What Muschamp said about ‘numerous discussions’ to replace canceled game
South Carolina football has a pair chances to make up the football game it lost to Hurricane Florence.
How it could do so will be reliant on outside circumstances.
On Tuesday, the South Carolina High School League officially moved its state championships back from the weekend of Dec. 1. That opens up Williams-Brice Stadium that weekend for a potential game, as Gamecocks Athletics Director Ray Tanner had expected.
And there’s already been conversations about potentially rescheduling.
“We’ve had numerous discussions, coach Tanner and myself about the 20th, obviously is our open week, or depending how our season ends up, Dec. 1,” Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp said. “Once we know a little bit more about where we’re headed with that, we’ll certainly make that information available.”
Where they’re headed is likely an allusion to the fact the SEC championship game is that day. The Gamecocks are behind the eight ball in contending for that, as they already have a two-game deficit behind favorite Georgia, owing to a 41-17 loss in Williams-Brice two weeks ago.
But in the short term, South Carolina still considers itself in that race.
Muschamp said publicly he’d prefer not to play on the bye week, which would involve playing 10 consecutive weeks without a break. There also doesn’t appear to be many teams that had games canceled and have the same bye. Both West Virginia and Virginia Tech fit the bill, but their status as Power Five teams and Tanner’s interest in a home game make that more complicated.
Playing Dec. 1 if USC isn’t in Atlanta opens up some options, since every team that had to cancel and are not in a conference title game is in play. If the Thundering Herd can’t top the likes of Florida Atlantic and Florida International in the Conference USA East division, Marshall would be an option for a Dec. 1 make-up date.
This story was originally published September 18, 2018 at 1:40 PM.