By Matt Smith
SouthernPigskin.com

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With a six-week head start on their competitors after Steve Spurriers abrupt departure, Ray Tanner and South Carolina made a mess of a seemingly advantageous situation by settling on Will Muschamp.

The coaching carousel spun nauseatingly fast over the past week, with the Power Five portion of the ride culminating (for now) Sunday. South Carolina named Auburn defensive coordinator and former Florida head coach Will Muschamp as its replacement for Steve Spurrier, who retired in October in the middle of his eleventh season in Columbia.

In Muschamp, South Carolina is getting an experienced head coach who is well-versed in the SEC, with the Gamecocks being Muschamps fifth different SEC school at which he has played or coached (Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU). Hes a relentless recruiter and a tireless worker.

South Carolina is also getting a coach who went just 28-21 in four seasons at Florida 3 one of the premier programs in college football. A defensive guy through thick and thin, Muschamps Gators teams had little trouble on that side of the ball, but a revolving door of both offensive coordinators and quarterbacks doomed his tenure in Gainesville.

You can blame injuries. You can blame some shaky recruiting at the end of the Urban Meyer tenure. But those are merely excuses. The bottom line is Muschamp failed at a place where its difficult to fail.

While Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner knows a thing or two about sports, as evident by his back-to-back national titles as the schools baseball coach, his first major coaching hire comes with an array of questions, including a lack of awareness of the history of those in similar situations to Muschamp.

Many coaches before Muschamp have failed at blueblood programs. Many of those got second chances elsewhere at lesser programs and showed why they were fired the first time.

Like Muschamp, Ron Zook bombed in Gainesville from 2002-2004, losing his job midway through his third season with Florida. While his stint at Illinois did result in a rare Rose Bowl trip in 2007, that was the only winning regular season Zook had in seven years in charge of the Illini.

Muschamps first offensive coordinator at Florida, Charlie Weis, left the Gators to become the Kansas head coach in 2012, three years removed from being fired at Notre Dame after going 3-9, 7-6 and 6-6 in his final three seasons with the Irish. Weis won just six of 28 games with the Jayhawks, and hasnt coached again since being fired midway through the 2014 season.

There are more. Weis predecessor at Notre Dame, Tyrone Willingham, was immediately hired at Washington following his axing in South Bend. Four years later, Willingham was gone after an 0-12 season with the Huskies. John Mackovic didnt work at Texas in the mid-’90s, and was later fired from Arizona in his third season after a player revolt.

If you cant win a race with a Ferrari, how are you going to do it with a jalopy?

Gerry DiNardo didnt work at LSU, so why did Indiana think he could help resurrect its lifeless football program? (DiNardo went 8-27 in three seasons with the Hoosiers). Larry Smith crashed and burned at USC in the early 890s, so how was he going to turn Missouri around? (Smith finished 33-46-1 in seven seasons with the Tigers).

Two comparable programs to South Carolina, Virginia Tech and Virginia, also made coaching hires in the past week. The Hokies landed Justin Fuente, who turned Memphis from one of the worst FBS programs into one that beat the second-best team in the SEC by two touchdowns earlier this season. The Cavaliers plucked Bronco Mendenhall from BYU, who has taken the Cougars to 11 straight bowl games.

South Carolinas new head coach lost 12 of his last 18 games at Florida 3 winners of three national championships and eight SEC titles in the past quarter-century.

Tanner knew since Oct. 12, college footballs Black Monday when Florida quarterback Will Grier was suspended for a year and Steve Sarkisian was fired by USC in addition to Spurriers retirement, that he had to make a coaching hire. South Carolina isnt an elite job, but its in the top half of the 66 jobs in the Power Five conferences plus BYU and Notre Dame.

The Georgia job coming open last week may have cost South Carolina Kirby Smart, as the Alabama defensive coordinator returned to his alma mater in Athens. Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez reportedly had an offer on the table over the weekend that he turned down. Muschamp might not have been Tanners first choice, but he shouldnt have been his fallback plan either.

The SEC East is as fluid as its ever been. The deans of the division, Kentuckys Mark Stoops and Tennessees Butch Jones, only just completed their third seasons. In addition to Georgia, Missouri also is going through a coaching transition. A quick turnaround is not only realistic, but it has been commonplace in the division throughout this decade.

Again, Muschamp has been here before. He took over Florida at a time when Tennessee was coached by Derek Dooley, Georgia was coming off of a 6-7 season, and Kentucky was free-falling after Rich Brooks retirement. Despite the state of the SEC East, Muschamp went just 17-15 in conference games.

With a six-week head start on their competitors after Spurriers abrupt departure, Tanner and South Carolina made a mess of a seemingly advantageous situation by settling on Muschamp. At least Tanner will likely get another chance to redeem himself with another coaching hire in a few years.