Texas' forethought gives Muschamp little reason to look too far ahead

AUSTIN, Texas -- There are worse coach-in-waiting situations around the country.

Yeah, like just about all of them.

Will Muschamp has Thorpe Award finalist Earl Thomas (12) at safety. (US Presswire)

From his office that overlooks Royal-Memorial Stadium, Will Muschamp doesn't see the future. It's filled with dollar signs, All-Americans and success. That much is assured as long as he stays at Texas. So why be distracted?

For now, Texas' defensive coordinator sees the next opponent on his video monitor.

"We're a year older," Muschamp said, a play frozen on his screen. "We love our athleticism."

That's Muschamp-speak for being absolutely giddy. The Texas defense has gone from question mark to perhaps the reason the Longhorns will win their second national championship in five seasons. It shot up from No. 51 nationally in total defense in 2008 to No. 5 this year.

A young secondary has grown up together. Defensive end/linebacker Sergio Kindle could become an All-American. Same for safety Earl Thomas. Converted running back Lamarr Houston has become a star at defensive tackle. They are led by a 38-year-old dervish who is known for salty language (caught on YouTube) and his attacking defenses.

"If it was up to Muschamp, we couldn't even walk to meetings," Kindle told reporters. "He would always run us to meetings if he could. That's his thing."

"They're fun to watch," Colt McCoy said of the unit he sees in practice. "You're on the edge of your seat when you're off the field. ... I won't see anything in a game I haven't seen before."

Heading into the Big 12 title game, there isn't a better setup in the country for a guy waiting in the wings. Oregon has already made the switch from Mike Bellotti to Chip Kelly with outstanding results. But Florida State is struggling with the transition of power from Bobby Bowden to Jimbo Fisher. There was a similar situation at Maryland, where Ralph Friedgen is returning, delaying the transfer of control to offensive coordinator/coach-in-waiting James Franklin.

Muschamp is making $900,000 per year, head coach money at a lot of places. If some school wants to raid Texas, there is no buyout in his contract.

It's a win-win in Austin. If Muschamp leaves, Texas will just go out and get the next best guy. It has for years, ranging from Greg Robinson to Gene Chizik to Duane Akina and Larry MacDuff to Muschamp. Mack Brown was tired of the revolving door so he proposed elevating Muschamp to "coach designate."

That at least gave Texas a better chance of keeping a top-shelf defensive coordinator in the fold. The flip side: There is no Brown departure on the horizon, so the threat of Muschamp leaving to become a head coach always exists.

Texas can live with that.

"Our situation has worked out perfect," Brown said. "Will's young and he and I had an understanding. He wanted to be defensive coordinator. We paid him like a head coach. ... Our lines of responsibility have not changed a bit. ... The agreement that Will and I have is, as long as I'm the coach and he has a question, he comes to the office to discuss things. The day that I step out it's his."

Muschamp is a Georgia guy with NFL and SEC roots. He won a national championship with Nick Saban in 2003 at LSU. Then Muschamp followed Saban to the Dolphins before returning to work for Tommy Tuberville at Auburn in 2006-2007. It's obvious that the next call he gets from a school isn't going to be as a coordinator.

Watch Texas and it looks a lot like Alabama which looks a lot like Nebraska. That's because the Muschamp-Saban-Bo Pelini triumvirate shares more than Christmas cards. When Muschamp and Saban were with the Dolphins, they tried to hire Pelini. Instead, Pelini left Oklahoma for LSU, where he won a national championship as defensive coordinator in 2007.

That makes for an interesting Big 12 title game, at least on defense. Texas is fourth nationally in third-down conversion defense. Nebraska is 11th. Texas has held nine opponents to less than 304 yards. Nebraska has the best defensive player in the country in Ndamukong Suh.

The difference is that Texas has a total team -- McCoy as a Heisman candidate and 11 non-offensive touchdowns.

"We went into the season, I told the defense the most important thing is to get Colt back on the field," Muschamp said. "Our players really bought into it. ... It's hard to put a 12-, 14-play drive together."

At this point last season, Texas was chasing -- chasing Oklahoma, the Big 12 South and the national championship. It never reached its goals because of a one-point loss to Texas Tech. Being the No. 1 unit in the Big 12 was relative. Texas was 51st nationally and 104th in pass defense.

"The defensive coaches over the spring and summer said, 'We're going to do something about this spread offense,'" Brown said. "That's why we've got to kind of reinvent ourselves."

This season's Texas defense is like the NHL. You have to see it in person to appreciate it. The back seven are backing in and out of blitzes right before the snap. The secondary is now experienced enough to play man-to-man, which is huge on third down when opposing teams spread out four- and five-wide.

Houston was moved from defensive end to tackle after playing running back and linebacker in high school.

"He wasn't too fired up about it," Muschamp said of the move to tackle. "The closer you move to the ball, the harder it is to play. The game is so much faster. We want our inside guys to eat blocks."

Houston has eaten enough to the point that Texas is No. 1 in run defense.

Thomas is the Lone Star version of Eric Berry, an All-American who has the ability to blitz or cover a No. 1 receiver. The Thorpe Award finalist is second nationally with eight interceptions.

In short, Muschamp has brought that SEC sensibility of defense to Austin.

"In this day and age," Muschamp said, "the [harassment] of the quarterback is something you gotta have in every game."

What, then, happened Thanksgiving night? The defense gave up 39 points to Texas A&M. Quarterback Jerrod Johnson guided an Aggies offense that put up 532 yards, the most allowed by Texas this season.

"Our defensive coaches were disappointed," Brown said. "They were over here Friday morning working on Nebraska and us to see exactly what happened. ... We probably felt too good about ourselves. We missed 13 tackles and had a lot of communication issues. We probably tried to do too much in a short week."

That leads us back to the monitor in Muschamp's office. He's glaring at it as he is asked to compare the talent he has now to the gold standard, SEC defenders. It's as close as he comes, even inadvertently, to referring to a possible national championship matchup with Florida or Alabama.

"I look at when I was in the SEC and I look at the players we have here," Muschamp said. "It [talent] matches up. Ain't any question."