When Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs made Will Muschamp the highest-paid assistant coach in college football last December, expectations for the 2015 defense immediately skyrocketed.
Three games in, Muschamp has yet to deliver the results Jacobs and coach Gus Malzahn wanted.
Auburn has surrendered just below 443 yards per game, next to last in the SEC. The Tigers have given up 810 yards on the ground, which ranks last in the SEC by 150 yards.
Several injuries have forced many inexperienced players to work significant snaps early in the season, and Auburn has not been able to adjust successfully.
Despite the defensive struggles, Muschamp has a track record that suggests he should be able to turn the defense around eventually.
The Rome, Georgia, native began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Auburn after concluding a four-year career as a safety at Georgia. Muschamp landed his first coaching job, secondary coach at West Georgia, in 1998. He became the defensive coordinator at Valdosta State in 2000 and he jumped into the SEC in 2001 when Nick Saban hired him to coach linebackers at LSU.
Muschamp was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2002, and he quickly launched himself into the national spotlight. The LSU defense led the nation in 2003 in both points allowed per game (11) and yards allowed per game (252) as the Tigers won the BCS national championship.
After a brief stint as the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator under Saban, Muschamp returned to the college ranks as the defensive coordinator at Auburn.
In 2006, the Tigers were ranked third nationally in scoring defense, allowing only 15.4 points per contest. Muschamp was also a finalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to college football’s best assistant coach, in 2007.
After a three-year stay as the defensive coordinator at Texas, where he helped the Longhorns reach the 2009 national championship game, Muschamp finally got an opportunity as a head coach at the college level. He became the coach at Florida in 2011 and led the Gators to the Sugar Bowl in 2012.
Florida faltered in 2013 and 2014, however, leading to Muschamp’s dismissal last fall.
"I was given every opportunity to get it done here and I simply didn't win enough games - that is the bottom line,” Muschamp said in a press release at the time of his departure. “I'm disappointed that I didn't get it done and it is my responsibility to get it done.”
Where Muschamp saw failure, Auburn saw opportunity.
Malzahn hired Muschamp just 13 days after he was fired by the Gators, giving the Tigers a weapon on the field and on the recruiting trail.
Muschamp immediately went to work, and Auburn reaped the rewards on National Signing Day, as Auburn gained commitments from Byron Cowart and Jeff Holland, two defenders who were leaning toward Muschamp when he was at Florida.
Though the results have not been evident on the field yet, Malzahn believes good things are ahead with the defense under the direction of the man he considers “the best defensive mind in all of football.”
“He just has that presence around him that he gives all the coaches confidence,” Malzahn said at SEC Media Days this summer. “He gives his players confidence, and he’s got the ‘it’ factor. So we’re blessed to combine his defense with an offense that we’ve been running. We think the future’s very bright.”
If Muschamp’s past is any indication, better days are indeed ahead for the Auburn defense.
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