COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina fired football coach Will Muschamp on Sunday, the second time he's been let go from a Southeastern Conference program in midseason.
The school said in a release that Muschamp had been "relieved" of his duties with the program. Athletic director Ray Tanner said first-year offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, a former head coach at Colorado State and assistant at Georgia, will take over as interim coach.
Muschamp, 49, had four years remaining on his contract. His buyout from the school is $13.2 million.
The Gamecocks are 2-5, and Saturday night's 59-42 loss at Ole Miss was their third straight defeat. South Carolina gave up 1,779 yards and 159 points in those three setbacks, with the Rebels totaling 708 yards of offense.
"It's concerning. There is no doubt about that," Muschamp, who was the defensive coordinator at LSU when the Tigers won a national championship in the 2003 season, said Saturday night.
Bobo, whose playing career at Georgia overlapped with Muschamp's in the mid-1990s, was let go at Colorado State in 2019 after five seasons leading the Rams. Muschamp brought him in to spark an offense that ranked near the bottom of the SEC, but now he will have to help the Gamecocks regroup with three games remaining in their all-SEC schedule.
South Carolina will host Missouri on Saturday and No. 13 Georgia on Nov. 28 before closing the regular season Dec. 5 at Kentucky.
Muschamp was head coach at Florida from 2011-14 and was fired in November of his final season after an overtime loss to South Carolina. His stays with the Gators and Gamecocks were eerily similar: He led Florida to a BCS bowl and an 11-2 mark his second year there before going 10-13 before his dismissal.
Hired at South Carolina in December 2015 after spending that year as Auburn's defensive coordinator, Muschamp became the first Gamecocks coach to reach bowl games in his first three seasons and went 9-4 in his second season. The Gamecocks have gone 7-6, 4-8 and 2-5 since, and he was 17-22 against SEC competition at South Carolina.
South Carolina pulled off a stunning 20-17 overtime victory at Georgia last year when the Bulldogs were ranked third, but the Gamecocks are 3-11 since then.
Tanner said he did a thorough assessment of the football program and decided it was time for a change.
"I appreciate all that Will Muschamp has done for our program and wish him and his family the best moving forward," Tanner said in the release. "I believe our program will be well served by Coach Bobo as the interim head coach as we search for a new leader for Gamecock Football."
Tanner and school president Robert Caslen met with the football players and staff to tell them of the change.
Caslen called Muschamp a "true professional" who helped players succeed in the classroom and in the community.
"However, I believe it is time to move in a different direction," he said.
Caslen said the search for a new coach would start immediately and that Tanner, who had come under fire by some South Carolina supporters as the football team struggled, would be the one to find Muschamp's replacement.