Lots of discussion has taken place this week about Muschamp and if he's still the future of the program like many of us believed after the results in the first 2 seasons. My thoughts on Muschamp is this, I think that those who are all of the sudden wanting him to be fired after the season are completely and totally unreasonable. On the other hand, what we have seen this year is very concerning regarding our teams performances across the board and should not be overlooked.
The idea of building a team into a respectable and successful version of your style of coaching is supposed to show results by year 3. In Muschamps first year the biggest goal that the fanbase agreed on was making a bowl game, he accomplished that. In his second year, the goal was to make it back to a bowl game and find a way to win some more games in the process of doing so, we won 9 games and won the Outback bowl against an old blue blood in Michigan. This year the biggest goal for the team was even higher, challenge for the SEC East title, end a couple of losing streaks against some teams, find a way to get some signature wins, effectively putting South Carolina back on the map as a team not to mess with. We haven't accomplished any of those, and seemingly have taken a step back in our progress this year.
In our biggest games so far this year (Georgia, A&M, and Kentucky), at the very least fans wanted us to be competitive, we've been outscored 91-50, and lost all three games. With at least 13 starters back from last years team, 2 of those big games being at home, and minimal injury problems, that's absolutely inexcusable. The biggest issue stemming from those games is most of our blunders are self inflicted, undisciplined with penalties (we rank 94th right now in penalties per game with 7.3 penalties per game, up from 4.9 penalties per game last year), we aren't good at lowering our shoulder and tackling somebody and our defense is terrible communication wise (the A&M game made that obvious) and is on pace right now to give 336 points by seasons end assuming we make it to a bowl game and would almost tie with the 2016 defense point wise.
Most of this comes back to coaching and the proper fundamentals of football, preparing the guys mentally and physically in practice, and making sure they don't get complacent on what the program prides itself on. I know they can't catch the football and throw the ball and tackle the opposing players and run through the linebackers on power runs, I get all of that. But it's the head coach and the assistant coaches job to put the players in the best position to win plays and win games and right now that's not happening with this football team.
Those who want to say the cupboard was completely bare and that this rebuild was a 5-6 year process to begin with are just trying to ignore what our on field product is right now. Most of our starters have been playing/starting in Muschamps regime since the beginning, they aren't inexperienced freshmen or sophomores anymore, and he's now had 2.25 recruiting cycles to get his guys into the program with a third one coming in this season. As previously mentioned, Year 3 is the year football fans get a good idea of what a coach's potential is at their school to win, and this year has showed cause for concern in that department. I haven't jumped ship, but I can feel one foot wanting to dangle over the edge with the other one firmly planted on deck, hoping the ship can right itself and remind me why I immediately jumped on board in the first place.
The idea of building a team into a respectable and successful version of your style of coaching is supposed to show results by year 3. In Muschamps first year the biggest goal that the fanbase agreed on was making a bowl game, he accomplished that. In his second year, the goal was to make it back to a bowl game and find a way to win some more games in the process of doing so, we won 9 games and won the Outback bowl against an old blue blood in Michigan. This year the biggest goal for the team was even higher, challenge for the SEC East title, end a couple of losing streaks against some teams, find a way to get some signature wins, effectively putting South Carolina back on the map as a team not to mess with. We haven't accomplished any of those, and seemingly have taken a step back in our progress this year.
In our biggest games so far this year (Georgia, A&M, and Kentucky), at the very least fans wanted us to be competitive, we've been outscored 91-50, and lost all three games. With at least 13 starters back from last years team, 2 of those big games being at home, and minimal injury problems, that's absolutely inexcusable. The biggest issue stemming from those games is most of our blunders are self inflicted, undisciplined with penalties (we rank 94th right now in penalties per game with 7.3 penalties per game, up from 4.9 penalties per game last year), we aren't good at lowering our shoulder and tackling somebody and our defense is terrible communication wise (the A&M game made that obvious) and is on pace right now to give 336 points by seasons end assuming we make it to a bowl game and would almost tie with the 2016 defense point wise.
Most of this comes back to coaching and the proper fundamentals of football, preparing the guys mentally and physically in practice, and making sure they don't get complacent on what the program prides itself on. I know they can't catch the football and throw the ball and tackle the opposing players and run through the linebackers on power runs, I get all of that. But it's the head coach and the assistant coaches job to put the players in the best position to win plays and win games and right now that's not happening with this football team.
Those who want to say the cupboard was completely bare and that this rebuild was a 5-6 year process to begin with are just trying to ignore what our on field product is right now. Most of our starters have been playing/starting in Muschamps regime since the beginning, they aren't inexperienced freshmen or sophomores anymore, and he's now had 2.25 recruiting cycles to get his guys into the program with a third one coming in this season. As previously mentioned, Year 3 is the year football fans get a good idea of what a coach's potential is at their school to win, and this year has showed cause for concern in that department. I haven't jumped ship, but I can feel one foot wanting to dangle over the edge with the other one firmly planted on deck, hoping the ship can right itself and remind me why I immediately jumped on board in the first place.
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