Kirby Smart turning to coaching vet Will Muschamp and fast-riser Glenn Schumann for UGA DC

A veteran coach and an up-and-coming defensive assistant will become Georgia football's co-defensive coordinators, coach Kirby Smart said in a statement Saturday night, with Dan Lanning becoming Oregon’s head coach.

Will Muschamp, the 50-year old former Florida and South Carolina head coach, and Glenn Schumann, 31, will step into the coordinator role jointly to replace Lanning after this season ends.

“While he will coach with us for the upcoming College Football Playoff, we will move forward with Glenn Schumann and Will Muschamp as co-defensive coordinators,” Smart said. “Dan and I are both looking forward to preparing for the CFP.”

Muschamp is a former Georgia teammate with Smart. They both played safety and later coached together at Valdosta State and LSU and they are good friends. Muschamp is 55-51 as a head coach.

This will be Muschamp’s third different school as coordinator in the SEC after holding that position at LSU (2002-04) and Auburn (2006-07, 2015). LSU in 2003 led the nation in scoring defense (11.0 ppg) and total defense (252.0 ypg). He also was defensive coordinator at Texas (2008-10) where his defenses led the nation with 119 sacks and ranked third in the nation allowing 2.9 yards per rushing attempt.

Schumann was an original staff member of Smart at Georgia, coming over in 2016 from Alabama where he started as an undergraduate analyst and moved up to grad assistant and director of player development and associate director of player personnel.

He’s coached the inside linebackers for all six of his Georgia seasons including two Butkus Award winners: Roquan Smith in 2017 and Nakobe Dean in 2021.

“Glenn has done a tremendous job developing young linebackers and growing those guys so they can go on to be NFL players,” Smart said on Nov. 1. “I think when guys make decisions on where they want to go to school they want to see what you’ve done in terms of teaching, developing, growing players. We’ve been really fortunate, inside backer and outside backer, to put a lot of guys at the next level.” 

More:Tom Crean’s family connection will intersect in Orange Bowl with the school where he works

Schumann already had the title of co-defensive coordinator but Lanning called the defensive plays and was the defensive coordinator.

Lanning, of course, could turn to Georgia's staff for assistant coaches at Oregon, but Smart has laid out a plan beyond Jan. 10 when this season ends with the national championship game.

Muschamp joined the staff last winter as a senior defensive analyst but moved into an on-field coaching role before the season when special teams coordinator Scott Cochran took a leave to deal with medical issues. Muschamp stayed in that coaching role when Cochran rejoined the program in October and worked on the support staff.

“I think the players respect him, the job he’s done and so far I’ve been really excited about it,” Smart said of Muschamp in August. “It almost reinvigorated because there’s a new voice and a lot of people are up there talking. They’re hearing different voices every day and the players are really competing.”

Lanning leaving for Oregon opens an on-field position if Smart wanted to move Cochran back to an on-field role.

Smart, who made a name for himself as an assistant as defensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008-15, still has a big influence of the Georgia defense.

The combination of Smart and continuity with Muschamp and Schumann could help keep together a recruiting class ranked No. 2 in the 247Sports Composite with its top five prospects all expected to play defense at Georgia.

“Georgia is still home!” four-star cornerback commitment Julian Humphrey from Texas tweeted Saturday night.