ATHENS, Ga. — While quarterback Jackson Muschamp may not be familiar to Georgia Bulldogs fans, his father sure is. Will Muschamp played for the Dawgs and then coached arch-rival Florida. He now coaches South Carolina. Yet his son Jackson will suit up for the Bulldogs in Athens next year.
The younger Muschamp committed to a preferred walk-on spot with Georgia on Tuesday night.
“Originally I was committed to Colorado State and I had no doubt that I was going there, but when I came back I realized it was a little too far from home,” Jackson Muschamp told UGAsports. “And it had nothing to do with the coaching staff or the people out there, it’s a special place and special people. And the reason I didn’t want to announce on Twitter that I had de-committed was that I didn’t want a great place like Colorado State to get negative attention because of a mistake that I made. But Georgia offered me a preferred walk-on spot a long time ago and they kind of recruited me like that for a little while. When I got back it kind of blew all the smoke away and I knew that Georgia was the place for me to go. And I’m super excited to walk on with the team.”
So what was his famous father’s reaction? Pride that his son was attending his alma mater or disappointment that his boy might line up against the team he’s coaching?
“I mean he was super happy for me; he was going to let me do whatever I wanted to do,” Muschamp said. “My whole family there was just super happy for me and I’m really excited about the opportunity, and I’m going to go in there and just try to work hard and do what I’m asked to do.”
Of course, that begs the question as to why Jackson didn’t just play for his father.
“We just kind of decided a while ago that I kind of wanted to blaze my own trail, and I always loved Georgia,” Muschamp said. “I knew it was a great place to be, and I’m just really excited to go there. And he was just happy for me regardless of what it was. I just kind of want to do my own thing. Not that it would have been a bad thing if I had walked on at South Carolina but I just love the University of Georgia. I felt like it would be more beneficial to me if I were to go there, not go somewhere where he was a coach, so I’m really excited about it.”
Initial thoughts were that Jackson may have de-committed from Colorado State when Mike Bobo, a long time family friend and now the offensive coordinator at South Carolina, left CSU. That was not the case.
“Actually I was offered when Coach [Steve] Addazio was there,” Muschamp said. “Coach Addazio has been the greatest person, the greatest coach, and he offered me when he got there. So I committed to them under that staff but the reason I didn’t want to make it a big deal is I didn’t want the perception to be I got flipped to Georgia or any of that. That’s not what happened. I came home and I realized how far it is and how big a commitment it was.”
Muschamp told the Georgia coaches on Monday that he wanted to be a Bulldog.
“I told Colorado State on Monday that I wasn’t coming, which is the day after I committed there, which was a mistake, and it was all on me,” Muschamp said. “So first of all I wanted to make sure I still had a spot at Georgia because I knew that was the place I wanted to be. The coaches are really supportive of me and so they wanted me to go there to come to Georgia so I was excited about it.”
Excitement aside, Muschamp will enter a quarterback room at Georgia that has four scholarship players and at least two other walk-on QBs.
“Obviously I’m going to have to go in and compete, but I also understand that I’m in a situation where I’m going to have to go in and help the team in any way possible, and I feel like I’m willing to do that.”
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