South Carolina’s football team has tried all season to live by a particular mindset. That will be tested after its first loss of the season.
Call it Turn The Page Tuesday.
South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp and the Gamecocks players were ready to put the Kentucky loss behind them by the time they had their weekly meeting with the media Tuesday.
“We know it’s a long season,” quarterback Jake Bentley said. “This is a test for us. We talk about it all the time, ‘So What. Now What?’ That’s really going to be tested now.”
It certainly is. The Gamecocks (2-1,1-1 SEC) have to put behind them their worst performance of the season. They have to put behind them the lost opportunity for a 3-0 start. They have to put behind them the loss of their best offensive player, wide receiver Deebo Samuel.
“That stings a little bit when we have the atmosphere and everything rolling in our favor, and we kind of go out and lay an egg,” tight end Hayden Hurst said, “but we’ll be alright.”
Turning the page started in Tuesday morning’s practice, Muschamp said.
“It was a real physical Tuesday, which is what we normally have anyway,” Muschamp said. “There is disappointment and being upset, but you have to move on at the end of the day. That’s what I felt today with our guys and our staff. When you turn the table to Louisana Tech, you better move on quick; they have a good football team. I think that was a wake-up call as much as anything. We started with special teams and when they saw their team speed, they saw offense and then defenses and some of the things they do extremely well and our guys realized we need to be ready to roll.”
Safety D. J. Smith reported the coaches were “kind of amped up” during tackling drills specifically in Tuesday’s practice.
“It’s in the past now,” Smith said. “We hung our shoulders Saturday and Sunday. Now it’s a new week, new game plan. We can’t really hang on that too much. We have to get ready for the next game. I feel like we’re ready.”
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