Why South Carolina, Muschamp aren’t too concerned with Vanderbilt’s COVID-19 issues
For South Carolina football coach Will Muschamp, every call from trainer Clint Haggard is nerve-wracking. In 2020, that call might mean USC is losing a player for 10 days or longer because of COVID-19. Or Muschamp might find out that he himself has the virus.
But a few days after his team faced Vanderbilt, which turned around and had to postpone its next game because of too many coronavirus cases and subsequent quarantine issues, the fifth-year Gamecocks coach wasn’t too concerned.
“Clint Haggard called me and said that there was no contact tracing through the game” that would affect the Gamecocks, Muschamp said Tuesday. “They’ve checked that through some device that they have. So we test a lot. We tested (Sunday), again this morning.”
He noted that the program is testing about 350 people three times a week. The school hasn’t changed anything coming off the news the Vanderbilt-Missouri game had to be moved back to December.
The Commodores played 54 of 56 available players against the Gamecocks. They are now down to 50, below the SEC threshold of 53 needed to play.
In a statement from USC on Monday, the school said: “Our athletics training staff has been notified by Vanderbilt, per SEC protocols, that no players on the Gamecock football team were identified as being a close contact that would result in quarantine. A close contact is identified as someone who is within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 cumulative minutes. We will continue to test our players as normal SEC protocols — three times each week.”
Asked directly, several Gamecocks players said they didn’t come away from the news too concerned either.
“I didn’t even know about that,” safety Shilo Sanders said. “But we test so much here, I’m not even worried about any of that. We test way too much, way too much.”
Corner Jaycee Horn added: “I’m confident in the planning of the team and the NCAA. I’m not to worried about it. When guys chose to play, they knew the situation. We all knew that could happen. You really just suck it up and get ready to play on Saturday.”
In terms of game day execution, this news doesn’t change much for USC. Friday and Saturday team meals are still managed and handled only by the program’s staff.
Even with Muschamp and players expressing confidence after the news of Vandy’s issues, there’s always the looming worry with the virus that has disrupted so much.
“We’ve had a lot of issues with it,” Muschamp said. “It’s hard. ... We’re all dealing with the situation that we’re in and we’re making the best from it. But it is very nerve-wracking as far as dealing with some things that are totally out of your control.”
Next game: South Carolina (1-2) vs Auburn (2-1)
When: Noon Saturday
Where: Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia
TV: ESPN
Line: Auburn by 3.5
This story was originally published October 13, 2020 at 1:26 PM with the headline "Why South Carolina, Muschamp aren’t too concerned with Vanderbilt’s COVID-19 issues."
