What Election Day looked like for Gamecocks, Will Muschamp
South Carolina football is just a few days away from hosting No. 7 Texas A&M at Williams-Brice Stadium, but the practice fields at the Long Family Football Operations Center were quiet Tuesday.
Under new legislation enacted by the NCAA this September, the Gamecocks had to take the day off in observance of Election Day, allowing players to vote and participate in civic engagement.
Tuesday, however, is normally a key day in USC’s game week preparation, so Muschamp had to make some adjustments to the team’s schedule coming off a bye week.
“We practiced on Sunday night coming off an off day. We practiced Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of last week. We practiced Sunday night, we practiced last night,” Muschamp said. “And then we’ll be back to a normal game schedule on Wednesday.”
The off day has sparked some debate among college coaches — Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, Florida’s Dan Mullen and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly have all voiced frustration with having their game preparations disrupted and pointed to the fact that many players had already voted before Tuesday through early or absentee voting.
Muschamp also said Tuesday that the “majority” of his players had already voted before Tuesday. But he didn’t give any indication that he was dissatisfied with the mandatory off day. Some players did take advantage of the day to vote, he said.
“We had a small collection of guys, because we did have COVID testing this morning, that we provided transportation for them to go vote,” Muschamp said. “But we polled the entire team, and it was just a handful guys that had not voted yet that wanted to vote today.”
Muschamp didn’t say anything else in response to whether the program had organized any other non-football activities for the day — Georgia coach Kirby Smart had a speaker scheduled to address players if they wanted to come.
Muschamp has been outspoken in supporting his players throughout a turbulent offseason that included national protests and discussions on racial inequality and police brutality — he marched with members of the program in a Columbia protest in June. On Tuesday, he referenced those protests in describing the conversations he’s heard more of in the locker room this year.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say about the election,” Muschamp said. “I would say about the events going on in the country, probably more than the election.”
South Carolina (2-3) vs No. 7 Texas A&M (4-1)
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia
TV: ESPN
Line: Texas A&M by 7.5
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 1:34 PM.
