The Gamecocks, and a lot of the SEC, took a step forward toward a college football season Monday morning with the start of summer workouts for each team.
As things get closer to when the Gamecocks are set to open their season less than 90 days from now, there’s a lot of question that still need answering but Muschamp is optimistic right now there will be a full college football season this fall.
“I’m very confident. I think in my role that’s what you have to plan for,” he said. “You have to plan that at some point we’ll get our players back in July and be able to work with our players, we’ll start training camp and report on August 6 and we’re going to play September 5 against Coastal Carolina in Williams-Brice Stadium. That’s what I’m planning on. My confidence level is very high for that.”
Also see: Full recap from Muschamp's teleconference
And honestly, most coaches have to be optimistic and hope for a full college football season; not planning for once is a disservice to players and can impact how a team prepares in the summer leading up to the season if the coaching staff isn’t operating on the idea the season goes off without a hitch.
Right now it does seem like there will be a college football season this fall with the biggest questions now being if it’s the full, 12-game schedule teams have had for close to a year and if fans will be allowed to attend games.
Both of those won’t get answered until closer to when the season starts, but Ray Tanner did offer a shinier opinion on fans being allowed into games this fall.
“I’m more optimistic today than maybe I was a few weeks ago, but we don’t know the numbers yet and that’ll certainly affect our budget. We’ll be prepared, whatever that circumstance turns out to be. We have models from no games—which is not a pretty sight—to having pretty normal situation to every range in between,” Tanner told the Board of Trustees Friday. “I’m optimistic I’ll be a little better than maybe what we once anticipated, but we’ll be ready to go and prepared to adjust when we have the opportunity"
Also see: Breaking down the DB board
The athletic department, Tanner said, is running models daily to determine what it will look like if the Gamecocks allow no fans, a full house and anything in between.
Tanner also mentioned to the board the decision on how many fans the Gamecocks will allow into Williams-Brice this fall won’t come until later in the summer once there is a clearer picture of where things stand with the Coronavirus.
“It is June 5. The first game is September 5. We’re three months away. Ideally you wait as long as you can to make a decision based on the information we have regarding this pandemic and what is a safe environment to our players and fans,” Tanner said. “At some point logistically, we can’t wait until September 1 to make that decision but we’ll do our very best to make it in a timely manner that will be as correct as we possibly can be.”
Right now the Gamecocks are scheduled to start their season Sept. 5 against Coastal Carolina with camp scheduled to begin roughly a month before that on Aug. 6.
The Gamecocks have seven home games this season—Coastal, East Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Georgia and Wofford—with five road trips scheduled to Kentucky, Florida, Vanderbilt, LSU and Clemson.
