Steve Ensminger once turned down job offer from rival SEC head coach

LSU football offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger once turned down an opportunity to work with another SEC head coach.

South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Will Muschamp revealed this week that he tried to hire LSU football’s Steve Ensminger to be his offensive coordinator at an unnamed program.

Muschamp made the revelation during an interview with WAFB’s Jacques Doucet.

“When I was interviewing for a head coaching job, I’m not going to go into who it was, I wanted Steve to be my offensive coordinator. He turned me down and told me he wasn’t going to do it”, said Muschamp.

Muschamp, who worked under Nick Saban at LSU from 2001-2004, had a relationship with Ensminger from their days together at Georgia in the mid 90’s. Muschamp played safety for the Bulldogs from 1991-1994, while Ensminger coached quarterbacks in Athens from 1991-1993.

The two coaches also crossed paths at Auburn. Muschamp was Auburn’s defensive coordinator from 2006-2007. Ensminger was on Auburn’s staff as a quarterbacks coach/tight ends coach from 2003-2008.

When I first heard Muschamp’s comments, my first inclination was to figure out which school he was talking about interviewing with.

Florida and South Carolina were the two programs that immediately came to mind.

Muschamp was hired as the Gators’ head coach — his first head coaching job — in late 2010. At the time, Ensminger had just finished his first season as LSU’s tight ends coach. If Muschamp offered Ensminger the offensive coordinator job at Florida in 2010, it’s hard to imagine it would’ve been turned down. Ensminger is a Tiger through and through, but this is still a business.

Charlie Weis ended up serving as Florida’s offensive coordinator for the 2011 season. At the time, his resumé was more impressive than Ensminger’s, so I think we can rule out that Muschamp was talking about Florida.

South Carolina makes a little more sense. Muschamp landed the job with the Gamecocks in late 2015. Ensminger was still the the tight ends coach at LSU and Les Miles was on shaky ground as the Tigers’ head coach.

If Ensminger turned down an opportunity to be South Carolina’s offensive coordinator, it’s likely because he was settled in and happy at LSU. Plus, it’s not like hiring Muschamp was a slam dunk for the Gamecocks. Perhaps Ensminger didn’t see the South Carolina job as being an ideal situation. Again, that’s just speculation because we don’t know if that’s the program that Muschamp was talking about.

The other option is Houston. Which probably makes the most sense.

Muschamp interviewed for Houston’s head coaching vacancy in late 2014. He eventually withdrew his name from consideration for the job, taking a gig as Auburn’s defensive coordinator instead.

Perhaps Muschamp withdrew his name from the Houston job because the offensive coordinator he wanted (Ensminger) said no.

It’s always fun to think about how things could’ve been different in the SEC. All of the moving parts are what make the conference so much fun to observe.

But regardless of what program Muschamp was talking about, it’s clear that Ensminger made the right decision to turn Muschamp down.

Ensminger is a national champion and partially responsible for one of the greatest offenses in college football history. And Muschamp is squarely on the hot seat at South Carolina.

I think we see who has it better right now.