I’ve always been sort of on the fence about Muschamp. I mean when we hired him I wasn’t super excited about the hire and worried whether he truly was capable of elevating a program like S.C., but at the same time I did consider him and the staff he put together good recruiters, and felt comfortable with his ability to coach up a very good defense. So I was cautiously optimistic and willing to take a wait and see attitude.
2016 I was happy with. I spent 2015 and most of 2016 reading on this very board how our program had been so decimated it would be 4-5 years before we had a chance to be competitive again. Many on here were convinced we were years away from a chance to even return to a bowl. I think most objective people agree he did a pretty good job at least putting out the dumpster fire in 2016.
2017 while not spectacular at the end of the day was a 9 win season with a bowl victory over Michigan 2 years removed from 3 wins and a loss to the Citadel. Again, most any objective observer would say overall a good coaching job and the program at this point looks to definitely be on the right track.
That’s brings us to last season. Some good, hard fought conference wins. 4-4 in the SEC. At least competitive offensively against Clemson. Some good signs at times but also some worrisome signs- no upsets. Let the Florida game get away. At the end of the day 7-5 regular season. Nothing to be excited about but at the same time in only the third year with the relative good performances of the preceding seasons certainly nothing that would have most people ready to throw in the towel. Up to this point I was still certainly on board.
And that brings us to the infamous Belk Bowl. What a disaster that game was for us. We looked so bad, we looked outcoached. And I mentioned on the way home from that game that the UNC game scared me because if we lost to a 2-10 UNC team coming off that bowl performance everyone would jump ship. That’s basically what has happened. Personally I thought UNC played a very good game and looked much better on the field than they did on paper. How much of that was because of us? I don’t know honestly. I do think they have talent but none of that excuses the loss. The game was an absolute must win and we lost it. As I said the night after the game I like Muschamp and I want him to succeed, but I’m not even sure how I’d try to go about defending him after these last two games. I will say this though, he’s not going to get fired before December 31 because of that buy out. You can not like that, you can get mad about it, but that’s the facts. So might as well see how the rest of the season plays out. Do I expect we will turn it around and have a great season? Definitely not. But it’s amazing how often the conventional wisdom is wrong in college football. Teams can and often do turn things around. That UNC team that lost to the worst Gamecock team this century up in Charlotte in 2015 went on to go 11-1. Nobody expected it, and nobody expected us to win 3 games that year. This is not a great team and I wouldn’t bet anything we even make a bowl this year but all that said I’ve seen the unexpected happen in college football more times than I can count and Muschamp isn’t going anywhere this year so we might as well see how the season plays out.
2016 I was happy with. I spent 2015 and most of 2016 reading on this very board how our program had been so decimated it would be 4-5 years before we had a chance to be competitive again. Many on here were convinced we were years away from a chance to even return to a bowl. I think most objective people agree he did a pretty good job at least putting out the dumpster fire in 2016.
2017 while not spectacular at the end of the day was a 9 win season with a bowl victory over Michigan 2 years removed from 3 wins and a loss to the Citadel. Again, most any objective observer would say overall a good coaching job and the program at this point looks to definitely be on the right track.
That’s brings us to last season. Some good, hard fought conference wins. 4-4 in the SEC. At least competitive offensively against Clemson. Some good signs at times but also some worrisome signs- no upsets. Let the Florida game get away. At the end of the day 7-5 regular season. Nothing to be excited about but at the same time in only the third year with the relative good performances of the preceding seasons certainly nothing that would have most people ready to throw in the towel. Up to this point I was still certainly on board.
And that brings us to the infamous Belk Bowl. What a disaster that game was for us. We looked so bad, we looked outcoached. And I mentioned on the way home from that game that the UNC game scared me because if we lost to a 2-10 UNC team coming off that bowl performance everyone would jump ship. That’s basically what has happened. Personally I thought UNC played a very good game and looked much better on the field than they did on paper. How much of that was because of us? I don’t know honestly. I do think they have talent but none of that excuses the loss. The game was an absolute must win and we lost it. As I said the night after the game I like Muschamp and I want him to succeed, but I’m not even sure how I’d try to go about defending him after these last two games. I will say this though, he’s not going to get fired before December 31 because of that buy out. You can not like that, you can get mad about it, but that’s the facts. So might as well see how the rest of the season plays out. Do I expect we will turn it around and have a great season? Definitely not. But it’s amazing how often the conventional wisdom is wrong in college football. Teams can and often do turn things around. That UNC team that lost to the worst Gamecock team this century up in Charlotte in 2015 went on to go 11-1. Nobody expected it, and nobody expected us to win 3 games that year. This is not a great team and I wouldn’t bet anything we even make a bowl this year but all that said I’ve seen the unexpected happen in college football more times than I can count and Muschamp isn’t going anywhere this year so we might as well see how the season plays out.
