USC recruit honored to get 6 a.m. wakeup call from Muschamp

A coaching change can often lead committed recruits to explore other options, but for offensive lineman Will Putnam, it only strengthened his pledge to South Carolina.

Putnam and several other USC commits are in a group text, and the 6-foot-5, 270-pounder said recently that the Gamecocks commits can’t wait to get to Columbia and get to work.

“There’s a new life to it,” Putnam said. “Not that it was dead before, but waking up and seeing all the messages from all the guys and seeing how hyped they are about everyone committing, that’s huge for this class and for the team moving forward. It’s all fitting together very nicely.”

The Hickory Ridge standout admitted that there was some uncertainty after Steve Spurrier resigned during the middle of the season, but once Will Muschamp was hired to lead the program, the uncertainty quickly turned to excitement.

“For a while, we were all wondering what was going on and it seemed like things were falling apart, but Coach (Shawn) Elliott and Coach Muschamp came in and tied it all back together,” Putnam said. “We’re really clicking and there’s a lot of excitement. Every day there’s exciting news and there’s not been a boring day that has gone by in the last two weeks.”

Putnam said he got a 6 a.m. wakeup call from a fired up Muschamp not long after he was named coach. Putnam has been impressed by the way his new coach has gotten to work in recruiting.

“I think recruiting-wise is where he’s going to have the most immediate impact,” he said. “I talked to a lot of guys on their officials (Dec. 11-13) and they all loved it. He’s bringing in high level talent, which is great. He has a plan, and I really like what he’s doing so far.”

Putnam originally committed to Elliott, and he was excited to get news that he will remain on staff.

“As an offensive line coach, he can get the best out of you. He’s really fiery. He won’t let me slack or anything. He’ll push me to my limits,” Putnam said. “He messaged me one day and said I’m staying here and I’m coaching you and that just took a huge amount of stress off my back.”

Putnam’s coach, Marty Paxton, said the Gamecocks are getting a great kid who will come in and work hard to earn playing time.

“He’s very aggressive. He’s an explosive player. He’s very competitive. He’s raw right now because he’s only played offensive line for us for two years. He played defensive line the first two,” Paxton said. “He’s a very intellectual player. He doesn’t want to know just the play he wants to know what’s going on, where the plays going and those kind of things so they’re getting a good player and a quality young man.”

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 11:34 AM.