Muschamp encouraged after bye week

Players had most of Friday off before getting to go home for the weekend, and then returned to the practice field this week to prepare for Vanderbilt.

Muschamp said heading into the week the focus was almost all on South Carolina, and feels optimistic about the team’s progress over the bye week.

“We’ll find out against Vanderbilt at 4 o’clock of how good of an open week it was,” he said. “That’s kind of how I judge if the open week was good: how good you play coming off of it. Again, I was pleased with the work we got in Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.”

Also see: Notes from Will Muschamp's Sunday teleconference

After a 15-9 win on the road at Tennessee, the Gamecocks had a few days off before three straight days of practice starting Tuesday.

Those practices were similar to those on Sundays after games and gave the coaching staff a chance to go over some things with younger players who may be redshirting or seeing limited action.

Muschamp said the Gamecocks also focused on red zone offense and third down efficiency on both sides of the ball. The team centered heavily on that during Wednesday and Thursday’s practices.

Those practices were productive with a few injured linemen getting back into the fold. Zack Bailey, Cory Helms and Malik Young all returning to action.

Also see: Assessing the needs on the Gamecock offensive line

The coaches also got a head start on the five remaining opponents on the schedule—Vanderbilt, Georgia, Florida, Wofford and Clemson—but haven’t shared those tapes with the team just yet.

“We got the young guys a lot of work on Tuesday, a lot of guys that maybe haven’t played this year yet. We got them involved and coached them like we normally do on a Sunday typically during the season. We got a lot of work done on South Carolina Wednesday and Thursday and looking ahead at some opponents.”

The Gamecocks now have their health and legs back under them staring down the final stretch of the season. They’re still sitting nicely in second place in the SEC East standings and are one win away from bowl eligibility for the ninth time in 10 seasons.

Finishing strong not only important in achieving the team’s over-arching goals of beating the east and winning the state, but for recruiting as well.

A few big-name prospects in the 2018 class are still deciding with the Gamecocks in the mix as signing day quickly approaches: Dax Hollifield, K.J. Henry, Channing Tindall and Rick Sandidge, to name a few.

Also see: Catching up with Gamecock commit Ernest Jones

That’s another thing the Gamecocks were able to take care of over the bye week: recruiting.

While the team was off, the coaching staff was on the road visiting prospects and getting a head start on recruiting before the offseason.

That was just as big as any kind of player improvements this week.

“We got a lot of recruiting done, which was obviously important,” Muschamp said. “I’m pleased with where things are.”