SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL
South Carolina held its first scrimmage of the preseason Monday afternoon, taking players over for their first workout at Williams-Brice before the season to get a full game day atmosphere vibe less than three weeks before the season starts.
It was a 150-snap scrimmage with all three groups getting roughly 50 snaps apiece as a chance to show the coaching staff what they capable of in hopes of earning more playing time.
With so much depth, Muschamp said, this is the first year the coaches could really bring along some of the younger players during scrimmages.
“It helps to develop the bottom half of your roster. That’s where young players can really be developed in the program, especially on the line of scrimmage. That’s where it makes a difference in your team and this is the first time we’ve been able to do this in fall camp.”
Also see: Full recap from Will Muschamp's press conference
Will Muschamp met with the media after to discuss his overall impressions of what happened Monday afternoon.
Overall thoughts: “I was pleased with the tempo, pleased how we handled the day. We had some nice heat out there, which is good for us to get accustomed to that because it’s going to be hot. I’m overall pleased with how the day went. We had to live kickoff coverages, couple live punt coverages. It’s good for us to play in space because that first game, you’re always concerned about special teams situations.”
On the offense: “We need to throw the ball better. I thought we ran the ball pretty successfully in camp but we’re not as consistent in the throwing game whether that from a protection standpoint or throwing and catching it. we had a couple explosive plays: Jake (Bentley) hit Shi (Smith) on a big touchdown and then hit Mon (Denson) in a one-minute situation to put us in field goal range to win. that was positive, but we need to be more consistent throwing the football.”
Also see: Latest team scoop from camp
On the defense: “I’ve been pleased with our front seven and how we’ve played. We need to continue to work on the perimeter as far as leveraging the ball, tackling and getting guys on the ground in space. I think we tackled pretty well today. We had short yardage and goal line on practice six but today was our first time out on the field tackling and thought we tackled well.”
On special teams:“I’m pleased with where we are special teams-wise. We have more team speed than we’ve ever had. We have some really good specialists with Parker (White) and Joe (Charlton's) had a great camp. I like where he is right now. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the day.”
