BAW's familiarity with Muschamp dates back to high school days
When South Carolina outside linebacker Bryson Allen-Williams was starring at Cedar Grove High School in Ellenwood, Ga. a few years ago, his first FBS offer came from then Florida coach Will Muschamp.
In the end, former Gamecock defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward won the recruiting battle as Allen-Williams signed with USC in early February 2014. Nonetheless, Allen-Williams says his respect for Muschamp grew during the recruiting process, and when the latter was hired as Steve Spurrier’s permanent successor shortly after the 2015 regular season ended, BAW was one of the most excited Gamecock players on the team.
“He offered me when I visited Florida in my junior year in high school,” Allen-Williams recalled. “We had a great relationship. That was the year (2012) when they were in contention for the national championship. They fell off in recruiting and South Carolina and Coach Ward picked up a little bit.”
Which coach was Allen-Williams’ favorite to talk with during the recruiting process? Muschamp.
“I’ve always told Coach Muschamp that he was my favorite (coach),” Allen-Williams said. “(I just love) his intensity. And he’s a defensive coach. Being a linebacker, you see all the great guys and great defenses he has coached in the past. That’s a guy you definitely want to play for. He’s always told me I was the guy he missed out on that he wanted really bad.”
Allen-Williams started just one game in 2015 as his production fell from 27 tackles as a true freshman the previous season to 23 with no sacks and one quarterback hurry (5.0 in 2014). As a result, Allen-Williams welcomed the changing of the guard.
“I tell him every day how I excited I am when he came,” Allen-Williams said. “I love Coach Muschamp, as I said. He’s very intense. Don’t get me wrong, he’ll get into you and chew into you if you mess up, but he’s a good coach and he knows what he’s talking about.”
Allen-Williams is primarily playing WILL linebacker and BUCK linebacker (hybrid DE/LB spot), but Muschamp revealed Sunday during a teleconference that BAW could line up anywhere because of his sundry skill set.
“He’s going to play all over the place,” Muschamp said. “He’s going to play inside, some outside and we need to involve him in the rush on the edge or internally. He brings us some fast twitch.
“Being a defensive guy my whole life, I turn on the tape and see the guys that flash, that have a little oomph to them. He does have that.”
WASHINGTON TALKS TRUE FRESHMAN QUARTERBACKS: South Carolina tight ends coach Pat Washington, a long-time SEC coaching veteran, spent the past three seasons coaching wide receivers at Missouri. Last year, Missouri was forced to start true freshman quarterback Drew Lock. In fact, his starting debut came in Mizzou’s home win over the Gamecocks last October.
As the Gamecocks prepare to begin the 2016 season, two of their top three quarterbacks are true freshmen – Brandon McIlwain and Jake Bentley. Missouri took its lumps with Lock calling signals in 2015.
After an encouraging start against USC in early October (21-for-28, 136 yards, 2 TDs), Lock completed just 41.6 percent (52-125) of his passes over the next four games with no touchdowns and four interceptions.
Lock finished the season with a 49.0 completion percentage (129-263), four touchdowns and eight interceptions, one of the worst touchdown-to-INT ratios in the country for any returning starter.
Would the same thing happen to USC if McIlwain or Bentley won the starting QB job? Washington stated there are pros and cons on starting a freshman QB.
“It just depends if he is ready,” Washington said. “The kid we played last year at Missouri was very talented, but I don’t know if he was quite ready for what we had to do. But we didn’t realize what was going to happen with our situation (Maty Mauk was suspended and later dismissed). So we had to play him.”
Washington supports redshirting quarterbacks as freshman in order to give them a year to develop and get adjusted to major college football.
“The best thing to happen to a young quarterback in my opinion is to redshirt him and let him learn how to play the game,” Washington said. “By the time he is a redshirt sophomore, he could be a starter. But we may start a freshman here. Jake is a heckuva player, Brandon is a heckuva player. Who knows?”
