Gamecocks shook up gameday coaching logistics. The move provided a calming voice
South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp said he honestly didn’t have much to do with it.
He came in after the Gamecocks’ upset loss to Tennessee last week, and his offensive staff was already plotting a modest change in how they did things.
““They had already had a discussion, but I came in on Sunday and said, ‘We need to change something up. We need to do something different,’” Muschamp said.
Something different was a return to a traditional setup for offensive coordinator Bryan McClendon and quarterbacks coach Dan Werner. After two half-seasons of McClendon on the sideline and Werner up in the box, they opted to switch places again.
And in one game, at least one player liked the change.
“I think it helped us a lot,” redshirt freshman passer Joyner said. “It helped us calm down having his voice there, just coming off the field talking to your quarterback coach and asking what you saw, and stuff like that. I think we definitely benefited from it.”
Most teams have their OCs up high, getting a global view as they make play calls. Having a different coordinator and QB coach (McClendon works with receivers) can also help because the quarterbacks get a little more face time with their position coach.
McClendon had started his play-calling career in the box, an arrangement that lasted six games. A rain storm last October against Missouri knocked out South Carolina’s headsets. It forced McClendon to sprint down to the field. Coaching from there, things seemed to go more smoothly as a spate of drops from the receivers mostly dissipated. Muschamp also said there were some wide receiver adjustments that couldn’t wait until halftime (there had been some communication issues).
This season has been a little different as USC went from a veteran QB in Jake Bentley to a true freshman in Ryan Hilinski. Muschamp siad he liked the new arrangement.
“I thought it was good,” He said Sunday. “I thought that Brian’s able to see the game more, better from the box. There’s no question about that. I thought that Dan did a really good job with Dakereon and Ryan on the field. It’s all about communication. It’s all about making adjustments.”
It helped that Werner had a wealth of coordinator experience, so he was comfortable in either arrangement. Now he has the chance to converse face to face with Hilinski and Joyner.
Muschamp admitted there was some trepidation about a mid-season change.
USC’s offensive issues weren’t solved against Vandy, but they did control possession and put up some good yardage numbers (440 total). The Gamecocks also saw one other thing in this game that made the change, which was already being considered, make more sense.
“Vandy, their last ball game, had shown some looks where we felt like we needed some look-back, which you saw us do more of that than we have all season,” Muschamp said. “I thought Bryan would see it better from the box. I told them we needed to change something up, but they had already had the discussion.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2019 at 7:45 AM with the headline "Gamecocks shook up gameday coaching logistics. The move provided a calming voice."
