Earlier this week, I was in Austin when Texas named defensive football coordinator Will Muschamp as its head coach-in-waiting. He'll take over when current head coach Mack Brown decides to retire. In a culture where attractive assistant coaches frequently get wooed to head coaching vacancies, schools locking down their future head coaches might become a trend in college sports.
Texas isn't the first school to do this. We saw it at Florida State, where Jimbo Fisher was named as Bobby Bowden's successor. Last year, Arizona name Kevin O'Neill to succeed basketball ball coach Lute Olson. The situation didn't go as smoothly as the school hoped, as neither Olson or O'Neill still remain at the school.
Despite Arizona's situation, naming a head coach in-waiting seems to be a smart practice for athletics departments. Certain criteria should be met - a school is confident it has its future head coach on staff, the current coach is getting near retirement age, the coach-in-waiting is willing to wait and remain loyal to the program, and the school has the financial resources to pay the soon-to-be head coach.
In Texas' case, all of these circumstances were met. Athletics Director DeLoss Dodds is confident he has his future leader in the young and fiery Muschamp. Additionally, the school has the resources to reward Muschamp - his salary will increase to $900,000 beginning in January, making him the highest paid assistant coach in the country.
There's no doubt Muschamp now has remarkable job security, especially in an industry when coaches seem to continually play musical chairs. When Brown retires, Muschamp will get a new five-year contract for an undisclosed amount. With this deal, Texas is committing to Muschamp in an unprecedented fashion, especially considering he has no previous head coaching experience.
An argument could be made that naming a head coach-in-waiting is a risky gamble. It's easy to reward coaches while times are good, like they are currently in Austin. But what will happen if and when the school has a down year?
Remember when Notre Dame gave Charlie Weis a 10-year extension during his first season in 2005? After a couple of recent mediocre seasons, many Irish supporters are beginning to question his contract extension.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Texas' situation. How much longer will Brown decide to coach? Could Muschamp still be enticed by another job offer during his coach-elect status? Is it possible Texas might change its mind on Muschamp?
It will be fascinating to see how these issues play out over the next several years. Texas certainly won't be the last school to name a head coach-in-waiting, and it will be interesting to see how widespread a trend this will become in intercollegiate athletics.
One thing is for sure, it was an intriguing time to be at Texas last week when this announcement was made.
