Report reveals details of Will Muschamp's South Carolina buyout settlement
Will Muschamp had a rough 2020 losing his job as South Carolina head coach, but he was paid handsomely before ringing in the New Year.
Multiple reporters, including Greg Hadley of The State, have obtained records detailing Muschamp’s buyout settlement with South Carolina. Hadley reports that the documents show that Muschamp and South Carolina negotiated a $12.9 million buyout on Dec. 30. The settlement dictated that Muschamp received the buyout via a lump sum payment no later than Dec. 31, 2020.
While the $12.9 million payment to Muschamp might be hard to swallow for Gamecocks fans, the settlement did save the program more than $2 million. Muschamp was on contract to make $15.3 million through the 2024 season.
Muschamp arrived at South Carolina in 2016 from Auburn, where he was the defensive coordinator in 2015 after being fired from Florida as head coach. During Muschamp’s tenure, the Gamecocks went 28-30, including a 6-13 mark in his last one-plus seasons (2019 and ’20). Muschamp was fired on Nov. 15, 2020, when South Carolina was 2-5 with three games remaining on the Gamecocks’ schedule.
South Carolina’s best season under Muschamp was in 2017 when the Gamecocks went 9-4, including a victory in the Outback Bowl, the only postseason win in Muschamp’s tenure.
South Carolina hired Shane Beamer as the new head football coach on Dec. 6, 2020.
Can we finally close the chapter on this nightmare?
Gonna be a few years before the team fully recovers from getting BOOM’D
I feel your pain.
It will take a couple of seasons to get the depth that we really need. The cupboard isn’t bare there are some quality skilled players on the roster. All the muttchump cultists are gone thats the most important thing the cancer can’t spread.
Cola…muttchump cultists…that’s a good one. This COVID year gave them their freedom to exit fast. The cupboard’s bare but Shane Beamer will be sending his staff out to beat the bushes. Upward & Onward for the Cocks !
This year the only good things to come out of 2020 was finally beating auburn, ridding ourselves of muttchump and the removing the cancers in the locker room.
See… I told you guys that you needed to keep Muschamp at least another couple of seasons. If you would have listened to me think how much buyout money you guys would be saving.
Based on your comment I don’t even think you listen to yourself.
Yes, it was a joke. SC should and can field a better team than what Muschamp produced. He might be a good DC, but it looks like he wasn’t the right choice for head coach. I hope the SC fans will give the new coach at least a couple of years to get everything in place before they start to complain about him (yes, I know a few will complain for day one). I do think the administration at SC gave Muschamp a too long, but that is just my take looking in from the outside. At UK it took Stoops 4 years before he really had the team headed in the right direction.
Stoops develops players he doesn’t get top recruits but knows how to get them better and compete.
AlltheSEC, I agree. CSB will have a lot of support and we know it will take some time for him to get his feet under the program. He’s the kind of coach you really hope does well. My hat’s off to CMS for what he’s done with the Kentucky program.
Gamecocks can be relieved that $4.6M of that will go to our federal government in taxes instead of Muschamp’s wallet.
That helps a bit, right?
I don’t hate Muschamp. He kept the team out of NCAA trouble and players had very few off-field issues, if any. He did recruit pretty well and possibly left more than Spurrier did in the cupboard. $13 mil is a lot but it could have been worse. (Tennessee fans, I’m praying for you guys) This is actually the first time South Carolina has had to pay a large buyout where some other schools are on their second or even third buyout. I’m not saying Muschamp was a good Head coach for development of players and team concept or riding for the brand.
Please don’t compare Muschamp to Spurrier. Muschamp couldn’t win…even his best year was a second tier bowl game against Michigan which dominated the game and was up 19-3 at one point before a miraculous second half eked out the win for SC. If the bar is so low as to just keep kids out of trouble, why not hire a probation officer? Muschamp simply cannot coach players up. He will never be a successful head coach at the P5 level.
will’s still getting millions in buyout money from florida—he’s a money machine!!! Bad coaching = millions for failure!!!
Rooster…You’ve got to give Will the award for the fired head coach with the fewest wins who gets the biggest buyouts. Anyone blaming Ray Tanner for that one ?
Hiring a coach at any program is really a crap shoot. It would have been a real dumpster fire to change an AD and head football coach at the same time. I like the Beamer hire. I will give Coach Tanner the benefit of the doubt right now. At least he acted on the fact we needed a new Head Coach and didn’t draw it out another year.