What Muschamp said about the Clemson rivalry, including not talking Tigers last week
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp told his team after the loss to Texas A&M it could erase much of the bad feeling from this season with an upset win this week against Clemson.
But for the days after that, he didn’t say much about the Tigers.
The Gamecocks are already not going to reach .500 and bowl eligibility. They’re around a 26-point underdog down their best offensive player. But they took a little time between the loss in College Station, Texas, that dropped them to 4-7 and digging in on the Tigers full-go.
“This is our biggest rival,” Muschamp said last week on his call-in show. “Let’s call it like it is — this is our biggest game of the season. It’s going to be our biggest game of the season every year. Our guys understand that. I don’t need to address it a lot. I did a little bit.
“We look forward to the competition, we look forward to the game, and I know our guys are excited about it. I have not spent a lot of time talking to the guys about the game this week because I think sometimes, as you continue to talk about the game, the guys get a little tired of hearing it.”
The Tigers have taken the past five in the series, with the three against Muschamp’s squads coming by an average of 31.3 points per game. That skid came after the Gamecocks had taken five in a row through the heart of the Steve Spurrier era.
The Tigers are riding high at 11-0, with eyes set on another trip to the College Football Playoff. They’ve faced only one team with fewer than four losses (Wake Forest) but are winning by an average of 35.2 points per game.
The Tigers lead the all-time series 70-40-4.
USC practiced three times last week before the coaches went recruiting Friday, reconvened on Sunday and will again hit the practice field Monday. And those extra practices were somewhat split in focus.
“We’ve spent a lot of time on ourselves and some time on Clemson because they’ve got a good team and we wanted to get some of the game plan in this week,” Muschamp said. “As we continue to move forward, our guys will continue to understand the importance of this game, the importance to this state and to the University of South Carolina.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 1:52 PM.
