SOUTH CAROLINA GAMECOCKS FOOTBALL
Will Muschamp knows full well what's going through the minds of every Charleston Southern player, coach and fan right about now.
The Bucs are dealing with mandatory evacuations and preparing for a hurricane to come through Charleston this week.
The last thing the Bucs need to worry about is where they're going to practice and prepare, which is why Muschamp offered up the Gamecocks facility.
“They shut down school wise, so they’re in Charlotte and they’ll bus to Columbia, practice in our indoor and use the Dodie to eat lunch and dinner every night. They’ll use the Crews facility for film work. They’ll use the indoor for walk-thrus and our weight room to lift. Certainly we want to help these guys through a very difficult situation.”
Hurricane Dorian is already through the Bahamas, devastating parts of the island chain and is expected to hit Charleston Thursday and move up the east coast before turning back out to sea.
Governor Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency Saturday and mandatory evacuations of the coast—which included Charleston—began Monday morning.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who’s in the path of the storm," Muschamp said. "We’re going into our fourth year and had two situations in the fall with stuff like this. We’ll do anything we can to help.”
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The Bucs left during the evacuation and are already on campus practicing and will spend the week getting really familiar with Interstate 77 between Columbia and Charlotte.
The Crews facility, which is located in the north end zone at Williams-Brice, is still equipped with meeting room and film room space the team vacated in January when it moved over to the new operations building.
The Gamecocks have opened up their facilities to an in-state team so the Bucs can be as prepared as possible for Saturday's game in Columbia, which right now is expected to go off without a hitch.
“I think everything is on point and on time for Saturday at this time," Muschamp said. But as you guys know, you never know how this thing will manifest moving forward. We’ll continue to track it."
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Both teams are searching for their first win of the season with South Carolina dropping their opener to North Carolina while Charleston Southern lost 46-13 to Furman this week.
The Bucs are breaking in a first-year head coach in Autry Denson, who is a record-holding running back at Notre Dame and spent the last four years coaching the Fighting Irish's running backs.
“He was a great player at Notre Dame, coached the last four or five years at Notre Dame and is in his first year. Offensively, they’re a spread team so RPOs and spreading the ball out a bit. Defensively, they’re more of a four-down, with some three-down and quarters with middle field coverage.”
