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Wes Mitchell
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-- South Carolina still has one remaining assistant coach vacancy on staff and head coach Will Muschamp will almost certainly fill that position soon as coaches can go on the road again starting Thursday due to the end of the dead period. Muschamp has mentioned publicly multiple times that he wants to have the hire made by this week and I'm sure he'll want to have a full staff on campus prior to the official visit weekend beginning January 15.
The three names that I've heard the most buzz about in connection to the job are FAU secondary coach Corey Bell, former Alabama linebacker Freddie Roach, and former South Carolina linebacker Rod Wilson.
We've of course mentioned Bell to you previously and he'd be an excellent fit due to his south Florida and USC ties. Roach has spent time at South Alabama and is now in an off-the-field player development position at Alabama (it now makes sense that Muschamp would wait until this week to make a hire since it's likely he would wait until after the title game to interview Roach). Wilson is a well-respected up-and-coming coach with obvious USC and SC ties who currently serves as Charleston Southern's inside linebackers coach.
I've also heard there may be one other name out there who is a possibility and hasn't been mentioned at all, but I've not been able to confirm that (or even who it is) at this point.
I don't get the sense that (as of this writing) Muschamp has made a final decision on who the coach will be, and it doesn't appear to be a decision that he's taken lightly as he'll consider all factors before making a final determination.
While there was some buzz about former Clemson assistant and current Jacksonville State defensive coordinator David Blackwell being a candidate, it's not likely that he's the choice, based on what I've been told.
-- As I mentioned Tuesday afternoon, South Carolina has offered class of 2016 Atlanta (Ga.) B.E.S.T. Academy three-star tight end Robert Tucker, per his coach, and he's set an official visit for Jan. 22.
The 6-foot-3, 240-pounder is being recruited by wide receivers coach Bryan McClendon but has also talked to Muschamp on the phone, I'm told. Schools like Indiana, Louisville and Wake Forest are the "biggest" programs to previously offer Tucker, but I'm told he was receiving attention from Auburn and that the previous Georgia staff was also recruiting him hard, prior to the coaching change there.
From the feedback I've gotten, the offer went a long way with Tucker, and at this point I'd project him to end up at South Carolina.
-- As you probably know, we had the opportunity to meet with South Carolina's new assistant coaches last week, and one of the coaches I was most interested to talk with is assistant head coach for defense and defensive line coach Lance Thompson. Thompson gave a pretty interesting take on his pitch -- or lack of a recruiting pitch -- to recruits for this story.
Thompson is known for being an excellent recruiter and when you hear him speak it's easy to see why as he sort of has that it factor as someone who has a clear, concise message and can also command a room.
Thompson, who will transition back to coaching the defensive line -- a position he coaches earlier in his career -- from linebacker, is actually excited to get back to that position and doesn't believe it will be a difficult move.
"Coaching anywhere is just teaching and when you're a good teach you want to inspire the student to learn and to want to be the best they can be," Thompson said.
Thompson says the techniques aren't that different across the defense and that he enjoyed getting to help coach all positions in Auburn's bowl game.
While Thompson acknowledges that recruiting always get talks about, he says that developing talent is key to any program and says that as a coach you have to communicate the expectations to the players.
"One of the questions I'm going to ask those guys is, 'What's the standard?'" Thompson said. "How do you get there? And I want them to see what I see. And if they don't see what I see, then I'm going to teach them what I see, and I'm going to teach them how to get there. Because I have a vision for what a good defensive line looks like and I've been around a lot of great defensive linemen -- recruited them and coached them."
Some of the coaches Thompson has worked under in his career: Will Muschamp, Nick Saban, Bobby Ross, George O'Leary, Kirby Smart, Monte Kiffin, Justin Wilcox.
I also thought y'all would like this nugget: Thompson said if you're not willing to enjoy working a 16 hour day, then you're probably not going to be a very good coach. That type of work ethic is one of the reasons he's the recruiter that he is today.
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