When the South Carolina football team opened fall practice, all the focus was on the quarterback battle involving Perry Orth and Brandon McIlwain. However, in the first two weeks of camp, the running back position has taken center stage, as junior David Williams has lost whatever edge he had on redshirt freshman AJ Turner.
On Aug. 8, Turner was running with the first team offense. When Muschamp was asked who was behind him in the rotation, he said "Bear Paulk and Rod Talley … and a little bit of David Williams."
The idea that there will only be a little bit of Wiliams comes as a bit of a surprise, as the former ESPN150 recruit was expected to be the workhorse in the South Carolina backfield in 2016.
When asked about the situation Thursday, Muschamp said Turner has "distanced himself as our best back right now."
Three weeks from the first game, Muschamp still has plenty of time to work out the backfield situation, but it appears Williams has fallen out of favor with the coaching staff, as Muschamp has publicly called out the Philadelphia product's drive and worth ethic.
Still, the first-year coach is not willing to tip his hand ahead of the team's season opener on Sept. 1 against Vanderbilt.
“We haven’t really set a depth chart, so we rotate guys through there,” Muschamp said Thursday when asked about the order of reps in practice.
Freshman running back Rico Dowdle may not be in the mix against the Commodores, as he recently underwent sports hernia surgery and is expected to be sidelined for two to three weeks.
In other injury news, Muschamp said that linebacker Larenz Bryant, who played in 10 games last season, will miss three to four weeks with a pulled hamstring, likely holding him out of the season opener. Wide receivers Bryan Edwards and Deebo Samuel have also been dealing with minor hamstring injuries, but both are back in action.