Texas hired former Florida and South Carolina coach Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator on Thursday.
Coach Steve Sarkisian announced the staff shakeup after his team missed the College Football Playoff.
Muschamp was the defensive coordinator at Texas from 2008-2010 and was a defensive analyst at Georgia this season.
Sarkisian fired defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski after five seasons. Also dismissed was passing game defensive coordinator Duane Akina, a previous longtime Texas assistant who had been brought back on staff this year.
Texas started the season ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history with a defense that boasted three preseason All-Americans. But the Longhorns went 9-3 and missed the playoff for the first time in three years. In one late-season stretch, Texas surrendered at least 30 points in four consecutive games.
“We just felt it was best for our program to move in a different direction, and having the opportunity to hire Will Muschamp provides us the leadership to take our defense to another level,” Sarkisian said. “Will is a guy I’ve known for a long time, always admired and is as good of a defensive mind and coach as I’ve ever coached against. His defenses are relentless.”
Muschamp's previous stint with the Longhorns included Texas going undefeated in the 2009 regular season and winning the Big 12 before losing to Alabama in the national championship game.
Muschamp was under contract as the “head coach in waiting” under Mack Brown but bolted for the job at Florida after the 2010 season. He was with the Gators until 2014 and then was coach at South Carolina from 2016-2020.
He was co-defensive coordinator at Georgia from 2022-2023 before shifting into a defensive analyst role the past two seasons.
“We loved our time in Austin and truly enjoyed everything about working with Texas football. We’re thrilled to be coming back to a program with one of the richest and proudest histories and traditions in college football," Muschamp said.
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FILE - Georgia co-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp watches the field in the first half of an NCAA college football game against Vanderbilt, Oct. 14, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s handpicked board voted Thursday to rename Washington’s leading performing arts center as the Trump Kennedy Center, the White House said, in a move that made Democrats fume, saying the board had overstepped its legal authority.
Congress named the center after President John F. Kennedy in 1964, after his assassination. Donald A. Ritchie, who served as Senate historian from 2009-2015, said that because Congress had first named the center it would be up to Congress to “amend the law.”
Richie said that while Trump and others can “informally” refer to the center by a different name, they couldn’t do it in a way “that would (legally) stick.”
But the board did not wait for that debate to play out, immediately changing the branding on its website to reflect the new name.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that legislative action was needed, “and we’re going to make that clear.” The New York Democrat is an ex officio member of the board because of his position in Congress.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the vote on social media, attributing it to the “unbelievable work President Trump has done over the last year in saving the building. Not only from the standpoint of its reconstruction, but also financially, and its reputation.”
Trump, a Republican who's chairman of the board, said at the White House that he was “surprised" and “honored” by the vote.
“The board is a very distinguished board, most distinguished people in the country and I was surprised by it and I was honored by it,” he said.
Trump had already been referring to the center as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” Asked Dec. 7 as he walked the red carpet for the Kennedy Center Honors program whether he would rename the venue after himself, Trump said such a decision would be up to the board.
Earlier this month, Trump talked about a “big event" happening at the "Trump Kennedy Center” before saying, “excuse me, at the Kennedy Center,” as his audience laughed. He was referring to the FIFA World Cup soccer draw for 2026, in which he participated.
A name change won’t sit well with some Kennedy family members.
Maria Shriver, a niece of John F. Kennedy, referred to the legislation introduced in Congress to rebrand the Kennedy Center as the Donald J. Trump Center for the Performing Arts as “insane” in a social media post in July.
“It makes my blood boil. It’s so ridiculous, so petty, so small minded,” she wrote. “Truly, what is this about? It’s always about something. ‘Let’s get rid of the Rose Garden. Let’s rename the Kennedy Center.’ What’s next?”
Trump earlier this year turned the Kennedy-era Rose Garden at the White House into a patio by removing the lawn and laying down paving stones.
Another Kennedy family member, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., serves in Trump’s Cabinet as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump showed scant interest in the Kennedy Center during his first term as president, but since returning to office in January he has replaced board members appointed by Democratic presidents with some of his most ardent supporters, who then elected him as board chairman.
He also has criticized the center’s programming and its physical appearance and has vowed to overhaul both.
Trump secured more than $250 million from the Republican-controlled Congress for renovations of the building.
He attended opening night of the musical “Les Misérables,” and last week he served as host of the Kennedy Center Honors program after not attending the show during his first term as president. The awards program is scheduled to be broadcast by CBS and Paramount+ on Dec. 23.
Sales of subscription packages are said to have declined since Trump's takeover of the center, and several touring productions, including “Hamilton,” have canceled planned runs there. Rows upon rows of empty seats have been seen in the Concert Hall during performances by the National Symphony Orchestra.
Some performers, including actor Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens, have scrapped scheduled appearances, and Kennedy Center consultants including musician Ben Folds and singer Renée Fleming have resigned.
AP writer Hillel Italie contributed to this story from New York.
FILE - A memorial wreath stands next to the bronze memorial bust by Robert Berks of President John F. Kennedy in the grand foyer at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Nov. 22, 2013, on the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
FILE - The John F. Kennedy Center Memorial Center for the Performance Arts illuminated as part of the "Nordic Cool 2013: Northern Lights" exhibit, in Washington, Feb. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
The Kennedy Center is seen Thursday, Dec, 18, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
President Donald Trump finishes his remarks in an address to the nation from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
