Texas fires DC Pete Kwiatkowski, brings back Will Muschamp - ESPN

The Texas Longhorns are bringing back Will Muschamp to replace defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski, who was fired along with defensive passing game coordinator Duane Akina on Thursday.

Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian announced he wasn't bringing back Kwiatkowski, who had served as his defensive coordinator since 2021, and Akina in a major shakeup for a unit that didn't meet expectations during a 9-3 season in which the preseason No. 1 failed to make the College Football Playoff.

Sarkisian is now turning to Muschamp, who returns to Austin after serving as Texas' defensive coordinator from 2008 to 2010 and was once the program's head coach in waiting under Mack Brown.

«Having the opportunity to hire Will Muschamp provides us the leadership to take our defense to another level,» Sarkisian said in a statement. «Will is a guy I've known for a long time, always admired and is as good of a defensive mind and coach as I've ever coached against. His defenses are relentless; he absolutely gets the best out of his staff and players and is such an extremely well-respected coach.

»I know Longhorn Nation knows him well. He led some incredible defenses here on the Forty, and I'm so fired up to be bringing him back to Texas. He'll be an awesome addition to our staff."

In his previous stint at Texas, Muschamp helped the Longhorns get to the BCS national championship game in 2009 with a unit that ranked No. 1 against the run, third-down defense and takeaways. He was set to someday succeed Brown, but he instead departed after a 5-7 season in 2010 to become the head coach at Florida, succeeding Urban Meyer.

Muschamp went 56-51 as a head coach at Florida and South Carolina. He joined Kirby Smart's staff at Georgia in 2021 and served as