Ray Tanner joined Jay Phillips and Tommy Moody for his monthly appearance on 107.5 FM Wednesday and spent his time discussing the status of the football program under Will Muschamp.
Below is everything he said on his monthly spot.
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On why he supports Will Muschamp:
“I could talk for a long time on your question but I’ll surmise it in one word: investment. When you know there’s an investment, there’s a good chance there’s going to be a return. Does it happen today, tomorrow or when you want to? Not necessarily. But I see that. I’ve seen it for a long time. Football is a process. There’s a lot of people involved. If there’s one sport it does take time, and I think you can do your home work, there’s been a lot of coaches where it’s taken them a lot of time to put a program in place they’re proud of and the fan base is proud of.
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“We’re certainly not happy with where we are today record wise, coach Muschamp or anyone else affiliated with football. I feel personally believe the investment is being made with his work ethic, his staff and what going on inside the building and his student athletes. I deal with them. I go to practices and I travel with them. I’m a part of what they do. It’s not a case of, ‘Well, you’re the athletic director who was part of the hiring process.’ I’m not taking that stance at all. My stance is I know what’s going on. I believe strongly that our fan base and our biggest supporters are going to be very happy at some point. It’s not today because no one wants to be at four wins as we sit here. I believe strongly in what we’re doing. He is our football coach and I expect him to be our football coach for a long, long time.”
On why Muschamp's work ethic and recruiting ability is important:
“They go a long way. He does that as good as anyone I’ve been around. I can just check on what his sons, Jackson and Whit, are doing—Jackson just came off another state championship—and before the conversations’ over we’re talking about recruiting. That’s just what he does. That’s the lifeblood of your program. His track record speaks for itself. You talk about winning 10 or 11 games. We’ve won four. That’s a challenge in recruiting, it certainly is, but I don’t think that’s slowed us down any this year. Now we certainly had to overcome other things to go along with it but I think he and his staff are working really hard to do as we sit here today. It’s impressive. That’s why I believe strongly in who Will Muschamp is, who he stands for and what this program will be moving forward and will be fore years to come.”
On what he sees in Will Muschamp:
“Would I like to score 45 points per game and hold teams scoreless? Yeah, I would, in all sports. But football there’s so much going on in a program. There’s a lot of moving parts. There are a lot of players, a lot of position coaches, a lot of things happen. There is an evolution. I don’t care if you’re at Alabama, at Georgia, at the University of South Carolina, there’s evolution of what goes on in football. There are a lot of changes from time to time with some that are publicized and some that aren’t. That’s part of what college football is all about.”
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How involved will you be in the evaluation after the season:
“It’s a formal process. I came out a couple weeks ago with a statement, and I didn’t really want to do that. That’s out of the normal protocol. I meet with our coaches after their seasons. Do I meet with them the day after or two days after? Sometimes, but it’s not necessarily that quick. It could be two weeks based on what the schedule is. There’s a formal review we do with coaches where they have a chance to evaluate all of our departments whether it’s compliance, whether it’s marketing, whatever the unit is, they get a chance to review it and that department gets a chance to evaluate them. Certainly we evaluate the success of the program. That’s about how many games you win. Whether it’s football or women’s soccer, there’s an evaluation process you go through. At least I do, and most athletic directors do, they want to do that at the end of the season. I made a statement earlier because I thought there was too much noise surrounding the program. He’s our football coach, period. I guess it was on the SEC Network where Tom Hart made a statement that he didn’t think my statement was strong enough. He didn’t speak with me. He just read a sentence and went with it. Being part of the program, being inside our program—which not many people are—I believe strongly in what he’s doing, what he stands for and the future of our program.”
On what he likes about the program right now:
“I think we’ve alluded to a couple things with the work ethic that is inside the building from his staff and his players, the recruiting investment being made year round, the technique in practice and the things they do. I’m not telling you I’m a football expert and I know everything about technique but I know the investment is there. That’s important to me. Is winning important? Yes it’s important. I’ve probably had five conversations with our volleyball coach as he sits on the bubble of going to the NCAA tournament. I’m all about winning. Is it win or else? Not all the time. But winning is part of the equation, there’s no question about it.”
On what expectations are for Will Muschamp and his program:
“If you sat down with him, he’d be a lot more pointed than I am. I’m an athletics director. When I was a coach, I never sat my players down and said we’re going to go win the East this year or we’re going to win the overall, win the conference tournament or win a regional, super regional and going to the College World Series. I never had those conversations. I always talked about us needing to do the things we needed to do to be in a position to be successful at a high level—a position to be successful at a high level. Are we in that position at the University of South Carolina across the board in all of our sports? We’re almost there. There are a couple of facility improvements I need to make outside of football for a couple of our coaches. But the position is really, really good. Our football program is in that position. That doesn’t mean you’re going to win the East every year. But can we challenge for an Eastern division title? Absolutely. Are we in a position to do that? Well, we won down in Georgia. They did win the East. Did we win some other games we expected to win? We did not. But I think you have to look at that in detail. Are you going to win it every year? You’re not going to do that. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series and eight months later it was gone and (Dave) Dombrowski out as general manager. A lot of things can happen. The key is: is your program in a good enough position to win? I can’t tell you the years I’ve been here whether I’ve been coaching or been the athletics director we’ve been in good enough position in some of our sports to win at a high level. I believe we are in football. That’s not to say it’s going to be CFP or bust. Would I like to land in that spot? Absolutely. You be TL the people inside that building at the Long Family Football Operations Center feel that way. You have to be realistic that we can contend. We maybe have to do things differently whether you get into specifics about protecting the football. We are in a good position. My expectations are we’re good enough to challenge for the opportunity to win at a high level.”
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On injuries and other things to happen this season:
“If I engage in this conversation, there are a certain number of listeners who’ll say I’m making excuses. I’m not making excuses. One of the things I’ve had to do during this football season is after we got well underway I’m saying who’s out today before the game. For a long time we haven’t been able to put all our players on the field. I know other programs go through the same things. I get that there’s no rhyme or reason sometimes. You can be unlucky and that’s part of it. That’s not something we hang our hat on or make excuses about. It’s part of the deal. You either win or lose and that’s what you’re measured on.”
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