Will Muschamp on charge of paying player at Auburn: "Totally deny it"

On Wednesday, Selena Roberts published a story with the allegation that Florida head coach Will Muschamp paid a player while he was at Auburn. On Thursday, Muschamp responded to the allegation publicly, in no uncertain terms, by giving a quote to Robbie Andreu of The Gainesville Sun:

"Totally deny it," Muschamp told The Sun. "I don’t know where this is coming from."

Muschamp also talked to The Sun's Pat Dooley:

Talked to Will today. Totally denied allegation. Has an idea why it was made.

— Pat Dooley (@pat_dooley) April 4, 2013

Former Auburn player Mike McNeil told Roberts that Muschamp handed him $400 in his office after a bad practice as a freshman in 2007. It was the only specific allegation of paying players made by McNeil in the story.

Muschamp served as defensive coordinator at Auburn for two years, from 2006 to 2007, under Tommy Tuberville, before leaving to become Texas' defensive coordinator in 2008.

While an allegation of paying a player is clearly a serious one, given the severity of that NCAA violation, it's somewhat unlikely that the NCAA will even be interested in investigating McNeil's claims, given the already shaky nature of the story: Three of the five Auburn players quoted in it have already raised objections to it, and McNeil's own credibility is damaged by his impending trial for armed robbery.