No, Muschamp didn’t sign petition to save USC-Clemson game. But he’s still frustrated
Will Muschamp is not a fan of the annual South Carolina-Clemson rivalry game getting canceled in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re all disappointed we’re not going to be able to play Clemson. That’s the bottom line,” Muschamp said Wednesday. “I expressed to (athletics director Ray Tanner and university president Bob Caslen) how important that game is to both institutions, to our state, to our region and to college football, and we’re extremely disappointed in the decision.”
After meeting for 111 consecutive years, the series was taken off the schedule last week when the SEC voted to move to a conference-only schedule because of the pandemic. The ACC, which Clemson plays in, had previously approved a model that would have allowed for the series to continue.
According to a report from The Athletic, Caslen was the sole dissenting voice against the new schedule among the SEC’s 14 members, specifically because he wanted to keep Clemson on the schedule.
But USC was out-voted, and despite some notable voices such as U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham chiming in in support of playing the game, Muschamp gave no indication Wednesday that he plans to fight the decision.
“We only have one vote of the 14 member institutions. We voted to have a (nonconference game). And we didn’t win the vote, and that’s just the way things have fallen,” Muschamp said. “But I know that president Caslen and coach Tanner both expressed their feelings to our league that we wanted to play the game, so we’re extremely disappointed that that will not happen this year.”
An online petition to save the game, directed toward SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, USC and Clemson administrators and Gov. Henry McMaster, has garnered more than 2,500 virtual signatures. Both Muschamp and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney are on the list of names who have signed, but both have said they did not actually participate, according to the Independent Mail.
“It was an impostor,” Muschamp said when asked about his “signature” on the petition. “I wanna play the game. It was a league decision and we’re all disappointed, everybody in the state, everybody at our institution and I’m sure theirs. So, it’s frustrating, but this is the situation that we’re in.”
The lack of a Carolina-Clemson football game was a top social media topic, according to a review by the Social Media Insights Lab at the University of South Carolina.
“Many certainly expressed disappointment over the loss of the game,” said Kaitlyn Park, Insights Lab manager. “However there were even greater concerns about whether football would or should be played this year.“
The SEC’s decision also wiped away three other nonconference games South Carolina had been prepping for and added two new conference opponents. For Muschamp, who likes to scout out opponents months in advance, that’s another change he and his staff will have to adapt to.
“We do a full scouting report and game plan on all 12 opponents. So we got East Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Clemson and Wofford all game planned and they’re gonna sit on the shelf obviously this fall,” Muschamp said. “So we’ll add those two opponents ... (Video coordinator) Joe Lisle’s got all the SEC film, and we might have to access, if it’s a new coach or new coordinator, to go where they were before. But we’ll game plan those guys before August 17 when we start training camp.”
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 11:12 AM.
