South Carolina football head coach Will Muschamp held a press conference Sunday night to discuss the team's loss to then-No. 3 Florida and explain what improvements need to be made before next Saturday's game against Vanderbilt.
Muschamp said the Gamecocks' downfall was caused by them having "too many mistakes against a good offensive football team." He said the second quarter was a "14 to 14 game with eight minutes to go."
Muschamp said there was a lack of plays by the secondary.
"There were six explosive plays for the game, five in the first half," Muschamp said. "It's hard to win games when you're giving up explosive plays."
Tackling was also an issue on the defensive side of the ball. Muschamp said the missed opportunities were "12 missed tackles, which is 12 too many." He went on to discuss how the defense needed to advance its opportunities to come up with big plays.
Muschamp said he had a conversation with his defensive backs about some of the errors made on big plays against the Florida offense.
"The glaring in the stack was obviously Kadarius Toney's 57-yard run," Muschamp said. "We asked them today, and we didn't get much of a response. ... When you play good people, you're going to miss some tackles, that's part of it, but that was the glaring play."
Even though Muschamp was not pleased about the way his defense performed, in reference to sophomore cornerback John Dixon, he said he was "really proud of how he played."
"The guys who practice the best are the ones who're going to play on Saturday. There's no doubt about it, he did some good things," Muschamp said,
Offensively for the Gamecocks, graduate student quarterback Collin Hill played in his second SEC game against the Gators. Muschamp said he was pleased with the way Hill has improved, describing him as a "really good football player" and a "tough son-of-a-gun."
Seven drops by receivers caused problems for the Carolina offense throughout Saturday's game.
"Those are some unfortunate things that happen sometimes during the game, but that's part of the game, that's part of the deal," Muschamp said.
Despite the struggles by Carolina receivers, sophomore running back Kevin Harris played well against a tough Florida defense. Harris kept the Gamecocks alive with his 127 total yard performance and explosive plays out of the backfield.
Muschamp said Harris is "a very physical player" with "great understanding in the run game."
South Carolina ran the clock down seven minutes on the last offensive drive, ultimately unable to score points.
"In a perfect world, we'd like to have had three minutes on the clock," Muschamp said. "We needed to be crisper, we needed to be a little faster."
Going into next Saturday's game against Vanderbilt, Muschamp said he is hoping to see better play from his secondary and his offensive receivers.