Glenn Schumann, Will Muschamp comfortable as co-coordinators

The old saying is, “If you have two quarterbacks, you actually have none,” which begs the question, does that rule of thumb apply to coordinators too? Glenn Schumann and Will Muschamp, listed as co-defensive coordinators for Georgia this coming season, certainly don’t think so. In fact, the duo is quite comfortable sharing the title and working together.

“When you’re here, year 1 or year 7, a lot of the stuff on a day-to-day basis, you really do cooperatively,” Schumann said on Tuesday when both he and Muschamp met with the media. “Obviously, there are roles within the staff. When you set out to have a staff, whether it be a full staff, a defensive staff, support staff, you want people to compliment each other. You can’t have one person do everything. You have to share responsibility. Titles and people, things of that nature change,” he continued. “What remains the same is when we go into that room, whether it be as a full staff or a defensive staff, we’re working towards getting on the same page and figuring out what is best for the team. The majority of what we do is cooperative on a day-to-day basis.”

“As far as Will, since he’s been here last year and obviously moving into this year, he brings a wealth of experience,” Schumann continued. “He’s a great staff guy.  Really enjoy working with not just him but our whole defensive staff in general. As much as we ever have. He brings a sense of camaraderie, professionalism, experience. He’s a great sounding board for ideas. For as much success he has had in his career, he’s extremely humble at the same time. I think humility shows a lot about who a person is.”

Muschamp agreed. And the two are coming at the position from alternate trajectories. One – Schumann – is continuing to work his way up from graduate assistant to support staffer, inside linebackers coach to defensive coordinator. Meanwhile, Muschamp is on the come down having been a head coach at two other SEC schools before landing back at his alma mater on staff with a friend and former teammate of his, Kirby Smart.

“I knew of Glenn, but I didn’t really know Glenn until last year,” Muschamp said. “Had a wonderful working experience with he and Dan and Tray Scott and obviously Coach Smart is on the defensive side of the ball a lot, but we had a really good rapport as far as what we needed to do to be successful, and nothing’s going to change with that. We have a great working relationship … I’ve really enjoyed working with Glenn because of the football intelligence he has and the passion he brings to the job every single day. Those things are really important because the players see that, and they understand how invested he is in them.”

“Glenn’s promotion, in my opinion, is very well deserved,” Muschamp added. “He’s an outstanding football coach, he’s extremely bright, he has a great rapport with his players, and if you look at it, Coach Smart’s going into his seventh season here at Georgia. The two longest tenured coaches are Glenn and Dell McGee, and you really look over those seven years, the consistency of their position group is probably the best that’s been here in those seven years. His position’s been very productive, he’s recruited extremely well at his position, he’s just an outstanding football coach. He has a very good understanding of what we do defensively, how we adjust things out, and he’s always looking for a better way to do it and always researching those things and what we can do to get better in those situations.”

Schumann has been on staff with Smart since he came to Georgia. The two worked together at Alabama – Schumann as a graduate assistant and Smart as the defensive coordinator – before making the move to Athens. Meanwhile, Muschamp and Smart crossed paths in coaching at Valdosta State and LSU where both times Muschamp was the defensive coordinator and Smart was coaching defensive backs. Now, the three make up a group that’ll work together as Georgia looks to replace lost production on defense.