The Texas Longhorns are bringing back Will Muschamp to replace defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, who was fired along with defensive passing game coordinator Duane Akina on Thursday.
Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian announced that he wasn’t bringing back Kwiatkowski, who had served as his defensive coordinator since 2021, and Akina in a major shakeup for a unit that didn’t meet expectations during a 9-3 season in which the preseason No. 1 failed to make the College Football Playoff.
Sarkisian is now turning to Muschamp, who returns to Austin after serving as Texas’ defensive coordinator from 2008 to 2010 and was once the program’s head coach in waiting under Mack Brown.
“Having the opportunity to hire Will Muschamp provides us the leadership to take our defense to another level,” Sarkisian said in a statement. “Will is a guy I’ve known for a long time, always admired and is as good of a defensive mind and coach as I’ve ever coached against. His defenses are relentless; he absolutely gets the best out of his staff and players and is such an extremely well-respected coach.
“I know Longhorn Nation knows him well. He led some incredible defenses here on the Forty, and I’m so fired up to be bringing him back to Texas. He’ll be an awesome addition to our staff.”
In his previous stint at Texas, Muschamp helped the Longhorns get to the BCS national championship game in 2009 with a unit that ranked No. 1 against the run, on third downs and in takeaways. He was set to someday succeed Brown, but he instead departed after a 5-7 season in 2010 to become the head coach at Florida, succeeding Urban Meyer.
Muschamp went 56-51 as a head coach at Florida and South Carolina. He joined Kirby Smart’s staff at Georgia in 2021 and served as the Bulldogs’ co-defensive coordinator in 2022 and 2023 before deciding to transition to an analyst role in 2024 and then stepping away from coaching in 2025 to spend more time with his family.
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Muschamp has done some advance scouting for Georgia during the season while spending most of his time in Tennessee where his son, Whit, is a quarterback at Vanderbilt.
“This is an exciting day for the Muschamp family,” Muschamp said in a statement. “We loved our time in Austin and truly enjoyed everything about working with Texas Football. We’re thrilled to be coming back to a program with one of the richest and proudest histories and traditions in college football. With what Coach Sark has done in rebuilding this program — knowing there are even better days ahead — I was fired up for the opportunity.”
Texas’ defense was expected to be among the best in the country in 2025 with several returning All-SEC starters but gave up 29 points in a road loss to the Gators and allowed 30 or more points in four of its last five games, including a 35-10 loss at Georgia that effectively knocked the Longhorns out of the CFP race.
Kwiatkowski was a finalist for the Broyles Award as one of the top assistant coaches in college football in 2024, and the Longhorns finished with the No. 3 scoring defense in FBS during a 13-3 season that ended in the CFP semifinals against eventual national champion Ohio State. During his five years in Austin, Kwiatkowski helped Texas achieve back-to-back CFP appearances and top-four finishes and developed 12 NFL draft picks on defense, including first-rounders Jahdae Barron and Byron Murphy II.
Akina, a former longtime Texas defensive backs coach, just finished his first year back with the program after stints at Stanford and Arizona. The Longhorns’ pass defense ranks No. 102 in the FBS this season.
The No. 13 Longhorns will finish their season against No. 18 Michigan in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31 (3 p.m. ET, ABC).
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