McClendon will have chance ‘to be our coordinator moving forward,’ Muschamp says

Bryan McClendon will call plays for the South Carolina football team when the Gamecocks face Michigan in the Outback Bowl.

USC’s wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator will have a chance to continue with a larger role, head coach Will Muschamp said Thursday in a radio interview.

“I’m excited about having Bryan McClendon calling the plays for the bowl game,” Muschamp told 620 WDAE-Tampa Bay’s Sports Radio. “Certainly he’s going to have an opportunity to be our coordinator moving forward.”

McClendon has been on the South Carolina staff since Muschamp arrived ahead of the 2016 season. He came to Columbia after coaching at his alma mater, Georgia.

McClendon shared the co-coordinator title with Kurt Roper, who was relieved of his duties Wednesday.

“After much deliberation, I have decided to go in a different direction with the offensive coordinator position on our football team,” Muschamp said Wednesday in a statement. “We appreciate Kurt’s contributions to our program and to the University and wish him all the best.”

Why make the move away from Roper?

“We need to be more productive in what we need to do offensively as far as scoring points,” Muschamp said in the radio interview. “We need to play with a better tempo.”

South Carolina is 12th in the SEC in scoring (24.1 ppg) and total offense (340.2), and the Gamecocks finished the regular season with an 8-4 record.

Muschamp reiterated in his Thursday interview that he will not name a replacement for Roper until after the bowl game.

Muschamp was in Tampa on Thursday, along with Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, to promote the bowl game and take part in what was called a “contract signing party.”

This story was originally published December 8, 2017 at 8:15 AM with the headline "McClendon will have chance ‘to be our coordinator moving forward,’ Muschamp says."