Spring practice is always important for freshmen and young players, but this year there was a little added weight to South Carolina’s spring practice.
Coming off a 4-8 season last year and breaking in a new offensive coordinator in Mike Bobo, the Gamecocks were in need of a full 15 practices and a month of meetings to fully absorb the system.
They didn’t get it—Coronavirus spurned any chance of normalcy five practices into the spring—which led to the Gamecocks having to learn the new system virtually.
“At the end of the day, you can only do so much in a Zoom setting. You need to be able to walk through and you need to be able to practice. You need to be able to coach off the film, off the guys on the field. That’s the bottom line,” Will Muschamp said. “You can only do so much during meetings. The guys have worked hard and done a nice job with the meetings, and the coaches have done a good job as well, but there’s only so much you can get done.”
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The Gamecocks went home in the middle of March, forcing Mike Bobo and the offensive staff to install the new offense over Zoom meetings and interactive apps like Learn To Win.
Because it’s a little different of a learning tool, the Bobo slowed down the installation process, taking a one-day install and going through it over the course of four hours in a week with his new offense.
That process wrapped up at the beginning of May and they’re continuing installation and conversations about the offense as summer starts.
The good thing, Muschamp said, is they were able to get on the field albeit briefly in the spring which gives Bobo a sense of what the offense could look like this year.
“Fortunately we got in five practices and that’s more than a lot of people did. That does give you a little—I’m not saying comfort level—but it does ease your mind a little bit,” Muschamp said. “I know from Mike’s standpoint to be able to get on the field with a guy and have a better feel for what they can handle, what they can do and what we can do best.”
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The Gamecocks moved back to campus at the beginning of June and welcome in their entire recruiting class except for ZaQuandre White, who Muschamp said is expected to arrive in mid-July.
The freshmen, though, did have the opportunity to step into a few of Bobo’s offensive and position meetings before even arriving on campus to try and get a jump on learning the playbook.
“They had to have officially graduated from high school before they could attend the Zoom meetings,” Muschamp said. “When I say officially, I don’t necessarily mean walk but they’ve completed their classes. Once they completed their classes, they were able to take part in Zoom meetings. Most of our guys were able to have a week and a half or two weeks of our Zoom meetings. It was a little advantage but not much.”
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Right now, the Gamecocks are only doing strength and conditioning work in June at the facility and continuing their installation meetings over Zoom.
Muschamp is hoping for the chance to have his players on campus in July for some in-person instruction.
“There is not a July calendar yet of when we’ll be able to meet with our players,” he said. “I don’t know when that’s going to happen. Obviously we’ll work with a couple different models and prepare for those things but we don’t know when that’ll happen.”
