After his comments following the DJ Durkin Saga going on at Maryland.

📷South Carolina coach Will Muschamp at SEC Media Day in July.

Will Muschamp IS part of college football’s problem

18 hours agoBy

• Michael Cunningham, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Maryland football player Jordan McNair died in June, two weeks after he collapsed during an outdoor workout. ESPN reported on Friday that McNair died of heatstroke after showing signs of “extreme exhaustion” during the workout. ESPN also described a “toxic coaching culture” at Maryland under D.J. Durkin that included “extreme verbal abuse” and other tactics meant to humiliate and embarrass players. 

In response to the report, Maryland placed Durkin on administrative leave and opened an investigation into the program. The response from South Carolina coach Will Muschamp, Durkin’s old boss at Florida, was to . . . attack ESPN’s anonymous sources and players who complain about toxic environments. 

Muschamp, the former Georgia safety, was asked Saturday how he prevents tough coaching from leading to “the situation alleged at Maryland.” Muschamp initially provided a sensible answer (“criticize the performance, not the performer”) before immediately launching into a defense of Durkin that called into question whether Muschamp actually believes his sensible answer. 

Muschamp expressed not even cursory concern about the player who collapsed during a football workout. He did not elaborate on his statement by, say, explaining why belittling players isn’t an effective way to coach them. Instead, what’s not right in Muschamp’s view is that his guy Durkin is facing questions about how he runs his program because anonymous sources made allegations after a player died on Durkin’s watch. 

(Muschamp’s carping about anonymous sources inevitably brought out journalists on Twitter to say they’ve used Muschamp as an anonymous source.) 

It should go without saying that the sources request anonymity for stories like this one because they fear reprisal. Blowing the whistle on wrongdoing can threaten their livelihoods. After listening to Muschamp’s comments, you can see why it’s reasonable for people who work in college football to worry about retaliation if they expose wrongdoing. 

“He is an outstanding football coach, he’s also an outstanding husband and a father and he treats people with respect. There is no credibility in anonymous sources. If that former staffer had any guts, why didn’t he put his name on that? I think that’s gutless. In any business, in any company, and in any football team, especially right here in August, you can find a disgruntled player that’s probably not playing. I think it’s a lack of journalistic integrity to print things with anonymous sources. But I know D.J. Durkin personally. I know what kind of man he is and what kind of person he is. I talked to him this morning. I don’t think it’s right.” 

to Muschamp’s comments, you can see why it’s reasonable for people who work in college football to worry about retaliation if they expose wrongdoing. 

https://www.ajc.com/sports/college-football/will-muschamp-part-the-problem/nv0bKARQrZ7b5Q65oaUnYL/