W
Wes Mitchell
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Will Muschamp expected to meet with the media here in about 10 minutes at 12:30 p.m. at the ops building. We're here to cover it all and report what the head man has to say. I'm sure there will be quite a bit to talk to.
If you're looking for updates, they'll be in this post here so all you have to do is refresh. Live video is here.
Muschamp says...
** UGA has a really good football team. You start at QB. Jake Fromm is very accurate and completing 80 percent and a great football player with command. Big, athletic front and they don't allow many negative plays at all. Young but talented at WR and of course the backs are outstanding, all of them. They do a good job of getting the RBs the ball in different ways.
** Defensively, they are deep and talented in the front seven and rotate a lot of guys in. The two starting safeties both stand out and make plays.
** RB Rico Dowdle, QB/WR Dakereon Joyner and WR Randrecous Davis all practiced Tuesday and will play against UGA. Everyone else is status quo. Kevin Harris, who was thought to be out for the season, is ahead of schedule and will be back at the end of the year.
** Running the football is a mindset. It's important to have balance in this league. You can't just run it or just throw it. There's a lot of things that go into being a good running team. You have to have a physicality and you have to have good runners and you have to be right schematically too. Being able to run the football helps a young QB an awful lot. When you go on the road, you have to be balanced.
** Had a good practice last Tuesday, not a good one on Wed. and then a better one on Thursday. Had a good practice today.
** Went back and looked at the first five games and what led to each explosive plays. You have to ask a lot of questions - was it a coaching issue, scheme issue or player issue. Need to be more consistent on defense to eliminate big plays. Have done some good things on defense, but haven't done it enough.
** Jaylen Nichols - very athletic, very powerful, gets his hands on you and is athletic enough to block the edge in the SEC. He's mature and bright and can handle tough coaching, which goes back to maturity. To play as a freshman, you have to have the opportunity, the ability, but you need to be mature enough to handle it.
** On defending back shoulder throw: you always want to be able to play a receiver in faze but the back shoulder throw makes you defend a throw out of faze, so you have to be able to identify it and then work through the receiver and get and elbow to dislodge the ball.
** Ryan Hilinski has worked extremely hard to put himself in position to play well and expect him to play well.
** The pin and pull scheme has been good for South Carolina this year, because the guys are a little bit more athletic than they have been which has helped them to block guys in space. If guys aren't athletic then they struggle to block in space. You have to find you some runs that you like and that your guys can execute. That's a run that the guys have gotten comfortable with. It's just like finding out which pass plays a quarterback is comfortable with. It's something that's been successful.
** Experience at Georgia as a player was outstanding. Probably had too much fun while there. The coaches there had a huge impact on his life and directed him to get into coaching. Not much nostalgia with going back to UGA, because you're focused on the game itself. Haven't been back to Athens much as a coach (because of the UF/UGA games being in Jax).
** You go back into training camp mode during the bye. Wanted to expose the guys to some different things and get them ready for some elements they'll see against other teams. Gave them a little bit of time to get away from the game too.
** On the running backs: Competition helps you. "@$$ on bench" is a great motivator. Everybody want to play. Have done a nice job at that position of creating competition. Dowdle has always been a talented guy and has worked pretty hard, the injuries just slowed him.
** Talked to Keir Thomas about his situation about a week ago. He's been working out since about a week and a half ago, but he's got to get back into playing shape because he was shut down with the injury. They'll have another conversation about possible redshirting once he's fully cleared.
** What makes UGA such a good running team? They've got great backs, big, talented OL, and a QB that gets them in the right run calls - that's a good combination.
** There's a lot of carryover philosophically between Muschamp and Kirby - there's been a lot of time separation between the last time they were together as coaches so there's been changes, but it's still similar from a mindset standpoint.
** Going to have to keep wearing the glasses (1-0 in them). Had to put the ego away on that. Carol is going to buy him some new ones, Champ says.
