Game week is officially here, and South Carolina's first matchup of the season is a big one.
The Gamecocks will host Tennessee Saturday night ta 7:30 p.m., welcoming in Jeremy Pruitt and the Vols.
For Pruitt, it's another game he coaches against Will Muschamp and Mike Bobo, two guys he's gone up against multiple times over the course of his career.
Pruitt held his first in-season press conference Monday and touched on some of that with his answers about Muschamp and Bobo, his team and much more below.
On South Carolina as a whole:
"We’ve got a tremendous challenge going on the road playing South Carolina. I’m very familiar with their staff. Coach Muschamp has done an outstanding job there, does a very good job on defense, hired Mike Bobo to be his offensive coordinator, a guy that I’ve worked with before who I feel like is one of the best offensive minds in all of football.
It will be a tremendous challenge on both sides of the ball. Then you throw in special teams, which for us has probably been a really huge point of emphasis just with the fact that we’ve had so many guys who have not been able to participate in practice and we’ve had to bounce guys around. We have a lot of work we have got to get done this week. We’ve got to continue to build and try to create momentum heading into Saturday’s matchup."
On Mike Bobo and Collin Hill:
:At the quarterback position, Mike Bobo has always done a fantastic job coaching the quarterbacks. Hill, he’s a guy that’s been in the system for five years, this might be his sixth year. He’s going to be very familiar, he’s going to get them in and out of checks, keep them out of bad plays. It’s a guy that we have to find a way to create some confusion and possibly create some turnovers."
On the No. 2 quarterback battle behind Jarrett Guarantano:
"It’s still open-ended heading into the weekend. We’ll make a decision over the next couple days and see who gives us the best opportunity. With Harrison and Brian, both of those guys have missed practice for different reasons during fall camp. So, JT has obviously had an opportunity to take more reps but we’re giving both of those guys a chance."
On Cade Mays and his waiver for immediate eligibility:
"We’ve got no indication as of yet. I’m sure that they will, it just makes too much sense not to. We’ve planned all along for Cade to be able to play. If you look at what went into the waiver process, it’s pretty evident that the young man needs an opportunity to play, or deserves an opportunity to play."
On what he knows about his team:
"I feel like we’ve got really good leadership all over our team. There’s lot of unknowns until you go out there and play and play together. I think there’s a willingness there to fight and find a way. That’s something that, we have to continue to develop that personality throughout the season. There’s going to be adversity, there’s going to be adversity on Saturday and we have to be able to overcome it and find the answers."
On the difference between Jarrett Guarantano heading into this season:
"The second go-around with an offensive coordinator for Jarrett, this will be the first time. You know, when you do the same thing over and over, it creates confidence. I would suspect that he’s got to have a lot more confidence heading into this season as opposed to the previous season because the terminology is the same; the people around him are the same. I feel like he’s demonstrated that at practice."
On running backs Ty Chandler and Eric Gray:
"I think both of these guys have had good camps. Eric obviously missed some days, but Ty’s been there the whole time. You continue to see improvement. Those guys compete with each other; they compete very hard every day.
It’s good to have both of those guys back there. They’re good leaders for the other guys. When you go on the road, to me it’s one of the great tests in all of football in this conference, is when you go on the road and play an SEC rival. You have to be able to block out the noise so if there’s 100,000 or 25,000 people you have to be able to block it out and execute and that’s what we’re going to do."
On relationship with Mike Bobo:
"Mike, he’s a competitor. Playing against him in college, coaching against him, coaching against him every day in practice, playing golf against him, shooting pool, he’s a competitor. Wants to win at everything he does. He’s going to have a great game plan. His kids are going to play hard. They’ll play together. It will be a challenge for us."
On naming a starter at tight end:
“No, there are still three or four guys we’re working there. We’ll see how this week goes. We'll settle on someone for the game, one or two (guys). That’s going to be a position we’re going to continue to challenge and create competition. That’s a good thing, because we have competition there. The guys continue to push each other.”
