Parallels to Brad Scott's coaching staff?

[McCock]

I always thought that the biggest thing that doomed Brad Scott when he came to USC was his giving almost everyone on his initial coaching staff a promotion to come here. His coordinators had been position coaches at their previous coaching stops, and many/most of his position coaches had previously been grad assistants or position coaches at smaller schools, Scott's staff was effectively a bunch of guys doing new jobs who didn't have experienced guys on the staff to lean on for their expertise. To a lesser extent, I feel like we might be seeing something similar with the current staff. 

I can't claim to know a ton about coaching football at this level, but the UNC performance left me with the impression that our coordinators just didn't prepare our team well and didn't acquit themselves well during the game itself, either; just so many inexplicable calls, experienced guys out of position/looking lost, etc. We appear to have great recruiters and evaluators of talent, but I just wonder how much the inexperience of our coordinators is hurting our preparation and game planning. I know that Travaris Robinson is Muschamp's proxy as defensive coordinator and I want to believe in both him and McClendon, but UNC was sobering, especially viewed against the dumpster fire that was the bowl game at the end of last year. 

McClendon could be a very good or even great OC in time, but I'm not sure that Muschamp has the luxury of patience in letting him and Robinson grow into their positions.  

 

[Mr Ed]

Agreed.  UNC was that game that made me go hmmm.   I was willing to give a pass on  Virginia but we just flat out got out coached against UNC and it had (and has) made me question why Muschamp doesnt have a proven staff like that.  UNC is impressively coached.  And they should be considering who their coordinators are.  

 

[dreammachine]

I was as pissed as anyone after the loss to NC and most of my anger was towards the coaching staff for what seemed to be an attitude of "let's not blow this game and be conservative versus going out and being aggressive the whole game"?  Our O-Line took a beating up the middle and the D-Line/Linebackers got beat on the outside so much that I thought we might not have enough players on the field at times and it seem to be like we never did anything to adjust to this as NC got around our corners anytime they needed a first down.  Jake Bentley was having to run for his life and our center was getting pushed deep into our backfield on just about every passing play - which in turn made Jake Bentley have to throw a lot of balls with his feet not set or properly set and Jake did not have his best game either.  The bottom line in this game after watching most of it again was the FACT that NC just wanted it more than our team did and just flat out played our boys on both sides of the ball.  Yes, the coaching staff takes the ultimate blame for this and not having our team ready to play as I think we are a much better team than we showed against NC.

I don't agree with your assessment of the coaching staff as the vast majority of our coaches have been around for a good while now and several have gotten "Recruiter of the Year" and have served on the staffs of some very good coaches during their time.  It was not that long ago when Coach Will Muschamp "was the Coach In Waiting" at Texas and was the most sought after coach in the land when Florida came calling for him.  Coach Muschamp was brought in at Florida to "clean house" as Coach Urban Meyer had left a mess and Coach Muschamp followed the orders of the AD (Jerry Foley) and after "cleaning house" - Florida lost a lot of talent, but on the other hand had good, solid, student - athletes, but started losing more games than it won due to this.  If Coach Muschamp would have been given more time at Florida - I believe that they would be a force in the SEC now.  Granted Coach Muschamp did a few things that he most likely would like to take back at the time, but it is all about learning and I think he has learned a lot and has a great staff around him now.  Even if this year turns out to be a dud, who can we go out and hire (after a huge buyout) a new coach that would have the great relationships that Coach Muschamp and his staff have made in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida?  These things take time and firing a coach that most likely has the toughest schedule in the nation this year is not a smart thing for our University to do at this time.  Can our staff get better and should we demand that they get better with each game, heck yea and we should demand more and also at the same time support our team/coaches in the process.  We are much better off now than when Coach Muschamp first got here and this staff he has is a 100 times better than the staff Brad Scott had and the last couple that SOS had at USC.

The loss to NC was a hard pill for all that love the Gamecocks to swallow, but after giving it about 48 hours to get out of my system, I know that there is still a lot of great football ahead this year and I am very excited about our offense/QB/RB/WR/TE and hopefully our defense will up it's game and play at a higher level.  Still going to be a tough year for us, but let's all hope that the NC game was just a "wake-up call to our boys" and from here on out we don't take anyone lightly.

