Ex-UGA coach: Muschamp ‘turning the corner’ on catching up with Smart

Former Georgia head coach Jim Donnan doesn’t want to predict the outcome of Saturday’s game between South Carolina and the Bulldogs, but he will predict good things for the Gamecocks under head coach Will Muschamp.

“Very impressed with Will, I have always liked Will as a coach,” Donnan told The State prior to speaking to the Columbia Touchdown Club on Thursday. “He didn’t inherit as good a team as we’ve got, but he’s done a good job of winning the close games, which you have to do when you’re turning the corner. The name of the game is getting players and I think that’s what he’ll do like (Georgia head coach Kirby Smart) has done.

Donnan spoke to the club two days before the Gamecocks play his former team. The No. 2 Bulldogs (8-0 overall, 5-0 SEC) host South Carolina (6-2, 4-2) at 3:30 p.m. in Athens, Ga., on Saturday. Donnan had a 40-19 record from 1996-2000 at Georgia. He was the SEC coach of the year in 1997. He was 64-21 at Marshall before taking the Georgia job.

Donnan was replaced by Mark Richt, who spent 15 years at Georgia before being replaced by Smart prior to the 2016 season.

“I have been real impressed with Kirby since he got there, just the way he has taken over and developed a mindset of hard work,” Donnan said. “Some of these guys have gotten a lot better and they’ve really improved their weaknesses from last year.”

The Bulldogs were ranked No. 1 this week in the first College Football Playoff standings.

“I thought we’d be pretty good, but I had no idea we’d be undefeated,” Donnan said. “The thing that has been important for Georgia is that every week they have come out and played extremely focused, even the Samford game. That’s been the real key for them. They’ve been ready every week.”

In his remarks to the crowd, Donnan broke down the local conference races.

“I still think the ACC really runs through Clemson,” Donnan said. “I do have to give Dabo Swinney and his staff a lot of credit over the last few years. The difference between South Carolina and Clemson right now is so many of these instate players who used to come here, like Jadeveon Clowney, are going to Clemson. You have to give them a lot of credit. I still can’t believe Georgia didn’t get Deshaun Watson.”

Alabama remains his pick to win the SEC, he said.

“Everybody knows what Alabama is all about,” Donnan said. “It’s a machine over there. They have great players, but they develop them too. Realistically, I thinks the whole SEC run through there until somebody beats them.”

He also told a story about South Carolina quarterback Jake Bentley.

“When Jake was 2 years old, I was still the coach at Georgia and Bobby Bentley was over at Byrnes,” Donnan said. “He had a really good receiver named Durrell Robinson. As fate might have it, I offered Coach Bentley a job to work in our camp, and his young kid is over there in my office with toys and everything. He was throwing a little Nerf ball around. You could tell right then he was very athletic. Every time I see Bobby I tell him we got it started over there in my office.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 1:36 PM.