Todd Gurley: Bryan McClendon 'is the man'

Gurley, who will start for the Rams in Super Bowl LIII Sunday in Atlanta, was at Georgia when the Gamecocks' playcaller was an assistant coach and still keeps up with McClendon to this day, he said this week at media day for the big game, via our friends at WLTX.

"B-Mac is the man," Gurley said Monday, while crediting McClendon for recruiting him and other top backs to Georgia. "He's one of the biggest reasons for all our success. Just instilling all those fundamentals, all those practices, all those long talks, all those long days we had, all the time we had with him.

"He really taught us, taught us the whole game, how to practice, how to be a man. Still talk to Coach McClendon to this day. He's one of the key factors in helping my game to where it's at. So I definitely give him a lot of credit for sure."

McClendon spent times in various roles as an assistant coach at Georgia from 2009 to 2015 before joining Will Muschamp's staff in Columbia.

Gurley was at Georgia from 2012-14 and accumulated 3,285 rushing yards from scrimmage under McClendon's tutelage as running backs coach.

In McClendon's first season as South Carolina's playcaller this past season, the Gamecocks' offense scored 30.1 points per game, nearly a full touchdown per game better than its 24.2 average the season before.

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