 

[AikenGameFan]

I don't agree with your assessment of the coaching staff as the vast majority of our coaches have been around for a good while now and several have gotten "Recruiter of the Year" and have served on the staffs of some very good coaches during their time.  It was not that long ago when Coach Will Muschamp "was the Coach In Waiting" at Texas and was the most sought after coach in the land when Florida came calling for him.  Coach Muschamp was brought in at Florida to "clean house" as Coach Urban Meyer had left a mess and Coach Muschamp followed the orders of the AD (Jerry Foley) and after "cleaning house" - Florida lost a lot of talent, but on the other hand had good, solid, student - athletes, but started losing more games than it won due to this.  If Coach Muschamp would have been given more time at Florida - I believe that they would be a force in the SEC now.  Granted Coach Muschamp did a few things that he most likely would like to take back at the time, but it is all about learning and I think he has learned a lot and has a great staff around him now.  Even if this year turns out to be a dud, who can we go out and hire (after a huge buyout) a new coach that would have the great relationships that Coach Muschamp and his staff have made in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida?  These things take time and firing a coach that most likely has the toughest schedule in the nation this year is not a smart thing for our University to do at this time.  Can our staff get better and should we demand that they get better with each game, heck yea and we should demand more and also at the same time support our team/coaches in the process.  We are much better off now than when Coach Muschamp first got here and this staff he has is a 100 times better than the staff Brad Scott had and the last couple that SOS had at USC.

The loss to NC was a hard pill for all that love the Gamecocks to swallow, but after giving it about 48 hours to get out of my system, I know that there is still a lot of great football ahead this year and I am very excited about our offense/QB/RB/WR/TE and hopefully our defense will up it's game and play at a higher level.  Still going to be a tough year for us, but let's all hope that the NC game was just a "wake-up call to our boys" and from here on out we don't take anyone lightly.

Thank you for sound reasoning.

Our staff is far better than Brad Scotts rookies. Don't know why he feels otherwise. Did they make some bad decisions against UNC? Yes, but a lot of that was our players fault to. They really did not play to their level like we saw this past week. Had they played like that against UNC we would have loved the play calling. It Is time to get over UNC and see if we can pull off an upset. Then you will really like this staff. If we keep it close that would be great too. If Bama blows us out like we did CSU, then I will agree with you.

 

[crowcutta]

yes we played sloppy and look unprepared at times, but i feel some of the postgame talk that we shoulda went with a more proven oc is almost absolving muschamp of blame for how bad overall we performed and how some of his decisions kept us from potentially putting up more points on the board.  also im not sure with jake starting if we would have sign dak get snaps in the backfield as much as he did vs csu or as much as i hope he will going forward. 

muschamp has gotten grief from fans because they think he meddles with his offenses to its detriment, but in a press conference this past week he gave a positive example of his meddling by saying he told his staff he wants more plays that are guaranteed to get the ball in the hands of bryan and shi smith.  while there were lots of plays called with them as the primary reads we werent getting them the ball often enough for a variety of reasons but he also didnt want to give the defense the ability to take either completely out of the game.  as a result of that you'll see more screens, reverses, or direct handoffs to them going forward so teams cant just roll coverage their way and make them spectators. 

 

[FeelinCocky]

I was as pissed as anyone after the loss to NC and most of my anger was towards the coaching staff for what seemed to be an attitude of "let's not blow this game and be conservative versus going out and being aggressive the whole game"? 

^^^^This.  I think there was a lack of confidence in the ability to make the easy plays.  There has been a lack of swagger on the field for several years now, I saw a little of that on Saturday, granted it was CS, but attitude makes a HUGE difference.

 

[$Billz]

  CWM and staff has as much time as they will need to get the program where it is suppose to be. If in year 6 we are still struggling then you can start warming the coaching seats up. 

 

[Pitchcock]

It’s silly to try comparing anyone from this staff with Fat Brads.

Its also getting old hearing people moaning about Muschamp meddling in the offense. The dude wants to win. Even Roper was OC we had plays called that were open, our players just didn’t execute.

 

[AC/DC/GC]

This is getting a little off topic, but I wonder how much blame should actually be laid at Jake's feet for the UNC debacle. Was the indecision shown all in his head or was a lot of it because he was shackled by conservative play calling? At times. you could almost imagine him thinking, "Should I or should I not throw it?" It led to late throws or sometimes overthrows as he seemed desperate to make a play. This was mentioned in a different thread but the Clemtech performance was simply outstanding and the following 2 were abysmal.

 

[McCock]

Good thoughts all.

Pitch, I don't think that the staffs are comparable in the broader sense, but I do think that play-calling and the organizational aspects of game preparation can suffer when you have two first-time coordinators. Maybe that's not the case here... that's why I raised the question. I agree with you that the "Muschamp as offensive meddler" thing is overdone... it's lazy reporting.

