Following an 11-win season in his second year as the head coach at the University of Florida, Will Muschamp was rewarded with an extension and a raise today from Jeremy Foley.
The raise will bring Muschamp’s annual salary near $3 million dollars per year. His contract now runs through 2017 and his salary was increased approximately $250,000 dollars per season.
Florida’s turnaround from a team that went 7-6 in Muschamp’s first year, to a team that won 11 games and went to BCS bowl in his second year, has fans excited about the Gators moving forward. Muschamp shares that excitement and expressed it last week in Hoover during SEC Media Days.
“We made some strides in our second season,” Muschamp said during his opening statement last week. “I think as you look back from year one to year two, obviously the record was better, which is good. But more than anything to me, the roster in our locker room is much better.”
Florida’s locker room wasn’t in good shape when Muschamp took over for Urban Meyer and that is something that Muschamp has really dealt with since he took over as the headman in December of 2010.
“From a discipline standpoint, from a character standpoint, from a buy‑in standpoint,” Muschamp said of his football team. “When you have eight come‑from‑behind wins in a season, that says a lot about where you are as a program and where your kids are as far as the buy‑in is concerned, which obviously excites me.”
With fall practice slated to begin in less than a week, Muschamp and the Gators will begin to prepare for the 2013 season and the coach is turning his focus to Florida’s schedule.
“[Our] Schedule is always hard,” Muschamp said.” We lead off with Toledo, who won nine games last year. Matt Campbell and his staff do a great job. Everybody back on offense. We go to Miami in week two. Al feels like this is his best football team. They have 20 starters back. Then we start our SEC schedule, which is difficult. “