Tennessee football got significant news regarding its 2026 schedule on Thursday. Texas, which the Vols will open up SEC play against, fired defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski and secondary coach Duane Akina and replaced the pair with Will Muschamp, according to Pete Thamel.
Tennessee and the Longhorns will meet inside Neyland Stadium on Sept. 26. The kickoff time and TV designation are yet to be determined. The other notable news around the game is that quarterback Arch Manning officially decided he was returning to Texas for his senior season.
Muschamp joins the Longhorns after time on Kirby Smart’s Georgia staff. He was the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach from 2022-23, but stepped into an analyst role in 2024-25 due to wanting to spend more time with his family.
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Muschamp was a player at Georgia from 1991-94. He started his career as a graduate assistant at Auburn before coaching defensive backs at West Georgia and Eastern Kentucky. He earned his first defensive coordinator job in 2000 at Valdosta State.
In 2001, Muschamp jumped to LSU as linebackers coach before being promoted to defensive coordinator from 2002-04. After winning a national title with Nick Saban, he followed him to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins for one season. In 2006, he’d return to Auburn as a defensive coordinator before beginning his first stint with Texas as the defensive coordinator in 2008.
In 2011, he earned the Florida head coaching job. He led the Gators to an 11-2 record and Sugar Bowl loss in his second year, but he stepped down following 4-8 and 6-5 years under his watch.
Muschamp returned to Auburn for one season before taking over South Carolina in 2016. He stayed there through 2020, when he was fired after a 2-5 start to the Covid-altered season.
He joined Georgia in 2021 as the special teams coordinator and stayed in different roles until this recent move, winning a pair of national titles in Athens.