Before watching UVA and UNC, I had confidence that our coaching staff was rock solid. My confidence is somewhat shaken now, and I am usually one to defend them. I had heard one local commentator before the UNC game express the opinion that our 2019 squad may be the closest we've ever had to an entire two-deep on offense and defense filled with legit SEC-caliber players (unlike Spurrier's best squads, whom the commentator said had a lot more star power among the ones but perhaps a few more holes in the twos due to poor evaluations). ESPN ranked us 18 in FPI although predicting a 6-6 record because of the difficulty of our schedule.

Preseason evals are largely hot air but something just seems off. If the players are more talented/experienced and we truly have started to develop quality depth, games like UNC and UVA just shouldn't happen. I haven't given up on any member of the coaching staff by a long shot, but right now it feels like the results on the field in three of our last four games have fallen well short of the talent we have on the roster (I count Akron because the second half was just awful football).  

 

[gAmkok]

  CWM and staff has as much time as they will need to get the program where it is suppose to be. If in year 6 we are still struggling then you can start warming the coaching seats up. 

This is accurate.

Then again, after year 6, what will it take to convince RT Muschamp can't get it done and is that scenario likely to happen? I tend to think not. It seems more likely that WM is here for the long haul regardless, unless he decides to go sell commercial real estate.

Back on topic: The staff problem wasn't entirely Brad Scott's fault. Remember, we were still operating on the cheap back then. BOT wouldn't come off the $$ to pay a real staff so Scott had to make do with what he could afford. It was still a terrible period of Carolina football, but I met Brad Scott a few times and he always struck me as a a conscientious guy who was genuinely trying his best to right the ship with the tools he had. He lost a ton of weight his last year here due to nerves. I didn't like the outcome, but I never questioned his dedication.

The situations between the two eras are night and day. Muschamp has a lot more resources at his disposal. Any failure falls squarely on his shoulders for not using those resources wisely.

 

[dreammachine]

Yes Coach Muschamp finally has the facilities that USC needs to be able to go out and recruit against all the SEC Schools that had better facilities than we did before the recent update.  A point must also be made that the SEC as a Power 5 Football Conference is also much, much, more competitive now than it ever was and especially when Brad Scott was here.  With the money and traditions that the vast majority of schools in the SEC have going for them now and with the SEC West being so dominate the past 5 or more years and the program being in shambles when Coach Muschamp first got here - I think we are very lucky to be where we are at right now.  I don't know of any coaches that are now in football (Div 1) that could have done much better than Coach Muschamp and his staff.  We are going to need a couple of more years and continue to recruit and develop players even better than Coach Muschamp and staff have been doing for the last 4 years for us to be a "year in and year out power team in the SEC".  I think that this staff can do it, but I also believe that we are still a class or two away from being a very, very, good team.  That's not a knock on this year's team as we are a better team than the product we put on the field against NC, but we can improve a lot this year and may not have a record that really tells the truth due to the strength of schedule USC got handed this year.

Brad Scott was a good guy, Richard Bell was a good guy and so was Sparky Woods.  I would much rather have Coach Muschamp than those three any day or time period as Muschamp knows football and is an a relentless recruiter and makes his staff follow his example.  It all starts with talent and we are getting there.  Granted good/great coaching can win you a couple of games each year, but bad coaching can lose you just about every game on your schedule and some of our past Head Coaches have been prime examples of being "bad coaches".

 

[Sporkgod50]

Thank you for sound reasoning.

Our staff is far better than Brad Scotts rookies. Don't know why he feels otherwise. Did they make some bad decisions against UNC? Yes, but a lot of that was our players fault to. They really did not play to their level like we saw this past week. Had they played like that against UNC we would have loved the play calling. It Is time to get over UNC and see if we can pull off an upset. Then you will really like this staff. If we keep it close that would be great too. If Bama blows us out like we did CSU, then I will agree with you.

Yeah but players (Bentley in particular) are consent under performing. That's hard not to pin in coaching especially when you've got a head coach with a reputation as being bad with QBs. However I do agree that our assistants are better than fat Brad's

 

[Sporkgod50]

  CWM and staff has as much time as they will need to get the program where it is suppose to be. If in year 6 we are still struggling then you can start warming the coaching seats up. 

You're kidding about giving him 6 years before considering firing him, right? You do that and recruiting is going to suffer no matter how many practices we cancel for champ to go out and acquire talent.  When it's all over, the next coach will start with nothing and we'll be in the same boat sos left us with

 

[Pitchcock]

Good thoughts all.

Pitch, I don't think that the staffs are comparable in the broader sense, but I do think that play-calling and the organizational aspects of game preparation can suffer when you have two first-time coordinators. Maybe that's not the case here... that's why I raised the question. I agree with you that the "Muschamp as offensive meddler" thing is overdone... it's lazy reporting.

