The Texas Longhorns announced changes to their defensive staff on Thursday with defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski and defensive passing game coordinator Duane Akina not being retained. Additionally, the Horns will add Will Muschamp as defensive coordinator to replace Kwiatkowski. 

“We appreciate all that Pete Kwiatkowski has done for the program in his five years coordinating our defense and are grateful for Duane Akina’s efforts in returning to the program this past year,” said head coach Steve Sarkisian in a press release. “They are both tremendous coaches and people that worked extremely hard for Texas Football and the players they coached. We have had a great deal of success, are thankful for the roles they played in that, and wish them the best.”

Muschamp returns to the Forty Acres as DC for the second time in his career. He led the Texas defense from 2008-10, helping the program play in the BCS National Championship Game during the 2009 season. 

In Muschamp’s time at Texas, the Longhorn defense ranked No. 1 in the nation with 119 sacks and ranked in the top 10 nationally allowing 2.9 yards per rushing attempt (third), 96.7 rushing yards per game (fourth) and 297.4 yards per game (seventh), all Big 12 bests during that span. Along with a BCS National Championship Game appearance in 2009, the Longhorns also won the Big 12 Championship. In the 2009-11 NFL Drafts, Muschamp had a combined 12 players drafted with 10 in the first four rounds, the press release said. 

“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 continued. “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; he absolutely gets the best out of his staff and players and is such an extremely well-respected coach. I know Longhorn Nation knows him well, he led some incredible defenses here on the Forty, and I’m so fired up to be bringing him back to Texas. He’ll be an awesome addition to our staff.”

Muschamp left Texas to become the head coach at Florida ahead of the 2011 season. He was 28-21 with the Gators before stepping down at the conclusion of the 2014 season. He was the defensive coordinator at Auburn in 2015 before he landed another head coaching job, this time at South Carolina where he remained until the end of 2020. He’s spent the last five seasons on staff at Georgia and was a defensive analyst in 2024 and 2025. 

Texas finished the 2025 regular season with a 9-3 record and was left out of the College Football Playoffs despite beating two teams – Oklahoma and Texas A&M – that qualified. The Horns allowed 19.8 points per game in 2025, which ranked 23rd in the FBS. The unit was third in scoring defense a year ago.