SEC: Will Muschamp says this is his best Gamecocks football team yet at South Carolina

Gentry Estes
Courier Journal

HOOVER, Ala. – South Carolina senior quarterback Jake Bentley has noticed the towels.

They’re no longer scattered across the floor.

“(Players) have pride in our building that it’s nice and they want to keep it nice and put towels back in the laundry bin,” Bentley said. “We don’t leave food on the table, because it’s our building. It’s just more of a sense of pride. That has been really, really cool to see.”

Off the field, it’s a new and exciting time for South Carolina’s program. That’s courtesy of a sparkling football operations building that opened earlier this year and led to those disappearing towels.

On the field, we’ll see.

Coach Will Muschamp’s three years in charge of the Gamecocks have been a mixed bag: Not terrible. Not great either, especially when compared to some peaking rivals.

Muschamp has gone 22-17 and reached three bowl games. He has actually won more games in his first three seasons than any head coach ever at South Carolina (Steve Spurrier won 21), and yet is being mentioned among SEC coaches nearest hot-seat status entering this season.

“As far as where our program is, it's not where we want to be. I can assure you of that,” Muschamp said Wednesday at SEC media days. “Our goal every year is win the (SEC) East … and to win our state. And we haven't done either one in three years.”

Few coaches anywhere have had more unfortunate timing than Muschamp. He inherited a three-win team at South Carolina, having to rebuild while also have to follow the most successful coach the Gamecocks had ever had.

Spurrier showed what was possible at South Carolina, winning 11 games three seasons in a row from 2011-13. And if that didn’t whet the appetite of the Gamecocks’ fanbase for much more, what’s happening across the state at Clemson is surely doing it now.

Again, Muschamp’s luck. In three of his past five seasons as a head coach (at Florida in 2013 and South Carolina in 2016 and 2018), his program’s biggest in-state archrival – Florida State or Clemson -- won the national championship. The only year of the past four that Clemson did not play for the national title was in 2017, when Georgia – another prominent and nearby rival – did.

Georgia and Clemson, of course, are on South Carolina’s 2019 schedule. And this year, so is Alabama, which has played in each of the past four national title games. Throw in an opening game against North Carolina and a later date against one of the better mid-major programs in Appalachian State, and the Gamecocks might have the toughest schedule in college football.

“I know people are going to ask me about the schedule. Hell, schedule's hard every year,” Muschamp said. “That is the way I look at it. We have a great opportunity to step forward as a program.”

In spite of the challenges, Muschamp enters the season optimistic. Some of last year’s issues appear fixable, such as empty red-zone trips and dropped passes.

He likes the improvement and additional depth on a defense that needed both, finishing 12th in the SEC in total defense during an injury-saddled 2018 season.

“Defensively, we flat-out struggled. We weren't very good. Call it like it is,” Muschamp said. “… Some of the growing pains that we went through this past year I think will be positives for us with some of the game experience the guys probably got too soon.”

He likes an offensive line that’s more athletic.

And there’s Bentley, an experienced quarterback who last season threw 27 touchdowns and an average of 264.2 yards a game last season, fourth-best in the SEC.

Muschamp called this the “best team coming back in South Carolina since I have been there.”

Bentley concurred: “Without a doubt.”

“We as a team have come a long way,” Bentley said. “… Guys that were forced to play as freshmen have matured a lot and understand what it takes to win.”