Final News and Notes: Gamecocks-Mississippi State
The keen ability of Mississippi State quarterback Damian Williams to make plays with his feet is what concerns Will Muschamp the most entering Saturday night’s showdown at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, MS.
Williams was by far the Bulldogs leading rusher in last Saturday’s surprising loss to South Alabama, gaining 93 yards on 12 carries, an average of 7.8 yards per attempt.
Williams is not a threat to throw the ball deep with accuracy, but he is quite capable of sidestepping would-be tacklers. Mississippi State did a good job creating space for him to run in the South Alabama game, raising the bar for the Gamecock defense to keep him from escaping the pocket, Muschamp said
“If the quarterback is in a one back (set), that’s a two-back run. It has created an extra gap. If it is a two-back set with a quarterback, it is now a three-back run,” Muschamp said earlier this week. “It always creates the extra gap. It always creates the extra threat. Those are always issues you have to deal with when you deal with a team that is committed to running the quarterback and they are. They can out-number you in the running game easily.”
For the past several months, Muschamp has spoken about the total team “buy-in” into what his staff is demanding of the players. The victory over Vanderbilt will only boost the player’s confidence and outlook because they see the fruits of their labors.
“Anytime you have positive results, it makes it much easier to have some belief in what you’re trying to do,” Muschamp said. “You’ve got to have some positive feedback, regardless of whether it’s football, the business world or whatever you’re doing. You’ve got to have something positive happen for you. In our profession, the results of winning is what we look for. You’ve got to be able to see the fruits of your labor. A lot of guys, mature guys, understand it anyway. They see themselves getting stronger. They see themselves improving as a player. The young guys, especially, need that as much as anything.”
WEATHER FORECAST: Partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the upper 80‘s are expected at kickoff on Saturday night. However, with 48 percent humidity, it will feel like 93 degrees. Scattered thunderstorms are possible in the second half as the chance of precipitation rises to 50 percent during the 9 p.m. hour. By then, temperatures will have dropped into the upper 70’s.
NOTES:
-- Muschamp on senior LB T.J. Holloman: “We put him in the middle of the field on a couple of occasions (at Vanderbilt). TJ is really smart. It's fun to coach really, really smart guys because they can do a lot of different things. You can talk them through it, you can show them on the board. TJ is a guy that has a high aptitude to learn extremely well on the board, in the film room, in a rep situation. He can play multiple spots without really having to rep the situation, so that's going to help his career, to be able to adapt himself to multiple situations.”
-- The popular NetFlix show, ‘Last Chance U., about JUCO Powerhouse East Mississippi Community College has put the spotlight squarely on junior college football in the Magnolia State. Muschamp has recruited there for years. “I’ve had tremendous success with players coming out of the Mississippi junior college league,” Muschamp said. “Obviously, Mississippi State's got several (JUCO) players on their team, outstanding players. There are a lot of good (JUCO) programs that do a good job helping a young man who may be academically challenged.”
-- ESPN.com’s ‘Viewer’s Guide’ to the USC-Mississippi State showdown in Starkville: “After beating Vanderbilt on the road Thursday, then turning around Saturday and watching Mississippi State lose at home to South Alabama, it's entirely possible for South Carolina to begin the season 2-0. Not bad for a team that was picked to finish last in the East. It will be interesting to see how the Bulldogs recover after such an embarrassing loss.”
-- Muschamp hinted this week Deebo Samuel would remain the punt returner for the Gamecocks even though he fumbled at Vanderbilt. The competition is fierce for the job. “We had a very open competition going into the first ballgame and Rashad Fenton and Chris Lammons and Deebo, all three we have confidence in,” Muschamp said. “We still have confidence in Deebo. We've gotten them live work everyday. Ball security was the best in camp, so that (Samuel’s fumble) was very uncharacteristic of what we've seen through camp.”
-- CollegeFootballNews.com predicts a 23-17 Mississippi State victory on Saturday night: “Mississippi State will bounce back – sort of. It’ll get the win with the secondary coming back from a rough day, and the offense will run just enough to keep control of the game. The biggest difference will be the special teams. Absolutely awful in the return game – not to mention Westin Graves’ two misses – the Bulldogs were miserable in the third phase. That’s not going to happen for a second week in a row.”
-- The Gamecocks are No. 10 in ESPN.com’s SEC Power Rankings after Week 1: “A win is a win, right? It wasn’t pretty, but the Gamecocks are trending up after they rallied from a 10-0 deficit on the road to beat Vanderbilt and give Will Muschamp a win in his debut. There are still plenty of kinks to work out on the offense, but quarterback Perry Orth proved to be the catalyst in the second half.”
-- Week 2 schedule in the SEC doesn’t feature many attractive matchups beyond the USC-Mississippi State clash in Starkville. Arkansas goes to Fort Worth to renew an old Southwest Conference rivalry, while Tennessee-Virginia Tech square off at the Bristol Motor Speedway in front of 150,000 fans.
Nicholls State at Georgia, Noon (SEC Network)
Prairie View A&M at Texas A&M, Noon (SECN Alt. Channel)
Western Kentucky at Alabama, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Kentucky at Florida, 3:30 p.m. (CBS)
Wofford at Ole Miss, 4 p.m. (SEC Network)
Middle Tennessee at Vanderbilt, 4 p.m. (SECN Alt. Channel)
South Carolina at Mississippi State, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
Arkansas at TCU, 7 p.m. (ESPN)
Arkansas State at Auburn, 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Eastern Michigan at Missouri, 7:30 p.m. (SECN Alt. Channel)
Jacksonville State at LSU, 7:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Tennessee at Virginia Tech, 8 p.m. (ABC)
