re: USCe Fans...how do you feel about Will Muschamp?

No SC fan said anything remotely close to claiming Spurrier sucks now.

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But since football is both an offensive AND defensive game (along with special teams) how can you be one of the greatest if you only master one side of the field?

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i like Muschamp, but what has he done to show that he's mastered both sides of the field? UF fielded one of the most anemic offenses I've ever seen while he was there. He's already processed one OC (the same one who failed at UF) at USC.

So I guess he won 228 games or whatever with 0 defense...

Riiiiight.

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He developed a great offense in the 1990's and never really progressed it past that point.

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I disagree with this. When he had Garcia and Shaw at QB, he started incorporating elements of the shotgun spread (i.e. zone read) into his offense. While his Florida teams ran the ball a ton and did it well (people really, really forget this), his South Carolina teams ran even more and had great production from the run game.

His philosophy isn't hard to figure out. He's going to find your weakness on defense and attack it over and over until you stop it. He had no problem calling the same play 4 times in a row if it was working.

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Ok so the guy struggles at UF. I think the universal idea was he was going to learn from that shite and come in and use what he learned to help you guys win.

I wouldn't say he has done a bad job. Yall's new facilities are incredible so I know HE knows what it takes to win and thats recruiting, but do you guys think he is really the guy to take on Clemson and even the playing field in the EAST?

or do most consider him to be a placeholder of sorts until the next thing?

I'm just curious as I don't see or hear a lot of bitching about him so I was wondering whats the consensus.

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Muschamp was learning on the job while in Gainesville. He had some issues with QB's, OLs, and injuries. He had issues with revolving door for offensive coordinators, with 3 during his 4 years there. He had issues with being ultra conservative on offense, wanting to maintain time of possession, and often seemed to use his offense in a role to preserve his defense. There were more rushes and fewer passing offense.

At USC, Muschamp's staff has recruited 4 Elite 11 QBs (McIlwain, Joyner, Hilinski, Doty) and one "would-have-been" Elite 11 QB (Bentley, had he not foregone his senior yr of high school and enrolled early) in 5 recruiting classes.

The staff has a strong OLC in Eric Wolford, and have recruited a large number of OL prospects.

The injuries are still happening, and played a huge role in the season last season. They appear to be different in nature and in some cases even odd (such as WR OrTre Smith's sublexed kneecap - a more genetic issue than anything else - that required him shutting down 2018 for surgery after 2 gms). We'll have to see what happens this season.

Muschamp has now had 2 OCs coming on 4 seasons at USC, with the 2nd OC being a part of the offensive staff since his first year in 2016. The offense in 2018 under McClendon was arguably the best offense yet under Will Muschamp as a CFB head coach:

Scoring Offense:
2011: 25.5
2012: 26.5
2013: 18.8
2014: 30.3

2016: 20.8
2017: 24.2
2018: 30.1

Total Offense:
2011: 328.7
2012: 334.0
2013: 316.7
2014: 367.6

2016: 347.5
2017: 337.1
2018: 425.6

Rushing Offense:
2011: 143.0
2012: 187.7
2013: 145.8
2014: 187.7

2016: 134.4
2017: 122.2
2018: 152.8

Passing Offense:
2011: 185.7
2012: 146.3
2013: 170.9
2014: 179.9

2016: 213.2
2017: 214.9
2018: 272.8

At USC, Muschamp has made an obvious attempt to throw the ball more, and have a more balanced offense, but the run game has not been as strong as he would still want it to be.

For 2019, USC returns almost 70% of both offensive and defensive production, so the expectations are for the offense to be as good as it has ever been, minus any major injuries. The defense on the other hand for 2018 was arguably the worse yet for Muschamp as a head coach, but it was also hit hard last season with injuries to major players. The top 3 players on defense in 2018 in terms of penetration of opposing offensive backfields and disrupting offensive plays was Wonnum, Allen-Williams, and Kinlaw, who missed a combined 13 games or played hobbled for much of the season.

Despite all this, Muschamp has won more total games than any other USC head coach in his first 3 years including Spurrier, and took USC to 3 bowl games his first 3 years, also a first at USC. So the attitude is more of a cautious optimism, but waiting to see the program continue to ascend. He's not considered a placeholder, but is expected to get the program back to the level that Spurrier got it to, before letting the program dry rot in the end.

Muschamp hasn't really impacted the program much at all in terms of facility upgrades - everything now built was already well into planning stages to be built when he was hired, although as the sitting head coach he was given a lot of say in how the FB Ops Bldg. was designed - it was the only project that was yet to be built when he came on....

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But since football is both an offensive AND defensive game (along with special teams) how can you be one of the greatest if you only master one side of the field?

Even his former players said he spent ZERO time on the defense.

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Did you actually watch those teams play? UofSC's D during that time of sustained success is one of the biggest reasons for their success. They recruited well and developed players well on defense (outside of maybe Clowney - he didn't progress like he should have).

When UofSC was beating Clemson, they were better on the lines of scrimmage. We had NFL skill position players all over the field, but couldn't move the ball against a very good UofSC D.

Muschamp has to have enough success the next two years to give recruits hope that they will become what they were not that long ago. If he can't go 7-5 or better at least once the next two years, I think his recruiting will fall off and the pitchforks will come out.

No idea what will happen... I hear rumors that players don't like playing for him, that he is two-faced (one way to the media and another to the players) and some have tuned him out, but I don't have that firsthand... could be totally wrong.

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People might disagree, but I think he's got a better football mind that Spurrier. He's playing catch up with a lot of the teams around him and that's not an easy job.

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yeah, lol.....
















wow....

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Steve Spurrier won at Duke. Duke. Spurrier was a better coach than Muschamp in every conceivable way.

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Not just won....he won an ACC title in 1989 at Duke.

Had the AAF league not folded, Spurrier's team was basically running away with it.

He's probably too old to recruit and make the public appearances that he'd have to make in college, but he can still coach.