Before watching UVA and UNC, I had confidence that our coaching staff was rock solid. My confidence is somewhat shaken now, and I am usually one to defend them. I had heard one local commentator before the UNC game express the opinion that our 2019 squad may be the closest we've ever had to an entire two-deep on offense and defense filled with legit SEC-caliber players (unlike Spurrier's best squads, whom the commentator said had a lot more star power among the ones but perhaps a few more holes in the twos due to poor evaluations). ESPN ranked us 18 in FPI although predicting a 6-6 record because of the difficulty of our schedule.

Preseason evals are largely hot air but something just seems off. If the players are more talented/experienced and we truly have started to develop quality depth, games like UNC and UVA just shouldn't happen. I haven't given up on any member of the coaching staff by a long shot, but right now it feels like the results on the field in three of our last four games have fallen well short of the talent we have on the roster (I count Akron because the second half was just awful football).  

After the last couple of games last year added to the UNC debacle, like you I was beginning to question our OC and DC.

Then Hilinski stepped in (granted, against Charleston Southern) and it allayed my fears. 

We didn’t simplify the playbook. The calls largely worked. Why? Because the QB was able to execute. He spread the ball around to at least 8 different receivers. When’s the last time we had a QB do that? He threw a very catchable ball. The vast majority of the time it was right in the receiver’s bread basket. And if you watch, he was even changing his arm angles to fit the ball into throwing lanes.

Quite honestly, I was stunned at how good RH played. I truly believe the rest of the team fed off of him.

Offensively and Defensively, I think the team still has a ways to go. Our talent and depth are slowly improving, but we’re still lacking playmakers. It’s easy to forget his 1st class was already almost full when he was hired, plus we’ve lost several recruits to injury.

Alabama might kick our teeth in. But I think RH is going to open some eyes in that game. Jake assumed the role of a team leader, but to me something always seemed “forced” about it. I sense the opposite about RH. 

We still need quality players, if for no other reason than “pushing” the guys in front of them. A couple more talented DB’s, LB’s and DL’s would go miles towards improving our play, I truly believe some of the older guys we’d hope were very good may not quite be measuring up.

But we’re going to get there. 

 

[Pitchcock]

Yeah but players (Bentley in particular) are consent under performing. That's hard not to pin in coaching especially when you've got a head coach with a reputation as being bad with QBs.

“Reputation as being bad with QB’s”?

Thats just internet fodder amongst fans.

Will Grier was lighting it up before he was injured, then suspended. He was wanting to come here to play under Muschamp, If Will was such a QB killer why would he want to be reunited?

Driskel was an Urban recruit. He still wound up on an NFL roster. Grier and Brisset both wound up on NFL rosters. More of his QB’s wound up in the NFL after his short stint of time at UF than Spurrier put in the league during his time here. 

What killed Will at UF was injuries at the QB position. What’s limited him here is lack of talented depth at QB. Who did he inherit? A walk on in Orth, and underachievers in Mitch and BMac. Mitch tried two different programs after he left, finally quit football. BMac transferred, quit football. Scar was injured much of the time, and couldn’t beat out Jake.

I think his “reputation” is undeserved. 

 

[ShepCock]

  CWM and staff has as much time as they will need to get the program where it is suppose to be. If in year 6 we are still struggling then you can start warming the coaching seats up. 

Thanks for this realistic view.  Muschamp is not going anywhere anytime soon.

If the offense isn't working out after this year, McLendon will (and should) get fired.

If the new OC (and the team) doesn't show significant improvement the year after that, then we will buy Muschamp out and move on after 6 years.

 

[Sporkgod50]

“Reputation as being bad with QB’s”?

Thats just internet fodder amongst fans.

Will Grier was lighting it up before he was injured, then suspended. He was wanting to come here to play under Muschamp, If Will was such a QB killer why would he want to be reunited?

Driskel was an Urban recruit. He still wound up on an NFL roster. Grier and Brisset both wound up on NFL rosters. More of his QB’s wound up in the NFL after his short stint of time at UF than Spurrier put in the league during his time here. 

What killed Will at UF was injuries at the QB position. What’s limited him here is lack of talented depth at QB. Who did he inherit? A walk on in Orth, and underachievers in Mitch and BMac. Mitch tried two different programs after he left, finally quit football. BMac transferred, quit football. Scar was injured much of the time, and couldn’t beat out Jake.

I think his “reputation” is undeserved. 

Bentley's progression disagrees

 

[Gamecocks1137]

Brad Scott bad? I am sorry guys but that is just going a bit to far for me lol