Muschamp reflects on 2019 season: ‘I feel like we underachieved as a football team’
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp ran through some of the misfortune that befell his team. They lost Kiel Pollard before the season and Jake Bentley during it. The schedule finished as one of the 10 hardest in the land by several metrics, with five teams that finished in the top 20.
And after listing those off in an interview with SportsTalk’s Rick Sanford, he said all that wasn’t to blame for his team’s 4-8 season.
“We should’ve won more games than we did, still,” Muschamp said. “I feel like we underachieved as a football team regardless of the injuries and the things that happened.”
Before the season, he talked it up as his best since arriving on campus. Sentiment from outside the program pegged the group as one capable of winning between five and seven games depending on how things played out (Vegas put the over/under at 5 1/2 wins).
In the midst of that, Muschamp caught waves of criticism, and had some comments from school president Robert Caslen stir things up as well. And while talking about what he’s heard from fans, he accepted much of what they were saying.
“I think it’s fair,” Muschamp said. “Especially with the year that we had.”
He also said coming out of the year that his players felt “disgusted” with the team’s performance in a constructive way (i.e. as a motivator to not let it happen again).
The team was on the wrong end of blowouts to Texas A&M, Clemson, Alabama and Tennessee. The Missouri game was an offensive dud, but Tigers defensive scores were to blame for the final margin. The Gamecocks even battled No. 10 Florida, but didn’t have enough in the end.
Where USC missed the chance at even a stable season was in losing an 11-point fourth-quarter lead to UNC and not being able to muster much offense against App. State.
Muschamp also reflected back on how his first two years contrasted to this one.
“I think we massively overachieved in our first two years here.” Muschamp said. “I don’t think there’s any way were a bowl team our first year. There’s no chance.
“And then we won nine games, which is the sixth best in school history as far as wins are concerned. We didn’t play as well our third year, certainly disappointing in our last year.”
His first team pulled a pair of upsets to turn a 2-4 start into a bowl trip. His second team took advantage of the schedule opening up and upset Michigan at the end of the season to get to 9-4.
Next year’s schedule is easier on the bottom end (Coastal and East Carolina replace UNC and App. State), but the top end remains daunting.
Muschamp said new offensive coordinator remarked to him the roster does still have good players. Yet the head coach said an all-around lack of mental toughness cost the team. And then he laid out what at least stands out as the minimum standard.
“At South Carolina, you ought to be in a bowl game every year,” Muschamp said. “You should win six games every year regardless of who your schedule is, regardless of who gets hurt. You ought to win six games every year.”
