Muschamp addresses trash talking, end of half
There are times Will Muschamp will let trash talking slide and give players a longer leash than normal.
Then, when trash talk crosses a line is when the coaches get involved, and that message was conveyed twice over the last 24 hours.
“I don’t tolerate it,” Muschamp said. I’m not going to put up with it when it hurts our team.”
Also see: Ten stats from Saturday's blowout win
The Gamecocks (1-2) had two glaring instances where jawing or losing composure affected the team, once in both halves.
Late in the game an Jordan Rhodes was caught in a scuffle with a Vanderbilt player that resulted in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (along with the Vandy player), but the most talked about one was the end of the half.
With the clock winding down and no timeouts, South Carolina wanted to take a shot to the end zone up 10 but a few players were busy jawing with the defensive personnel and it caused the clock to expire without getting a play off.
Muschamp said the incident was brought up with the players at halftime and again while the team was watching film.
Also see: Instant analysis from the win
“We had two situations where it was detrimental to the team,” he said. “We had an opportunity to take a shot at the end zone and run out of time because some of that stuff was going on. We addressed it at halftime and it was addressed again today with our football team.”
The play at the end of the half took away a chance to score late, and Muschamp wanted to at least take a shot before the end of the half.
“We’re trying to take a shot in the end zone. It’s fourth down. I told Mike to run it down and let’s go Berlin and take a shot in the end zone. Our guys were mouthing off,” “It was their guys, too, so don’t just blame our guys.”
Muschamp knows trash talking can’t and won’t ever be completely eliminated from the game, and doesn’t mind if players do it as long as the words getting exchanged don’t do any kind of harm to the team’s chances to win.
Also see: What went right, what went wrong against Vandy
“We discourage it. Obviously it gets competitive at times,” Muschamp said. “Sometimes those things happen.”
The Gamecocks are coming off a 41-7 win over Vanderbilt and will host Auburn at noon Saturday.
