GAINESVILLE - Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp has been hired as the new head football coach at the University of Florida.  Florida announced Saturday night that the Texas defensive coordinator has been hired to replace Urban Meyer as the Gators' new head coach.  Florida athletics director Jeremy Foley said Muschamp was the only person offered the job and the person targeted to replace Meyer, who surprisingly quit of Wednesday.  Earlier in the day, there was a report Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops was finalizing a deal with the Gators. Stoops denied the rumor.  Muschamp, 39, comes to Florida after being the coach-in-waiting at Texas since November 2008 and is a Gainesville native.  Muschamp, a 16-year coaching veteran, has 12 years of experience in the Southeastern Conference, eight as a coach and four as a player. Muschamp served as defensive coordinator at Auburn University (2006-07) and LSU (2002-04; he was LSU's linebackers coach in 2001) and was a finalist for the 2007 Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant coach.  Muschamp is the son of a football coach, he turned down appointments at West Point and Annapolis to attend Georgia, where he lettered as a safety from 1991-94 and was voted defensive co-captain as a senior.  "This is a dream come true to be the head coach of the Florida Gators," said Muschamp, who spent 10 years of his childhood in Gainesville. "I grew up watching the Gators and whatever other SEC team was on television. I have great memories watching SEC football with my father on Saturdays and playing football in the backyard with my two brothers right here in Gainesville."  He has coached in two national championship games as defensive coordinator at Texas (last January's loss to Alabama) and in 2003 while at LSU.  "We are thrilled to have Coach Muschamp lead our football program,'' Foley said. "Coach Muschamp is someone we targeted from the beginning and he is the guy we wanted. ... When we started the search for our next head coach we wanted a coach who was familiar with the Southeastern Conference. We wanted a candidate who was a relentless recruiter and was familiar with recruiting in the state of Florida. We wanted a candidate who was high energy and had been on the big stage. We wanted a candidate who was respected by his players and his peers and we wanted someone who had a passion for the University of Florida. Coach Muschamp is all of those things and more. He is a grounded family man with a wonderful wife and two children and we welcome them into our Gator family.''  In his five seasons as an SEC defensive coordinator, Muschamp's defenses ranked among the nation's top 10 in total defense every year, while always maintaining a top-15 rating in scoring defense, including three times inside the top 10.  Longhorns coach Mack Brown said of losing Muschamp: "We were planning and hoping Will was going to be the next head coach at Texas, but obviously things didn't work out that way. We respect his decision and we are really happy for Will and (his wife) Carol. He is a great coach and will be a good fit for Florida. It's close to home for him and he knows the league well.''  -- David Jones, Florida Today  See photos of: Urban Meyer, University of Florida  To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor  . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to  . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to
Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp is new Florida coach - Campus Rivalry: College Football & Basketball News, Recruiting, Game Picks, and More - USATODAY.com