Caslen gives first public comments on Muschamp situation
South Carolina school president Robert Caslen has spoken publicly for the first time about the situation surrounding Will Muschamp and the Gamecocks football program.
Speaking to the Greenville News, the former superintendent of West Point didn’t rule out change even in the face of a large buyout. He took a down-the-middle approach, looking toward the end of the season for any decisions.
“Coach Muschamp is my coach. That’s the message. He will be my coach through the end of the season,” Caslen said. “And then, just like any other coach that’s out there, whether it’s a soccer coach, whether it’s the equestrian coach, whatever, they’re going to do an end-of-year assessment, the athletic director does. Then, we’ll see what’s up.”
Letting Muschamp go would involve a buyout that could be up to $19 million.
Caslen did note that investment in letting a coach go is a large one.
“If I wanted to do that — I’m not saying I would — but where am I going to come up with $18 million?” Caslen asked. “There’s so much more, as the president of a university, I could do with $18 million than to buy out a coach’s contract.
“I could build a parking garage, or I could revamp the stadium. There are so many more things you could do. So, why would I do that?”
At West Point, Caslen oversaw the revitalization of an Army program that had fallen on hard times.
Five months into his tenure, the school fired Rich Ellerson, who went 20-41 in five seasons, 8-28 in the final three. He was the sixth consecutive Army coach to win fewer than 45 percent of his games.
The school hired Jeff Monken, a member of Paul Johnson’s coaching tree. The Black Knights won only six games in his first two years, but then won 29 across the next three, including three in a row against Navy, which snapped a 14-game skid.
Caslen had been vocal at the time about making that Navy game the highest priority and success flowing from there. He had played for Army in the early 1970s for Thomas Cahill and Homer Smith.
Muschamp is 26-23 across nearly four years at South Carolina. His team will need a pair of upsets in the next two games to avoid the first bowl-less season of his tenure.
Read the full Greenville News story here.
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 10:53 AM.
