Will Muschamp was asked about bringing DJ Durkin to Columbia. How he answered

Will Muschamp and DJ Durkin are friends and former coworkers, and South Carolina’s football coach has previously defended Durkin in the wake of disturbing allegations made against his program at Maryland.

But now Durkin has been fired from Maryland after an internal review in the wake of player Jordan McNair’s death concluded that Durkin presided over a culture where players were afraid to speak out about abuses by members of the coaching staff. And Muschamp, who, before the review was released, blasted anonymous sources criticizing Durkin as “gutless,” publicly declined to say whether or not he would hire Durkin on his staff at USC if there was an opening.

“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” Muschamp said in response to the question at his Tuesday press conference. “Yeah, he’s a very good friend, he’s been through a very difficult situation. It’s a tragic situation for everybody involved, stating with the McNair family and what they’ve been through. It’s just a tragic situation, I don’t know any other way to say it. But I don’t deal in hypotheticals.”

Muschamp’s initial comments defending Durkin, who was his assistant and then defensive coordinator at Florida for four years, came in August, after an ESPN report detailed allegations of a toxic culture at Maryland. They were criticized by some who felt Muschamp was discrediting the allegations without considering the fear of retribution the anonymous sources faced.

Shortly after that, Muschamp seemed to walk back his statement slightly, expressing sympathy for the family of McNair, who died of heat stroke in May during a team workout, and saying he was defending Durkin as a friend who had trouble believing the allegations of abuse.

The question of when or even if Durkin will coach again is still very much up in the air — Kansas athletic director Jeff Long quickly shot down rumors that his school discussed its coaching vacancy with him.

Of course, South Carolina does not have any openings at the moment that Durkin could fill — all of the Gamecocks’ defensive coaches have been with the program since 2016 or earlier — though Alabama head coach Nick Saban, Muschamp’s former boss, has helped several coaches looking to rebound from personal and professional setbacks by hiring them as analysts who can help game plan and break down film but can’t coach on the field or recruit.