Aug. 12, 2016

The South Carolina Gamecock football team did not practice on Friday as they took a day of rest prior to their first scrimmage of the preseason camp, which is set for 9:15 am on Saturday morning at Williams-Brice Stadium. However, head coach Will Muschamp spent a few minutes with the local media following a team meeting.

On redshirting players:

“We don’t make any decisions on that until after camp is over. I think it’s really difficult with some guys right now to know where they fit in and some guys, you never know with injury and different things that happen. We won’t make decisions totally on redshirts until about midseason.”

On the quarterbacks:

“I think we’ve got to narrow it down to two and still have the third guy repping at times. We’ll see how they do Saturday. We had a scrimmage situation on Wednesday. I thought all three guys did some really good things. (Saturday’s scrimmage) will be everything we’ve got in, as far as the installation, on both sides of the ball. We’ll see how they function. It’s a very well-contested battle right now (between Perry Orth and Brandon McIlwain). Saturday will be a good judgment day for them.”

On the depth chart:

“I wouldn’t read a lot into where the guys are repping right now. Depending on the rotation, it’s about reps. Right now it really doesn’t matter. It’s about turns and reps. We’re rolling a bunch of guys in there.”

On the importance of Saturday’s scrimmage:

“It’s huge. I told our guys, the choices and decisions you make on the field, what kind of football player are you, what kind of toughness do you have, what kind of effort do you display when the coaches are off the field, what do you know, how far along are you. There’s no question it’s a huge judgment day for how those guys will respond to the situation.”

On the format of Saturday’s scrimmage:

“It will be more situational. Obviously, we’re going to incorporate special teams within it, but our plan right now is start it off with a normal kickoff situation then I always like to put the defense under some duress. We’ll put the ball on the eight going in immediately, facing some adversity and having to handle that and see how our guys respond to that. We need to get some goal line work, we need to get some coming off the goal line work, more redzone work.”

On playing two quarterbacks:

“I think we’ve got to do what it takes to win. If it takes two, it takes two. I think the competition has been very healthy from a standpoint of three really class young men that have been raised right, good people, and at the end of the day, they want what’s best for the University of South Carolina.”

Linebackers coach and special teams coordinator Coleman Hutzler also spoke to the media on Friday.

On Elliott Fry:

“He is a guy that is very competitive, challenges himself. He is a guy that wants to do well at high level. I am constantly staying on him, challenging him. He likes that and enjoys it. Our relationship has been great so far.”

On the linebackers:

“Obviously we would like to have everybody healthy, but injuries are part of the game. They happen. We are excited about the guys we have. Jonanthan Walton, T.J. Holloman and Bryson Allen-Williams have done a great job up to this point. We have some other guys coming along. T.J. Brunson, a young freshman, has really done some good things. I’m very excited about the group we had.”

On T.J. Brunson:

“He was a (heck of a) high school player. Unfortunately he had that injury his junior year (of high school) that held him out. He has done very well up to this point, not a surprise in anyway.”