Why Will Muschamp felt ‘much better walking off the practice field’ on Wednesday
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp saw some things he flat out didn’t like in South Carolina’s first practice of the week.
The second one was a good bit better.
“Had a much better practice today,” Muschamp said. “Not so good on Tuesday. We had really good work this morning.
“Feel much better walking off the practice field.”
What went wrong on Tuesday wasn’t so much about a hangover from a rather disappointing Tennessee loss, but something else. The Gamecocks sit at 3-5, facing long odds to making the postseason after dropping that game as a road favorite.
There was something fundamental Muschamp didn’t see on Tuesday.
“On both sides of the ball and special teams, there’s things we carry every week and when we’re not sharp on those things,” Muschamp said. “Tuesday is always hard because you’ve got a lot of new installation especially on offense. We’ve got some younger guys, and they’re battling through the new installation and different looks we’re getting from a different scheme. And so we weren’t as sharp on the things we carry week to week and that kind of is an indication to me we weren’t where we needed to be mentally.”
He added he felt the effort was there as the Gamecocks prepare to face off against a Vanderbilt team that has struggled this season.
USC is a big favorite against the Commodores and projects to be favored against a ranked Appalachian State team. But the Gamecocks will be big underdogs at Texas A&M and against Clemson.
So what started to turn in Vandy prep?
“We just had overall, our team, more energy, more juice,” Muschamp said. “We did some more competition stuff than maybe we’ve done in the last couple weeks to get that going. The guys like competing against each other, so we had a good 7-on-7, a good move the ball, a good third down period, a good 1-minute. It was a good competitive practice.”
He mentioned the teams veterans helped there and he understands the spot his team sits in at this point.
“We’re all extremely disappointed with where we are,” Muschamp said. “But here’s where we are.”
