice experienced addition.

Gorney’s take: FICTION. Muschamp would be a fine defensive coordinator and that’s probably where he does his best work, but he’s been the head coach at Florida and South Carolina and not being the main guy in the room would be a challenge. Once coaches get the taste of running their own program, they want that opportunity again and so if Harbaugh is looking for someone for the long haul then Muschamp might not be the best fit. He’s a great defensive mind and his personality would fit in well, but if he has any aspirations to be a head coach again then a short stop in Ann Arbor might not be the best for Harbaugh.

This is one of those cases where we agree with both takes. We lean more towards Farrell’s take rather than Gorney’s, because if Harbaugh is going to be in Ann Arbor for the long haul, the defense will need a quick turnaround — and it doesn’t really matter whether or not it’s a stop-gap fix or one that works for the foreseeable.

Regardless, Muschamp needs to rehabilitate his image after his latest head coaching job, and he’ll likely have to do it at the coordinator level if he wants another Power Five job in the future. We think he’d be a fine hire, if Michigan did decide to go in that direction.

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