Gamecocks have to split summer time between weights, football

Each summer, a football staff such at South Carolina’s faces a challenge of dividing resources.

Coaches can spend eight hours with student-athletes each week. That includes all coaches, on-field and strength. A staff can spend as much as two hours a week in position meetings and watching film.

Will Muschamp feels less can be more on that front.

“The first part of the summer, I think it’s important to make sure that we get guys going as far as the football in the scheme of things are concerned,” Muschamp said. “But I do think it’s very important for the players to have a break from us, and us to have a break from the players.”

Instead, it means they’ll spend more time getting to know Jeff Dillman and his strength and conditioning staff well. The coach Muschamp called one of his most important hires has worked at IMG Academy and Alabama, plus worked under Muschamp at Florida.

The usual sense is that coaches would always like to have more time with players than less, so Muschamp’s outlook shows a different perspective. There’s a long grind ahead, and maybe the need to give a little space.

“We are about to spend a long time from Aug. 1 all the way through December into bowl season with our players,” Muschamp said. “So I think the most important thing with time is to pick your spots to introduce the scheme and system to the players. But we also need to give the players some time. I think that’s really, really important, and you can’t spend too much time with them because we’re about to spend six months with them straight. So we’ve got to be very careful about the time that we’re with them.”

This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 3:11 PM.