Whit Muschamp was in the sixth grade when his head coach at Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tenn., Erik Kimrey, saw him throw a football for the first time.
Kimrey at that point was the head coach at Hammond School in Columbia, S.C., where Whit started his high school career while his father, Will, served as South Carolina’s head coach.
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It took just three throws for the younger Muschamp to grab Kimrey’s attention.
“You can tell,” Kimrey said this week. “(The ball) just comes out of his hand a little different than most people.”
That’s why Kimrey wasn’t surprised in recent months when Muschamp, a three-star prospect coming off his junior season, started to collect Division I offers.
Eastern Kentucky came first in April, followed by several other Group of 5 programs. Then came Missouri, Louisville, Ole Miss, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt and Virginia — all since October as Muschamp threw for 3,000-plus yards and 29 touchdowns en route to a Baylor School state championship.
Now, Muschamp is headed to Vanderbilt.
On Saturday, Whit announced via an understated social media graphic that he had committed to coach Clark Lea and the Commodores — Vanderbilt’s third commit (and second quarterback) in the class. College football is always changing, but if his father is still in the SEC in 2024 as Georgia’s co-defensive coordinator, the sport’s premier league will soon have Muschamps at two different schools.
Committed!! Anchor Down ⚓️⬇️ @coachjoeylynch @Coach_Lea @ErikKimrey pic.twitter.com/7tizGyelW8
— whit (@whit7muschamp) March 11, 2023
“Who knows what the future holds?” Kimrey said laughing. “But I’m sure if it ever came to that, that both of them would handle it incredibly well.”
Muschamp, the nation’s No. 756 prospect and No. 52 quarterback in the 247Sports Composite, said last month at Under Armour’s Atlanta-area camp that he didn’t feel like schools treated him any differently because of his father’s status.
Instead, Will Muschamp played the role of dad, Whit said. And thanks to Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s offering Will some flexibility with his schedule this offseason, the elder Muschamp was able to tag along with his son to most of Whit’s visits, including to Virginia, Cincinnati and Vanderbilt.
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Whit, of course, did enjoy one obvious perk, though, thanks to his dad’s job:
“You kind of know what’s real from fake for sure,” he said — a nod to his father’s expertise when it comes to the recruiting process. “It’s been fun.”
Whit said Will Muschamp’s favorite part of the recruiting process was his desire to leave the decision entirely up to his son. He enjoyed learning about what Whit liked — and didn’t like — and told coaches that they need not worry about impressing him.
“It’s all about impressing me. Not him,” Whit said. “So that’s a big thing.”
And Vanderbilt did just that.
Kimrey said he had a feeling Vanderbilt would be the early front-runner for Whit after Lea offered Muschamp on a visit to Baylor School in January. In addition to Vanderbilt’s strong academics, Lea knows how to recruit at the highest level, having coached at Notre Dame before taking the job at his alma mater in December 2020.
Baylor School must have had 50 programs come through its doors in January, Kimrey said. And yet Lea still managed to make a memorable impression.
“He certainly carries himself well. You can tell he’s very thoughtful and deliberate, but very open and courteous,” said Kimrey, who played quarterback at South Carolina from 1998 through 2002. “I just couldn’t be more impressed with him and could tell, that in my opinion, the future at Vanderbilt was very bright with him at the helm.”
The Commodores already have another quarterback committed in the Class of 2024, three-star prospect Jeremy St-Hilaire of McCallie School, also in Chattanooga. It stands to reason the starting job belongs to rising sophomore and budding star AJ Swann for the next several seasons. Vanderbilt did not sign any quarterbacks in the Class of 2023 after signing three in the Class of 2022.
But Muschamp isn’t afraid of competing.
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“They’re getting an extremely good quarterback, one whose accuracy is elite — particularly under duress,” Kimrey said. “He can extend plays with his athleticism. He’s got great … intuition. You can tell that he’s grown up on a sideline.
“The best thing I can do is get out of his way for the most part. But he’s a very savvy quarterback who’s a very competitive young man, and I think Vanderbilt’s getting a good one.”
Kimrey said he can remember a particular drive against McCallie in September when Muschamp flashed his ability to improvise in the pocket. In the third quarter, one of Muschamp’s teammates missed the play call and allowed a defensive end to come flying free off the edge.
“Whit just made him miss and stumbled a little bit, but put his hand down and kept his balance and made an off-balance throw down our sideline to (four-star tight end) Max LeBlanc at about the 2-yard line that was just incredible,” Kimrey said. “Time and time again, (he is) just standing in there and taking hits and delivering the ball accurately down the field.”
Then there was the state championship game against Montgomery Bell Academy of Nashville, Tenn. Baylor faced a third-and-8 and Kimrey put in a specific call based on what he thought the defense was showing. There was just one problem:
“They weren’t in it,” he said.
When Muschamp quickly noticed what was happening, he rolled out of the pocket and scrambled for the first down to keep the drive alive.
“That (drive) ultimately was one that we took the lead in,” said Kimrey, who coached the Red Raiders to their first state championship since 1973 that night. “So he makes me look good when I call bad plays.”
At the Under Armour camp last month, Muschamp had not yet made his decision but said he was looking for a place where he was wanted. The Commodores certainly made that clear for the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder who can now spend his senior year helping Vanderbilt recruit other prospects.
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He kept a low profile during the recruiting process and never told fellow recruits on visits that his father is a well-known coach. Perhaps now he can let loose a little.
“Just good people,” Whit said, asked what he was looking for in a school. “Somewhere I can go and compete — compete early. And somewhere I can win.”
(Photo: Al Raynor / For The Athletic)
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