Amid down year, Muschamp looks forward to ‘a long tenure here at South Carolina’
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp made a pair of key statements Tuesday as his team stares down the barrel of what could be a 4-8 season.
On one hand, he understands college football is a “results-based business.” On the other, he spoke like a man who believes he will get a chance to fix things in 2020 — and stick around in Columbia after next season as well.
“We’ve had some success here before that some other people haven’t,” Muschamp said. “And we look forward to a long tenure here in South Carolina.”
Coming off Saturday’s loss to Appalachian State that puts his team‘s bowl hopes as an extreme long shot, he faced questions Tuesday about his future and his staff.
He labeled as false a FootballScoop report that the school‘s administration was pressuring him to make staff changes.
“No one said anything to me about staff changes,” Muschamp said. “I’ll evaluate the staff when the year is over with.”
The Gamecocks offense has struggled most of the season, in part because of inconsistent personnel and because of inconsistent play. Offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon is in his second season after being promoted following Kurt Roper’s ouster.
The team’s scoring average is 20.9 points per game against FBS competition, which ranks 109th nationally. That’s down from 28.5 per game a year ago.
The Gamecocks have had at least one staff change every offseason with Muschamp. The first was Shawn Elliott leaving for a better coaching job, but the latter two involved coaches moving on to similar jobs at smaller schools.
South Carolina Athletics Director Ray Tanner and President Robert Caslen face a choice to make at season’s end. The results haven’t been there in Year 4, as Muschamp admitted. If the school opted to part ways with Muschamp, the contract buyout would involve spending upwards of $18.5 million the next five years on a coach who wouldn’t be there.
Muschamp made a point to hammer that his staff won more games its first three years than any coaching staff in program history. But this year has gone awry at 4-6 with a USC team he called his most talented yet.
“We haven’t won enough games,” Muschamp said. “So that’s the bottom line. The main progress that needs to be made is winning football games. We haven’t made that progress.
“We actually have done a couple good things around here, OK. And we’ve had a very inconsistent year, and I’ll continue to evaluate that and when the season is over, we’ll make the decisions we need to make moving forward.”
Up next
Who: South Carolina (4-6, 3-4 SEC) at Texas A&M (6-3, 3-2)
When: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 16
Where: Kyle Field
TV: SEC Network
Line: Texas A&M by 11
This story was originally published November 12, 2019 at 1:27 PM.
