It's been a little over 2.5 years since Will Muschamp fell into Carolina's lap after flirtations with Herman, Fuente and Smart. I don't think anyone knows for sure where he was in the pecking order, except behind Herman nd ahead of Fuente. Boom, got a bit of a bad rap from his days running the show at Florida. I think everyone expected him to do what Spurrier and Meyer did and run the East year in and year out. The reality, first time coaches often fall short. Look no further than the man considered to be the best football coach on the planet, Bill Belicheck. Not having a QB, and John Roper calling plays and the offenses he had at UF were awful. So outside of the the three game improvements each of the first two years how has the teams talent level changed since Champ came to Carolina.
NFL Talent: Like with most staffs as they come in there is turnover. Prior to Will coming to Carolina, a number of players were drafted off Spurriers last squad. Cooper, Shell and Adams were all taken by the league prior to playing a down for the new staff. That left the cupboards pretty bare, which makes the improvements the team has made in record even more impressive.
In the two drafts since Champ started coaching games, a total of 1 player(Hayden Hurst) was deemed worthy of a pick by an NFL team. 1 player in 2 years if a horrible stat indicative of how bare the cupboards were when the staff came on board. Now there are still 2 plus classes(when you add 5th year players, left in Spurriers classes, so that number will go up) I'm sure you will hear some more names like Bailey, Cooper, Fenton and Edwards get names called next year. So how do the positions stack up from when Spurrier left to where Carolina is now?
TE: I think the most obvious positions were Carolina has regressed is TE and PK. Hayden Hurst and Elliot Fry were excellent players and very difficult to recruit up to that level. We all know how good Hurst was, as BMore was willing to use a 1st round pick on a 24 year old rookie, I'm sure if he was 21 he would have gone even higher. The Gamecocks really struggled with FG kicking, especially beyond 40 yards last year. Fry was steady as they get and part of a great run of FG for Carolina.
WR: I think this may be another position where we may have been in better position prior to Champ. Cooper, Edwards, and Samuel were all on the roster when Champ took over. Granted two of the 3 are still on the roster and Smith, Smith and Davis have been added so it's matter how you look at it. If it's current roster, it's better now. If it is Spurriers guys vs Champs recruits, I would go with Spurriers.
RB: There is plenty of depth here, albeit not top end talent. Overall, the team is much more capable of handling injury due to the depth created. I am very interested in seeing what Fenwick can do, and if T.Williams can live up to potential. Long term, Vallentine brings a potential home run hitter, so I would say its been upgraded.
QB: Jake has struggled at times, especially early in games with bad over-throws, however a Bentley and Joyner have far superior talent to what was inherited in Mitch, McCalwain, Nunez and Orth. That's not even figuring in Hilinski coming. The Achilles of Champs Florida career, not looks like it is becoming one of the strongest positions on the team. I expect a major step forward with Dan Werner helping at QB, Bmac speeding up offense, Debo being back and a year more under wolfie as OL coach with an experienced line.
OL: There is no question the talent and depth has been increased under Muschamp here. OL usually take a few years to develop, and there are several hold-overs that are prominent players now as upper-classment, however there is a bunch of new blood coming through; Hutcherson, Iyama, Gibbs, Douglas, Manos etc are more than equal substitutions for players like Helms, Wladrop, Standick
The Staff: This is where it isn't even close. As good as Spurrier was as an in game coach(as good as there ever has been on offense) Look at the staff; Deke, GA, Elliot, Botkin, Hoke, Ward, Bubba, Ward, Sands, Joe Robinson and Connely. Where are we not better to much better outside of HC playing calling? Better coaches, Better recruiters and better strength coach. As bad as Bubba was as a recruiter, he was strong in WR development, and Elliot was a huge improvement over Hunt but isn't Wolfy good.
This staff is at least as good if not better than any staff Carolina has had since Holtz put together his early staffs with Skip and Charlie as coordinators(that's strong) Even with the upgrades there, the additions of ML21 as a life coach, Jessica Jackson and our social media program just make the upgrades even more exaggerated.
Next: On to defense, where Book really excels in development and evaluating.
NFL Talent: Like with most staffs as they come in there is turnover. Prior to Will coming to Carolina, a number of players were drafted off Spurriers last squad. Cooper, Shell and Adams were all taken by the league prior to playing a down for the new staff. That left the cupboards pretty bare, which makes the improvements the team has made in record even more impressive.
In the two drafts since Champ started coaching games, a total of 1 player(Hayden Hurst) was deemed worthy of a pick by an NFL team. 1 player in 2 years if a horrible stat indicative of how bare the cupboards were when the staff came on board. Now there are still 2 plus classes(when you add 5th year players, left in Spurriers classes, so that number will go up) I'm sure you will hear some more names like Bailey, Cooper, Fenton and Edwards get names called next year. So how do the positions stack up from when Spurrier left to where Carolina is now?
TE: I think the most obvious positions were Carolina has regressed is TE and PK. Hayden Hurst and Elliot Fry were excellent players and very difficult to recruit up to that level. We all know how good Hurst was, as BMore was willing to use a 1st round pick on a 24 year old rookie, I'm sure if he was 21 he would have gone even higher. The Gamecocks really struggled with FG kicking, especially beyond 40 yards last year. Fry was steady as they get and part of a great run of FG for Carolina.
WR: I think this may be another position where we may have been in better position prior to Champ. Cooper, Edwards, and Samuel were all on the roster when Champ took over. Granted two of the 3 are still on the roster and Smith, Smith and Davis have been added so it's matter how you look at it. If it's current roster, it's better now. If it is Spurriers guys vs Champs recruits, I would go with Spurriers.
RB: There is plenty of depth here, albeit not top end talent. Overall, the team is much more capable of handling injury due to the depth created. I am very interested in seeing what Fenwick can do, and if T.Williams can live up to potential. Long term, Vallentine brings a potential home run hitter, so I would say its been upgraded.
QB: Jake has struggled at times, especially early in games with bad over-throws, however a Bentley and Joyner have far superior talent to what was inherited in Mitch, McCalwain, Nunez and Orth. That's not even figuring in Hilinski coming. The Achilles of Champs Florida career, not looks like it is becoming one of the strongest positions on the team. I expect a major step forward with Dan Werner helping at QB, Bmac speeding up offense, Debo being back and a year more under wolfie as OL coach with an experienced line.
OL: There is no question the talent and depth has been increased under Muschamp here. OL usually take a few years to develop, and there are several hold-overs that are prominent players now as upper-classment, however there is a bunch of new blood coming through; Hutcherson, Iyama, Gibbs, Douglas, Manos etc are more than equal substitutions for players like Helms, Wladrop, Standick
The Staff: This is where it isn't even close. As good as Spurrier was as an in game coach(as good as there ever has been on offense) Look at the staff; Deke, GA, Elliot, Botkin, Hoke, Ward, Bubba, Ward, Sands, Joe Robinson and Connely. Where are we not better to much better outside of HC playing calling? Better coaches, Better recruiters and better strength coach. As bad as Bubba was as a recruiter, he was strong in WR development, and Elliot was a huge improvement over Hunt but isn't Wolfy good.
This staff is at least as good if not better than any staff Carolina has had since Holtz put together his early staffs with Skip and Charlie as coordinators(that's strong) Even with the upgrades there, the additions of ML21 as a life coach, Jessica Jackson and our social media program just make the upgrades even more exaggerated.
Next: On to defense, where Book really excels in development and evaluating.
