The South Carolina football team and Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp want to close the gap with the Clemson Tigers. It starts with recruiting.
The South Carolina football team Saturday took the second blowout loss to Clemson in as many years with Will Muschamp at the helm.
After the 34-10 defeat, he presented the next step to trying to catch up, one that echoed his words a year prior.
“We need to continue to recruit,” Muschamp said. “We’re down about 10 scholarships right now because of the attrition we’ve taken over with. It is what it is. You don’t hear me complaining about it. It’s the situation we’re in.
“We’re going to continue to recruit and develop. We’ve had 12 seniors that did a fantastic job for this football team, and we’ll continue to build the football program the right way.”
A talent gap, he said, was the most glaring issues following the 2016 loss in Death Valley.
South Carolina currently sits 27th on the 247Sports Team Talent rankings, though that list includes a few walk-ons. Clemson is No. 9 with an edge of 40-19 in blue-chip players.
Muschamp’s staff doesn’t look at star ratings, but it can be he helpful indicator, and Saturday’s game certainly looked like one where one side had better pieces to work with.
And the staff will quickly turn full attention toward that.
The early signing period is three and a half weeks away. The Gamecocks have 18 public commitments (and greyshirt Tyreek Johnson) in a group that will likely end up at 23.
USC is still in the mix for a few four-star prospects and trying to flip several others as the Gamecocks wrap up an 8-4 season.
As things wound down for Muschamp on Saturday night, he was asked about the next step.
“We’re going recruiting,” Muschamp said.
