Gamecocks get physical during bye week
"Run the football and stop the run." Two of the most common truisms uttered by every coach in America.
South Carolina went into its much-needed bye week looking to improve in both of those areas.
ALSO SEE: Scoop on four-star DB commit Jamyest Williams | Gamecocks watch five-star back on Friday | Weekend notes - Top Gamecocks' target on commit watch? | More on South Carolina's dynamic training system in The Insider Report
"Really in the off-week, we worked all good on good," Muschamp said. "We worked and really challenged the guys about the physicality. It's a culture that's within your program. It's got to be what you do, it's got to be in your DNA -- the ability to run the ball and stop the run -- and we haven't done as good a job as we need to in either category in the SEC."
While there have been plenty of issues to lead to South Carolina's 14 points per game scoring average through the first half of the season, an inability to create anything in the running game has been one of the biggest.
In SEC games only -- the metric Mushamp says he prefers -- South Carolina averages just 87.4 yards per game on the ground and 2.75 yards per carry. Even if you remove the 119 yards lost due to sacks in conference play, Carolina averages just 111.1 rushing yards per game and 3.5 yards per carry.
"In the SEC, as far as normally statistically I look at SEC games only, and right now we've got to improve ourselves as far as our offense is concerned," Muschamp said. "We're 10th in rushing defense (243.40 yards allowed per game) in SEC games only. Third downs has been an issue as far as offensively staying on the field, that's been as much of an issue for us offensively as anything. We're at 27 percent and when you can't maintain drives, can't stay on the field."
Muschamp says he and his staff have "looked at all options" regarding the offense. Whether it's making a shift at quarterback and playing freshman Jake Bentley for the first time. Or shuffling an offensive line that's struggled for most of the season. The staff is looking at everything.
"We do a quality control each week and study ourselves each week on what we do and tendencies and things," Muschamp said. "Just going back and evaluating what we can do from a personnel standpoint or schematic standpoint to be better, and obviously we looked at a lot of things. Hopefully, moving forward, we'll continue to improve."
Despite the statistical deficiencies, Muschamp has remained positive through the struggles during his first year in Columbia. And he plans to maintain that positivity while trying to implement more physicality.
"There's a lot more positive than there is negative, considering our numbers and considering our situations," Muschamp said. "So that's how I'm going to can it. There's been some improvement in the last two weeks. We've got to take care of the ball and we didn't. Those are things that are frustrating, that we're going to have a hard time to overcome. There are some positive things that have been there and we've just got to capitalize on things, we've got to focus a little better, we've got to strain a little better, we've got to continue to improve a physicality on finishing things up front and move forward in that light."
ALSO SEE: Scoop on four-star DB commit Jamyest Williams | Gamecocks watch five-star back on Friday | Weekend notes - Top Gamecocks' target on commit watch? | More on South Carolina's dynamic training system in The Insider Report
