New assistants giving Gamecocks a big boost already

SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL

South Carolina welcomed in four new players to its 2019 signing class Wednesday, but a few weeks before that added two big pieces to the Gamecocks’ coaching staff.

Both Thomas Brown and John Scott Jr. have joined the team’s staff recently and have spent the last few weeks leading up to signing day recruiting and Will Muschamp has been impressed with what he’s seen so far.

“Thomas is very experienced at the position obviously having played the position at a very high level,” Muschamp said. “I recruited Tucker High School and have known about Thomas for a very long time. He’s extremely competitive and has a high expectation for his room.”

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Brown was the first addition to the staff this offseason, coming on in early January as the team’s new running backs coach with Bobby Bentley moving over to coach tight ends.

He comes to South Carolina after a brief stint as Miami’s running backs coach and offensive coordinator and, before that, spent time at Georgia and Wisconsin coaching running backs.

Over his career he’s coached some of the best backs in the country, including Heisman runner-up Melvin Gordon and most recently Georgia’s two-headed duo of Sony Michel and Nick Chubb, both of whom are starting in the NFL.

“He certainly makes us better. It's great to have, and we're very fortunate to have, a guy like Bobby Bentley on staff who's been a head coach. He's been a coordinator,” Muschamp said. “He's been a quarterbacks coach, and he's been a running backs coach. It will be a seamless transition for him (to tight ends coach) and certainly give a good perspective for our tight ends to see the game in some different ways.”

Also see: Full recap from Will Muschamp's signing day press conference

John Scott is the newest piece to the staff, taking over for Lance Thompson coaching the defensive line.

Scott comes over from Arkansas, where he spent two seasons. Prior to that he was with the Jets as a quality control coach and earning a promotion to an assistant coach working with the defensive line under Todd Bowles.

It was his time with the Jets and learning from a defensive-minded head coach in Bowles that attracted Muschamp to Scott Jr. and the new assistant coach was impressive after a “lengthy” interview process.

“His detail and teaching progression, he’s very similar. Todd Bowles is a 3-4 guy and it’s hard to find D-line coaches that know how to teach two-gap,” Muschamp said. “He understands that process. And how he coaches it is exactly how we coach it. Then some of the one-gap ideas they had were very good.”

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Scott Jr. was raised in South Carolina and has already started recruiting around the area and has meshed well with the defensive staff already in place.

“He’s from the state of South Carolina—from Greer and played at Western Carolina. Talking to high school coaches in the state of South Carolina, in the state of Georgia they had nothing but very positive things to say on the recruiting trail,” Muschamp said. “He has a great work ethic and has done a great job with our staff. We’re excited to have John here.”