** Go into each game with a goal for number of touches for Bryan Edwards and Shi Smith. Had a good plan to get Shi the ball more against UK, but then they were running it so well that took precedent but have to get those guys the ball.
If you're looking for updates, they'll be in this post here so all you have to do is refresh. Live video is here.
Muschamp says...
** UGA has a really good football team. You start at QB. Jake Fromm is very accurate and completing 80 percent and a great football player with command. Big, athletic front and they don't allow many negative plays at all. Young but talented at WR and of course the backs are outstanding, all of them. They do a good job of getting the RBs the ball in different ways.
** Defensively, they are deep and talented in the front seven and rotate a lot of guys in. The two starting safeties both stand out and make plays.
** RB Rico Dowdle, QB/WR Dakereon Joyner and WR Randrecous Davis all practiced Tuesday and will play against UGA. Everyone else is status quo. Kevin Harris, who was thought to be out for the season, is ahead of schedule and will be back at the end of the year.
** Running the football is a mindset. It's important to have balance in this league. You can't just run it or just throw it. There's a lot of things that go into being a good running team. You have to have a physicality and you have to have good runners and you have to be right schematically too. Being able to run the football helps a young QB an awful lot. When you go on the road, you have to be balanced.
** Had a good practice last Tuesday, not a good one on Wed. and then a better one on Thursday. Had a good practice today.
** Went back and looked at the first five games and what led to each explosive plays. You have to ask a lot of questions - was it a coaching issue, scheme issue or player issue. Need to be more consistent on defense to eliminate big plays. Have done some good things on defense, but haven't done it enough.
** Jaylen Nichols - very athletic, very powerful, gets his hands on you and is athletic enough to block the edge in the SEC. He's mature and bright and can handle tough coaching, which goes back to maturity. To play as a freshman, you have to have the opportunity, the ability, but you need to be mature enough to handle it.
** On defending back shoulder throw: you always want to be able to play a receiver in faze but the back shoulder throw makes you defend a throw out of faze, so you have to be able to identify it and then work through the receiver and get and elbow to dislodge the ball.
** Ryan Hilinski has worked extremely hard to put himself in position to play well and expect him to play well.
** The pin and pull scheme has been good for South Carolina this year, because the guys are a little bit more athletic than they have been which has helped them to block guys in space. If guys aren't athletic then they struggle to block in space. You have to find you some runs that you like and that your guys can execute. That's a run that the guys have gotten comfortable with. It's just like finding out which pass plays a quarterback is comfortable with. It's something that's been successful.
** Experience at Georgia as a player was outstanding. Probably had too much fun while there. The coaches there had a huge impact on his life and directed him to get into coaching. Not much nostalgia with going back to UGA, because you're focused on the game itself. Haven't been back to Athens much as a coach (because of the UF/UGA games being in Jax).
** You go back into training camp mode during the bye. Wanted to expose the guys to some different things and get them ready for some elements they'll see against other teams. Gave them a little bit of time to get away from the game too.
** On the running backs: Competition helps you. "@$$ on bench" is a great motivator. Everybody want to play. Have done a nice job at that position of creating competition. Dowdle has always been a talented guy and has worked pretty hard, the injuries just slowed him.
** Talked to Keir Thomas about his situation about a week ago. He's been working out since about a week and a half ago, but he's got to get back into playing shape because he was shut down with the injury. They'll have another conversation about possible redshirting once he's fully cleared.
** What makes UGA such a good running team? They've got great backs, big, talented OL, and a QB that gets them in the right run calls - that's a good combination.
** There's a lot of carryover philosophically between Muschamp and Kirby - there's been a lot of time separation between the last time they were together as coaches so there's been changes, but it's still similar from a mindset standpoint.
** Going to have to keep wearing the glasses (1-0 in them). Had to put the ego away on that. Carol is going to buy him some new ones, Champ says.
** Go into each game with a goal for number of touches for Bryan Edwards and Shi Smith. Had a good plan to get Shi the ball more against UK, but then they were running it so well that took precedent but have to get those guys the ball.
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