Muschamp talks scheduling, offseason approach at Mt. Pleasant

Will Muschamp ended his Spurs Up Tour the same way as he’s approached any public gathering since he was hired – no frills and straight shooting.

No promises of an SEC championship next year. No talk of getting back to even, then surpassing the school in the Upstate.

Just that South Carolina may struggle for a bit – but only for a bit.

“Belief is a big, big part of having a good team. You got to have belief in what you’re doing,” Muschamp said to the Charleston Gamecock Club Tuesday. “We purposely had a very, very difficult offseason. We told our players, ‘You’ll grow with us or you won’t. But we’re going to find out who really wants to be here.’ ”

The Gamecocks won’t have a lot of returning dependability and will have several new faces. Muschamp expects all but four members of the recruiting class to join the rest of the team in reporting to campus on Wednesday (classes begin Monday), and the remainder will report for the second summer semester.

The main objective is to be competitive. Muschamp likes the leadership already being shown by several players – Perry Orth, Hayden Hurst, K.C. Crosby, Deebo Samuel, Chaz Elder and Rashad Fenton were singled out – and for players that have moved on, godspeed.

Quarterback Connor Mitch announced last week he intends to graduate this summer and transfer. Muschamp didn’t go into details other than bidding him farewell.

“Again, Connor’s a good young man and we wish him all the luck,” Muschamp said. “We talked several times. I wish him all the luck in the world.”

He also touched on what he expects to discuss at next week’s SEC meetings in Destin, Fla. The hot-button satellite camps are sure to come up, as well as the recruiting calendar.

“Lot of people are in favor of getting an earlier signing date. I’m not in favor of changing the recruiting calendar,” Muschamp said. “I would not be for changing much of what we do.”

Muschamp’s also concerned about scheduling. While USC seems to have taken advantage of a recent initiative to pair football and basketball opponents – Massachusetts visits Columbia this year in football and basketball, with Frank Martin’s team set to visit Amherst next season – Muschamp wouldn’t confirm an agreement had been reached. What he knew was that scheduling has been tough.

“Ray (Tanner) and Charles Waddell have had a hard time scheduling because up until, I believe it was last spring, the SEC was still talking about a nine-game schedule. So we’ve been on hold for the past 18 and beyond of scheduling games out,” he said. “So we’re still trying to get things in, 18 and up.”

He displayed the same enthusiasm he’s had since taking the job and was ready to start the real work.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 8:15 PM.