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kinda thought Muschamp had his psychology all wrong...
Nov 27, 2016, 1:24 PM
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LONG POST WARNING...LOTTA WORDS. Bail out NOW if you're a Tweeter.
This prior week I was eyeballing the tweeting and smack-talk and chirping coming out of Cola and I thought Will Muschamp was kind of at the root of it. The Gamecock players have had themselves a little mini-renaissance the last half of the season, pulled some upsets over struggling teams, beat some weaker squads like UMass and Western Carolina. And it seemed they were being told: "Clemson is just another team."
I thought this was just about the worst idea possible. I also think this is why Muschamp just isn't a good gameday coach. He just really didn't know.
He didn't realize, I think, just how wide the talent gap really was between Clemson and Carolina. He didn't realize, I think, just how young that team he had really is. He certainly didn't seem to realize that going into Death Valley, at night, against a Clemson team that has scarcely seen the light of day this season because every game we've played has basically been a primetime night-game matchup against somebody really good, was going to be a very...different sort of experience for his team and players. Clemson, as a team, as a program, as a fan base, just exists right now at an entirely different level of pressure and expectation and intensity than South Carolina has this year. They might as well have been playing two-handed touch with a Nerf football this year, for as prepared as they seemed.
His team just wasn't prepared, mentally, and it showed. As a coach you've got to let your team know what they're walking into. You've got to tell them: Guys, this is going to be something you fellas just haven't faced before. This venue is going to be insane; this team is better than anybody you've faced, and you're likely going to lose...and I don't care. I just want you to fight them for 60 minutes. Because nobody really expected South Carolina to beat Clemson - nobody realistic, anyhow. But they could have made a very strong statement if they'd just brought a stick-in-your-grill mentality and some humility.
Instead he tried to make this just another game, tried to portray Clemson as "just another team" instead of the elite playoff contender we are. His babies walked into Clemson with unrealistic expectations...and duly got run flat over. And that's going to linger. Jake Bentley got absolutely shelled last night, and I would not have liked that stunned, sick look on his face before they finally pulled him if I was a Carolina fan. Several of his corners caught fire and looked extra-crispy - that #7 CB, Jamarcus King (the pride of their last recruiting class, their former top-ranked recruit and the #1-ranked JUCO corner in the country) looked particularly shell-shocked on the sideline, especially after Mike Williams' third TD catch - and his OL and DL just got physically beat down.
Then The Champ doubled down again afterwards. Asked what he was going to do about it he said: "Well, the solution is I've gotta go out recruiting. We've gotta get better players, simple as that."
Uhm, no, Will. Bad move there too - because you just told your current players that the solution is, you have to replace them? Way to prop them up after a bad, bad loss. Dude: even if it's 100% true (maybe especially if it's true!) you don't say that. Ever. Do you not realize what message you just sent?
Apparently not.
I'm definitely starting to see why The Champ messed it up so bad at UF. Good coaches seem to understand the mentality of their players, the psychology of their locker room...and that's where Muschamp just seems to miss on this whole "leadership" thing.
Nobody was expecting Will Muschamp to win that game. But he needed to lead them through it, find the coachable moments, use that game to spur and elevate his very young team.
Instead he got them shelled...and then told them he was going to replace them.
Oh, and he doubled down on the ill will as well. Instead of acknowledging that they got outplayed and crushed by a better team, the Gamecock players instead came out whining about BS "racial slurs" and how "they would remember" that the Clemson seniors were taking soccer-style ovations at the end of the game. Bitter whining, in other words.
What they should remember is just how unprepared they were, how poor their mentality was, and how their failure to respect their opponent and adjust to the speed and intensity of the game got them crushed in one-sided, utterly humiliating fashion. That's how you get better.
You don't want Clemson's seniors to go out to ovations? Make them stay in the game by actually competing with them next time.
Muschamp might be a good X's and O's guy. He might even be a good recruiter. But as a gameday coach, he's coming across a whole lot like Scott Shafer...and I suspect his tenure will turn out...similarly.
Not impressed, Will.
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