Muschamp: 'I never envisioned this'
SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL
Will Muschamp stood among a sea of players as the crowd swelled around him. He had his hand on Donell Stanley’s shoulder with tears swelling in the senior offensive linemen’s eyes as the alma mater played.
Behind them, Texas A&M’s players were singing and swaying with the fans in the stands as they celebrated a 30-6 win over South Carolina.
About 30 yards away on the sidelines university president Bob Caslen stood, arms crossed, and stone-faced. The alma mater finished up and the Gamecocks jogged into the locker room. As they walked to the locker room, fans leaned over the wall to the field and one voice stood out with a “We’re sick of it!” as they funneled into the locker room.
Muschamp filed in, wide-eyed, past Caslen and Ray Tanner, who put out a statement of support just over 24 hours earlier, past the two men who will make the decision on if he ultimately returns next year.
“From day one until now and moving forward, I’ve had wonderful communication and support number one from coach Tanner and his administration, number two the president’s office starting with president (Harris) Pastides and now with president Caslen and now the board,” Muschamp said, his voice wrought with frustration. “Everyone’s been unbelievably supportive. Publicly I don’t know what all’s out there, but I know from my standpoint everybody’s been supportive about where we’re headed and what we’re doing.”
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After talking the entire preseason about this being the deepest and most talented team of the Muschamp era, the Gamecocks sit at 4-7, their first losing regular season since he took over.
After talking this offseason about the litany of steps forward the offense will take in year two under Bryan McClendon, the Gamecocks failed to score a touchdown Saturday night and have scored four touchdowns over their last three games.
After talking about how this team is close to contending in the SEC East, the Gamecocks’ fate was sealed Saturday night in a 24-point loss to the Aggies and they’ll be staying home this bowl season.
“It’s frustrating,” Muschamp said. “It shouldn’t happen—call it like it is—at South Carolina. I never envisioned this.”
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The mood in the locker room was about as expected with frustration and anger setting in as they process the fact they’ll miss a postseason game for the first time since going 3-9 in 2015.
Muschamp preaches the support from Caslen, Tanner and the university’s Board of Trustees hasn’t waivered over the course of what he called a “rough year.”
Friday’s statement aside, there’s pressure from the fan base on social media to make a change, and that pressure continues to build as losses pile up.
“You couldn’t have told us we’d be sitting at 4-7, but that’s the way life’s gone for us,” said Ernest Jones, who admitted keeping noise at bay is hard. “But at the end of the day we have to block that noise out and keep playing. We have one game left with each other, and I’m ready for this next game. I’m not ready for it to end.”
The same problem that brought the end of his tenure at Florida, not being able to field a consistent offense, is plaguing this team now.
South Carolina hasn’t scored 30 points against a Power 5 team all year and is averaging 16.5 points over their last four games.
Injuries have something to do with it, and execution hasn’t been sharp but—to use a Muschamp-ism—at the end of the day, it falls on the coaching staff.
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The tools right now are in place to win at South Carolina with the athletic department turning a profit, the Gamecocks opened up a state-of-the-art, $50 million operations building in January and have some of the nicer facilities in the conference.
Saturday night, as he sat on a podium and took questions, Muschamp vowed to get South Carolina’s program to “where it hadn’t ever been before” and reiterated he still feels like he can do that.
But operations buildings and SEC money can’t score points and can’t win games. Sooner or later those investments have to show up on the field.
“We have the resources available now as far as the facilities are concerned,” Muschamp said. “We have the support to be successful, and we’ve always had the support to be successful. We’re not as far off as people seem to think we are.”
