George Rogers: 'I love coach Muschamp ... I know (former players) love him'

He's said it before and he'll say it again — South Carolina football legend George Rogers likes what Gamecock coach Will Muschamp has done with the program.

Now, USC's only Heisman Trophy winner is upping his praise of Muschamp's performance as he enters his third season leading Carolina.

"I think coach Muschamp has done a great job. He's doing a great job. Everybody thinks he is. I certainly think he is," Rogers said Sunday before his foundation's annual silent auction. "You couldn't have told me that down 19-3 (in the Outback Bowl) we were going to beat Michigan. You couldn't have told me that."

Rogers also favorably compared Muschamp to former coach Steve Spurrier, the winningest coach in program history.

"I love coach Muschamp. Coach Spurrier did good, and I think coach Muschamp is going to do quite the same thing," Rogers said.

And after less than three years on the job, Muschamp already has won over the support of many Gamecock players, even ones who never played for him, Rogers said.

"I think they have (embraced him)," Rogers said. "I know they love him, because everybody likes a winner. ... He's a great guy, and I've had the chance to be around him, and he makes sure those guys go out there and play, and that's what we want them to do."

Also before the silent auction, where two scholarships were handed out to first-generation college students, Rogers reflected on the importance of his foundation, which he founded in 1992, to his overall legacy as a football player and human being, while also thanking the host of former teammates and Gamecocks who attended the event and donated items to be sold.

"Education has always been important to me. I was lucky to get in school as a first-generation student in my family to come," Rogers said. "And I thought about this 27 years ago, and that's how I came up with the concept.

"I wanted anybody that's trying to get that education, if I could help them, this is one of the ways that I've been trying to help them. That's why (fellow players and coaches) help, because they want to make sure nobody gets left back by education. It's hard to go to school. If you're a football player, you get a scholarship to go; but other people, they ain't got the money to go. I'd be mad at myself if I didn't do something to help."

This story was originally published June 25, 2018 at 8:28 AM with the headline "George Rogers: 'I love coach Muschamp ... I know (former players) love him'."