Josh Vann apologizes for comments made about South Carolina’s play-calling
South Carolina receiver Josh Vann says he apologized to coaches for comments made on a podcast regarding play-calling, comments he said were taken out of context when they were shared this week on social media.
“I addressed it with my coaches. I apologized about it,” Vann said Thursday in the latest episode of a weekly podcast he produces with fellow senior Darius Rush. “Stuff like that really needs to stay in house. It is what it is. It’s out there so I can’t take it back, but a lot of people take things out of context.”
The comments were first published in the Sept. 15 episode of the “Completely Cocky” show — recorded after USC’s 44-30 lost to Arkansas and before last Saturday’s 48-7 loss to Georgia — and first shared to Twitter on Tuesday evening via @myles_ayer. The discussion that followed was around the dialogue that Vann was criticizing the play-calling of offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield.
“There was one time, not to bash a coach or nothing like that, it was third down and we called a play that we haven’t went over in like three weeks,” Vann said on the Sept. 15 show. “Mind you, as a player, you’ve got to know the whole playbook, so whenever something may get thrown onto you, you can know what it is and you can go out there and execute and line up fast. As the same time, we haven’t went over it, so you can’t expect in the heat of the moment for someone to recognize on the fly and to know what to do.”
Vann has not indicated what the play was, what its result was or when the play was called, though he seemed to suggest it happened in the second half of the Arkansas game. USC scored 21 of its 30 points in the second half of that game, though the Gamecocks did turn the ball over three times in the half.
Satterfield himself addressed Vann’s comments while speaking to reporters Wednesday, acknowledging that the two had spoken about it and suggesting that there were no lingering concerns.
Arkansas “gave us the exact look that we wanted and needed in order for that play to be successful and I called it,” Satterfield said of the play in question. “We hadn’t repped it in about three weeks. I shouldn’t have done it, but I can’t promise you I won’t do it again. I’ll try not to.”
Satterfield said coaches try to have a lot of continuity in the offense’s base plays from week to week.
Vann in the latest podcast episode reiterated something he posted to Twitter on Tuesday — that his comments were as much about players taking responsibility no matter what play is called.
“It was something I didn’t think about when I said it,” he said. “At the end of the day, us as players have got to know our jobs and have got to do our jobs in whatever situation we get thrown in. That was pretty much where I was going with that statement. It kind of got twisted the wrong way.”
For Vann, it hasn’t been the kind of year he’d envisioned when he came back for a “super senior” season afforded to athletes via the NCAA after the COVID pandemic’s impacts in 2020.
Vann led team with 43 catches for 679 yards in 2021. This year, he has two catches for eight yards, with five targets through three games. He’s fifth in snaps among wide receivers, according to GamecockCentral, behind Antwane Wells Jr., Jalen Brooks, Ahmarean Brown and Xavier Legette.
“It’s been a tough deal, especially coming off of last season,” he said in the Sept. 15 podcast episode, “but I never dwell on it.”
Vann on the latest show was upbeat that things would improve for the offense and the team as a whole.
“Gamecock Nation, we’re gonna get it right,” he said.
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 12:02 PM.
