Austin Crockett has elevated varsity linebackers coach Frank Muir to head coach, the school announced on Wednesday afternoon.

Muir is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania native who credits his father, a steelworker, and his grandfathers, both contract workers, for instilling in him a  blue-collar work ethic. He and his staff will need that hard-working mentality to rebuild Austin Crockett this offseason. 

Former head coach Darrick Norton stepped away on January 20 after six seasons at the helm. In 2022, Norton led the Cougars to their first winning season since 1997. Then, in 2023, Austin Crockett won just its second playoff game since the program began in 1968. But in the last two years, after current Texas Tech running back Cameron Dickey graduated, the Cougars have skidded to a 1-19 record.   

“I’ve always been good at working through adversity and understanding how to rebuild culture,” Muir said.

Muir has deep South Texas roots, making him a great fit at a school with a student body that is over 72 percent Hispanic. He began his high school coaching career at Brownsville Porter, then worked for Monty Stumbaugh at Port Isabel. After moving to central Texas, Muir worked on Wade Griffin’s defensive staff at Giddings High School, coaching on an 11-2 team in 2018. Before joining Austin Crockett, he coached at a Pflugerville Weiss-feeder middle school. 

But his tenure as the head coach and athletic director at Class 2A Santa Maria in the early 2010s was his biggest selling point in the interview process. When Muir assumed responsibilities in June 2011, Santa Maria was in the midst of a suspension for failing to finish the prior season and was facing a total rebuild.  

“I had to go through trials and tribulations to get the program back in the right direction, just to build numbers again. Right now, at Crockett, I feel we’re kind of in the same situation where we’re trying to regain player participation.” 

Muir plans to increase participation by re-energizing the offseason program. If the ovation he received when he was announced to the team is any indication, Muir is off to a good start. 

“The biggest thing for me is to make sure it’s fun,” Muir said. “Football is fun. The weight room and conditioning are not punishments. This is just preparation. We’re trying to get the kids to understand that everything that we do is for a reason.”

But Muir knows that it’s more fun to win, which is why he’s redefining what winning means at Austin Crockett. If the team can stack wins in March and April, they’ll do the same in October and November.

“We have great kids,” Muir said. “I think they’ve just got to get a little taste of winning. We celebrate the small wins in the classroom and weight room until the season starts. I’m just fired up and ready to go.”