Will Muschamp dishes on Twitter, Spurrier, Meyer

Twice in a five-day span, tweets sent by Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp – both of which were meant to be direct messages – got some run on Twitter and other outlets. Chalk those gaffes up to inexperience.

“I actually did not [send my own tweets] before, but when I had to go on summer vacation, I realized it was going to be a little bit of a hassle to send a message to someone for them to put out. I’ve had to learn on the run here in the last month,” he explained Thursday morning on 740 AM‘s Open Mike radio program.

Muschamp, whose @CoachWMuschamp Twitter account has been active since he was hired by the Gators in December 2010, joked on Tuesday that he could use some help sending out tweets.

“Tickets for free tweet lessons?#???????” he wrote on the social media service.

The first direct-message-turned-tweet he sent – “Got it! Excited about u! Need u!” – was followed by another five days later – “My track record of developing defensive players speaks for itself – u will be special here!”

Muschamp has since received some assistance from a couple of familiar faces and now hopes he does not misdirect any direct messages going forward.

“I found good help at home with my 12-year-old and 9-year-old; they helped me out with some of this Twitter stuff,” he said.

“Actually what happened is, when I get a message, it used to go through my email or text. So I responded, not realizing it wasn’t just a direct message, but it went through my account out to everyone. Thank goodness I didn’t put any names on it so there’s no NCAA issues.”

With Muschamp now able to go rogue on Twitter (do not be fooled, the University Athletic Association will still have a heavy hand in tweets sent from his account), he may now get an even closer look at some of the messages his players are sending out.

He explained to Open Mike host Mike Bianchi on Thursday how the school monitors the multiple social media accounts of all student-athletes.

“We have a thing we call ‘varsity monitor,’ which has a bunch of different ways we’re able to check out each site, whether it’s on Facebook or Twitter – all the social media – to make sure they’re putting appropriate things out there. And we’re checking that constantly,” he said.

Muschamp also touched on a number of other topics during his 10-minute radio segment. Below are a few standout quotes:

» Muschamp on Urban Meyer’s wife, Shelley Meyer, calling SEC fans meaner and nastier than those in other conferences like the Big 10: “I agree with that. I think that’s one thing that makes our league special. I’ve coached in the Big 12, and when you pull into some of those venues, it’s much different than when you pull into Baton Rouge or Knoxville or come down here to the Swamp. That’s what makes our league special and different from everyone else.”

» Muschamp on his relationship with Steve Spurrier: “I consider him a friend, certainly, but a guy that I look up to. Over the course of his career as a player and coach at the University of Florida, it’s absolutely amazing what he’s accomplished. I enjoy being around Coach Spurrier. He’s as quick-witted as anyone you’ve ever been around. I appreciate his honesty in how he handles his business, and what he’s done at South Carolina has been outstanding.”

» Muschamp on whether the UAA’s private jet would stop in South Carolina to pick up Meyer if he was the USC coach like it currently does for Spurrier on the way to special events like the ESPN Car Wash: “[Laughing I don’t know about that.”

» Muschamp on how offensive coordinator Kurt Roper has made the greatest impact already: “I think the biggest thing I see is he’s very positive. He’s come in and been very upbeat, very positive with our guys. They needed that.”

» Muschamp on sixth-year redshirt senior wide receiver Andre Debose: “I would think and hope, and I believe, that he’s going to have a great year at receiver for us. I think this offense fits him a little bit better … some of the speed sweeps and some of the things that he can really stretch the field vertically but [also] horizontally within what we’re doing now. He’s the leading kick returner in UF history, so we’re expecting some things in the return game.”

» Muschamp on Florida’s secondary, which lost most of its starters from 2013: “I think this is as talented of a secondary as we’ve had since we’ve been here. We lack experience, but we got some guys who are very athletic, that move extremely well, that the game comes to very easy.”