South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Will Muschamp lost his mind after the refs missed a pick play that won the game for the Florida Gators. Was he right?
The South Carolina Gamecocks were feeling great about themselves after last week’s huge upset over the SEC East rival Georgia Bulldogs down in Athens. Head coach Will Muschamp was now 2-0 since wearing reading glasses on the sidelines. His newfound vision helped the Gamecocks win a big game last week, but they couldn’t get past the Florida Gators at home Saturday.
Muschamp’s former employer Florida got a solid bounce-back SEC victory over the division-rival Gamecocks in the rain up in Columbia on Saturday afternoon, 38-27. Florida was the No. 9 team in the nation, so losing at home to excellent like the Gators isn’t the end of the world, as that happens on occasion.
But that didn’t stop Professor Muschamp explode on the officials after he saw a blatant missed call by the referees. The Florida receiving corps pulled of a not-so-sneaky pick play on the South Carolina defensive back for an easy Gators touchdown. Muschamp channeled his inner BOOM and let the zebras have, but did he have a point? You better believe he did!
Will Muschamp goes nuclear on SEC officiating on this illegal no-call pick play that clinched the win for Florida. pic.twitter.com/ozA0KvkCB5
— Brad Crawford (@BCrawford247) October 19, 2019
First off, pick plays are illegal. If you’re going to pull one off, at least clever about it. This pick play was tactless, blatant, wrong and possibly robbed the Gamecocks of another victory over a top-10 team/most hated division rival.
Muschamp tried to avoid making a comment on the officials or whether a sky judge would be beneficial but he did take issue with one referee throwing a flag on him for unsportsmanlike penalty.
Muschamp called the act gutless by the referee to drop the flag 40 yards away from Muschamp vs. at his feet in his postgame comments.
Because of this lapse in judgement by the officials, South Carolina now falls to 3-4 on the year and may be in jeopardy of reaching a bowl game. South Carolina still has to play the archrival Clemson Tigers at the end of the year. Clemson doesn’t lose regular-season games under Dabo Swinney anymore. So yes, Muschamp had every reason to unleash the fury on those bad officials.
Of course, the Gators still scored 38 points on the road with a backup quarterback in Kyle Trask. After holding Georgia to 17 points on the road to win in Athens in double overtime last week, Muschamp should be more disappointed his team’s lackluster defense against Florida. This isn’t to say South Carolina played well enough to win, but a better defensive effort might have done it.
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