Only a few days in, new Gamecock hire ‘instrumental’ in new recruiting opportunities
New South Carolina running backs coach Des Kitchings is less than a week removed from getting the job and just a few days removed from having his contract officially approved.
But still working from Raleigh, where he’s lived for the past eight years, he’s already providing a boost to the Gamecocks.
“We interviewed Des a while back and was extremely impressed with him,” Muschamp said Tuesday in a radio interview with Teddy Heffner. “He really gives a lot of ties to the state of North Carolina. In the couple days he has been with us, he has been instrumental in some opportunities he is going to create for us. He does a really good job with the running back position.”
That first interview likely took place in early February, when the staff had a second wave of departures following signing day. Former running backs coach Thomas Brown and defensive line coach John Scott Jr. departed, and there was a stretch when it appeared wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon would as well.
McClendon didn’t land a job with the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers at the time, but he took a job at Oregon last week. Muschamp didn’t get into all that, but he did joke about that part of running a program.
“When our coaches go interview, I interview,” Muschamp said. “They go interview for a job, I interview. They better not hope I like the guy I’m interviewing better than them.”
Kitchings is expected to give the staff a stronger presence in North Carolina, a state that will grow in importance with what recruiting rankings have as a more shallow class in South Carolina in 2021. He’s also being entrusted to develop a running back group that lost four seniors and added a blue-chip freshman in MarShawn Lloyd.
His arrival means some shuffling on offense with Bobby Bentley moving back from running backs to tight ends and Joe Cox going from tight ends to wide receivers. Muschamp said Cox knows the offense inside and out and liked the interaction he’s seen from an offensive staff with three new faces.
“They’re meeting offensively every day as a staff,” Muschamp said. “As a matter of fact, they had a four-hour meeting Monday on Zoom, and I was a part of that meeting for about an hour and half. Des is outstanding — a guy that I’ve had a lot of respect for through the years, recruiting and coaching against him.”
South Carolina’s new recruiting push
In the past week, Gamecocks coaches have been posting graphics with their recruiting areas as part of a “virtual evaluation period.”
Usually they’d be on the road this time of year, dropping in on high schools, showing faces and chatting with high school coaches, teachers and anyone else who could give a picture of a recruit. But the coronavirus pandemic has that shut down, so Muschamp’s staff is improvising.
“Our coaches are taking, right now, like they would be on the road recruiting in spring evaluations, so they’re taking eight to 10 coaches a day,” Muschamp said, “calling their area just to check in on any new prospects who may come up. We hit South Carolina the first week, which started on April 15 and we’re really on adjoining areas North Carolina, Georgia and Florida are are main areas, and then we dip into Tennessee and Alabama a little bit and some of the national places we go.”
He noted coaches can only call 2021 players once in the spring, but they can text all they want and players can call coaches.
That’s allowed everyone to stay in touch, and USC coaches haven’t been shy about sharing some of the video content their creative staff assembles to show the facility, campus and Williams-Brice Stadium.
The conditioning challenge
With players off campus, one area Muschamp focused on was how players could stay up on their fitness, even at home.
Setting aside the dietary risks of being home with mom, the pandemic has gyms and high school weight rooms shut down, meaning some of the workouts have to be improvised.
“I think 30-40 percent of guys have access to weights,” Muschamp said. “We have sent them workouts they can do voluntarily with weights and then without weights.
“My biggest concern is cardio side of it, especially with the big guys. Paul Jackson, our strength coach, has told our guys at least three to four times a week they’ve got to get out and and sprint. Got to get out and go at top-level speed, get multiple sprints in, and then obviously continue to work on the cardio on the other side of it.”
He pointed to push-ups, sit-ups and his favorite exercise of pushing a car as things players can do.
He also said that although the positions have been meeting daily by Zoom, those are on hold at the moment, as football activities are “shut down” until May 7, when finals are finished.
He said he did three hours of meetings Monday, getting time with every position to touch base personally and talk about exams.
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 3:43 PM.
