SC begins the 2016 season, their first under new head coach Will Muschamp, on September 1st when they travel to Vanderbilt.
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Both came to Columbia, S.C., after serving as Florida’s head coach, and both arrived when SC had suffered a down cycle.
But Muschamp is different.
Now, that was closer to a Spurrier one-liner.
“I’m all right”, Muschamp said.
USC linebacker Skai Moore, recovering from surgery to fix a herniated neck disc that will cause him to miss the 2016 season, can begin riding a stationary bicycle next month, Muschamp said.
Though both of them enjoyed success at Florida, Muschamp’s was largely short-lived, and the then-No. That despite posting three consecutive 11-win seasons.
Coach: Will Muschamp, first season (28-21 overall). Even though Muschamp is replacing a legend (Spurrier) at SC much like he did at Florida (Urban Meyer), the circumstances are completely different.
“It’s been technical more than anything”, Lewis said. “I know sometimes it’s easy for a story to wrap it in a bow and say, ‘Bingo, eureka, here we go'”. The starting quarterback job is wide open, and Muschamp named four contenders.
“Coach wanted to show us the proper way to respond to that, and it’s not through social media or violence or anything like that”, said senior offensive lineman Mason Zandi.
Fair or not, the comparisons to the Ol’ Ball Coach will remain for Muschamp. The defensive front 7 is better than they’ve played the last couple of seasons and, with the right coaching, the offense can be effective enough. He may have even broke a finger during halftime of a game, but doesn’t remember the exact details.
“I get mad at myself for not doing a better job preparing our players, and you get a little frustrated when the young men don’t execute exactly the way we want to, and I wear my emotions sometimes on my sleeves a little bit more than I should”. “I think that we have those two spots”. His defense at Auburn struggled last season in his only year as defensive coordinator, and he had an even more hard time in his previous head-coaching stint at Florida from 2011-2014.
“Gus is as good of a person as you ever meet”, Muschamp said. “I didn’t know really what it was about so I googled Pharoh (Cooper’s) name to see what he had going on previous year (at the same event)”. Like Spurrier, he has a passion for winning and wants to build a team that can contend annually.
When asked what he learned from his experience at UF, Muschamp said: “We played well on defense over a four-year period”.
SC coach Will Muschamp didn’t try to emulate the wisecracking Steve Spurrier at the microphone. Now he has to make sure it stays that way.
He continued, “Not only that, but just building relationships with people and some of my friends are still on the team today”.
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Of course, it was the following season when the bottom fell out and Muschamp went 4-8 with one of the most embarrassing losses in school history (see Georgia Southern).
