How new assistant coach Mike Furrey is quickly building rapport with WR room

Mike Furrey has only been coaching at South Carolina for month but you wouldn’t know it from the way his positional room is responding to him.

The newly hired wide receiver coach is quickly earning the trust of a young wide out room that also features a trio of transfers.

“Coming in and demanding what I want out of that room right away. Not trying to build up to that moment. We ain’t got time for that,” said Furrey. “I think the biggest thing is coming in there and setting those standards that want. What type of players do we want to become, how we want to help this football team, and this is how we’re gonna do it and we’re gonna start now. We’re gonna have to grow up fast. I think that’s been the best part of all of it is that the guys have responded to it really, really well.”

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Of the 12 Gamecocks wide receivers on scholarship, South Carolina returns had just 32 receptions for 380 yards and three touchdowns last season. Another reason why Furrey knows there needs to be a high level of urgency.

“Whether it’s in the meeting rooms, whether it’s just questions or text messages, the communication has been phenomenal. I’ve seen it real quickly that there’s a big care factor and an understanding from our guys that they do need to learn a lot about football. Not just how to play the game but also football IQ that helps you stay around the game and those things have been great so far.”

One player who has demonstrated that care factor is rising sophomore Nyck Harbor. Despite the former five-star athlete currently running track this season, he’s continued to show face at football practices, when his schedule allows him to, while also making an effort to build a rapport with his new wide receiver coach.

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“Nyck and I see or talk to each other probably four or five times a week, whether that’s in person or via text or just conversations on the phone. I understand where he’s at and what he’s wanting to accomplish. We have full support of that decision and I’m going to be his biggest fan. I hope he achieves what he wants to achieve. Obviously, he ran a 10.16 this past weekend in his first race. His mindset also is not only to accomplish what he wants to accomplish in track but he also wants to be well-prepared from a football IQ standpoint once he gets back here in the summer and fall. He has shown me since I’ve gotten here that it’s important to him. We’ve set up those schedules to make sure he’s ready to go when he comes back.”

Being on the same page as his players isn’t the only thing Furrey has been focused on. He’s also constantly talking with South Carolina offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains to better understand his philosophy.

“It’s fun because I’ve been around a lot of offenses in my life as a player and as a coach. I think what I wanted to be able to do was come in here and not just really ask Dowell about what he’s installing but more so just see it on my own. Then, see through the first couple of days when I was here, in regards to some of the OTAs and whatnot. Where I could just see how he coaches, what he’s demanding and also continue to learn his offense.”

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When you’ve been around the game of football as long as Furrey has, both as a player and as a coach, typically it’s the verbiage that can vary from offense to offense. But once you get past that, there’s usually a lot of similarities as what you’re trying to do as an offense. Something he’s also been able to notice with Loggains’ system.

“As I’ve gone through those first three or four days, seeing how he coaches, seeing how he installs and then starting to realize what type of offense that we run here, the offense is very similar to some things I’ve been through in my career. I’m pretty excited about that. It has helped that transition to understand how he wants it done. I have a really good feel about where our guys are supposed to be, why we’re running those concepts or why we are running those plays, and how you’re supposed to get there. I think it’s been very smooth since the start and I’m very excited about his offense.”

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