Final notebook with more on team mentality, creative offense

Ignoring the noise

South Carolina is garnering a lot of attention from national media after bursting out to a 2-0 start against two Power 5 teams on the road.

Sports Illustrated ranked the Gamecocks No. 2 in the SEC East behind Georgia, and could be set to move into the Top 25 with a win Saturday against Kentucky.

It’s hard to keep players’ minds off of the noise surrounding what looks like an up-and-coming team, but that’s the coaching staffs’ goal this week.

“I think that our guys are pretty guarded with where we are from a standpoint of, certainly when you do get positive results you feel a confidence boost in what we're doing and what we're coaching you to do and the performances they've had the last two weeks against two good teams,” Will Muschamp said.

Also see: Breaking down the keys to victory for Saturday's home opener

The Gamecocks got off to an undefeated start with a potent offense and smothering red zone defense. It’s that formula that’s going to keep the team winning games and what players are going to focus on against Kentucky.

“We just have to play with the same mentality we had the first two games,” linebacker Eldridge Thompson said. “We treat every game like it’s the first game of the season: zero-zero. It doesn’t really affect us.”

A win Saturday would keep the Gamecocks in first place in the SEC East with six more SEC games left. Thompson said the team is close and that’s a big reason the team isn’t concerned about outside noise.

“It’s difficult, but when you have the bond like we do, we know what the goal is,” he said. “We just tune it out, prepare for what we got to do and take every game one on one.”

Also see: What does USC's newest commitment's coach have to say about him?

Calming Bentley

Jake Bentley was a little erratic in the first part of the Missouri game before settling down and leading the team to a win.

Bentley said trying to calm down was a problem against the Tigers but is working on making sure that doesn’t happen in what could be a emotional home opener against the Wildcats.

Muschamp said it’ll be up to the older players on the team to calm some of the younger players down and it’s been a focus leading up to the game in terms of managing emotions.

“I think, again, our guys will be excited. You lean on some of the experience you have in the room,” Muschamp said. “We've got a lot of experience in the room that our young players will listen to and channel it a little bit better as you focus in on the game, something that I will probably address before game time.”

Also see: Full list of big-time visitors this weekend

Detaining Deebo

The Gamecocks know exactly what defenses are going to start doing: putting the ball as far away from Deebo Samuel on kickoffs and trying to limit his touches on offense. It worked for the first quarter last week before his kickoff return for a touchdown.

That’ll likely be Kentucky’s plan this week, but it’s up to Bentley and the offense to find new, creative ways to get him the ball.

“We have a lot more weapons on our offense to use, but formationally, motion, shifts,” Bentley said. “Anything we can do to get him the ball we’re going to do it. It’s just getting more creative,” “I think we showed that Saturday.”

Samuel is top-10 nationally in all-purpose yards through two games and his quarterback is launching somewhat of a Heisman campaign for the junior.

Samuel laughs about it, saying he just wants to play the game, but it could get a lot more difficult with teams keying on him more now.

“He understands that whatever attention he gets is well-deserved. I think we’ve done a fantastic job of being creative and doing different things to move him around,” Muschamp said. “He’s extremely bright. He can play inside. He can play outside. He can play in the backfield if we asked him to, so that makes it more difficult for a defense to find him and where he is.