What Mike Furrey said about South Carolina's receivers on 107.5 The Game: Part 1

South Carolina wide receivers coach Mike Furrey joined the GamecockCentral crew on 107.5 The Game Friday morning to discuss his group as the Gamecocks get ready to turn the page from spring ball to summer workouts.

Below is Part 1 of a transcript of that interview.

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Q: With 100 days until kickoff against Virginia Tech, does that feel like a long way off or is time flying by?

A: First of all, appreciate you guys having me on, but, you know, I saw a graphic this morning that we are 100 days out and I remember Coach Beamer putting up something in the facility when it was close to 200 days left and it felt like yesterday. So it’s coming fast. And just got off the road here yesterday from recruiting for the last month, and now we get settled in with our guys here, coming back into the campus on Monday, and we got a lot of work ready to do before we show up in August, September.

Q: What message are you giving the freshman receivers, especially with the next step heading into summer?

A: My message the whole time was, how fast can you become a veteran in this program? And that means you better get sunk in, you better get your body right, better get your mind right, you better get caught up, and you better be able to put yourself in a position to compete because, I’m not going to look at you as a freshman when you come back here in the end of May.

You’ve had four months now to be in our system, you’ve been in our weight program, you’ve done well in academics and obviously with spring ball. So you have a lot of experience already to get ready for the season. And so my message to them the whole time has really been to all of them, how fast can you guys get up to speed to allow you to go play with a better mentality here when you come back in May.

Q: You have four returners who all contributed last season. What have you seen in their progression throughout winter and spring?

A: I know there’s a lot of hype around these freshmen that are coming in, the five that were there in the spring and then Donovan Murph coming here, starting on Monday. The thing that I wanted to look at, when these kids came in in December, January was what’s that going to do to the guys that are already here and how does that push them and, you know, how do they grow up, how do they continue to develop their game?

And I think outside of the noise of all the freshmen coming in, when you look at a Vandrevius Jacobs or Mazeo Bennett and Jared Brown and Nyck Harbor, you’re talking about four guys that have absolutely taken their games, maybe not just to the next level but beyond. And I know there’s a lot of talk about Nyck Harbor and the spring that he had. I’ll be the first one to tell you Nyck Harbor looked like a football player this last spring, and that’s exciting.

Mazeo Bennett looks better than what he looked like in the fall. Vandrevius Jacobs again, you know, we know his skill set when he came in from his previous school and you look out this spring and he’s making probably the second or third most consistent guy and most productive guy in the room and finished it off with an almost 100 yard game in the spring game.

We all know about Jared Brown. I think Jared Brown has the potential to be one of the most dangerous football players when he has the ball in his hands and that’s kind of been his rap ever since he’s been in college. And we saw that against Missouri when he took the one or two yard screen for 40, 50 yards for touchdown.

And so for all those guys, I think the best thing that’s happened to those guys is they’ve been in our system. But at the same time, you’ve got a lot of good freshmen coming in. These guys are respected and these freshmen have shown up fearless and wanting to learn and they’ve got out and made a lot of plays in the spring. And it’s going to create a lot of competitiveness in your room.

And it’s pushed Mazeo, it’s pushed Nyck, I mean, it’s pushed Jared and Vandrevius and so. But the coolest part about all of it, I will tell you, is all 10 of those guys are, they’re all friends. They all respect each other. There’s a lot of energy in that room. Brian Rowe, if you got back and look at our spring, every time Nyck made a play or Mazeo made a big play, whoever it was, B Rowe and Mazeo and Jared Brown are all running around happy for each other, high fiving each other. And that creates confidence in our room and that continuity and so it’s helped all of them. But definitely excited about the returners.

Q: A lot of fans are interested in Nyck Harbor. What did you see with him getting a taste of success last season and then carrying it into the offseason?

Yeah. And listen, here’s the thing about Nyck Harbor, and it goes for anybody. Experience will always help you. And expectations without experience, a lot of times will hurt you as a player. And because now you got to live up to some expectations of stuff you’ve never done before. And I think when you look out past this season, I think it was a growth throughout the entire season.

Coming in last fall, there was a lot of unknown and not really how to do things. And him and I have never been around each other until really camp last year. And, as you guys know a little bit, I’m, you know, I’m all about the details and I believe that anybody that can become a great route runner and high football IQ and understand the game, you can develop someone tremendously when you have some of those traits.

But a lot of those traits come by experience, and Nyck’s never had that. And I think as the season went on, the more productive he became and the more confident he became and I think the more excited he was for the offseason, which was the decision not to run track, was the decision to be around football 100%, all the time.

And the more and more he was around, the more and more the guys have accepted him, the more and more he was around, the better he became as a player, the more knowledgeable he became as a player. And then now he’s starting to watch film because he’s done it. He’s learning from the film. He knows what he’s doing right, he knows what he’s doing wrong. And I think there was a time during the spring started looking to film. He’s like, hold on, time out a second, I could be pretty good, you know, I can use my body, I can outrun people. I can make contested catches because I’m bigger than everybody else. I can compete with anybody. And so I think there was a growth there. But as I tell Nyck, like I don’t believe you ever stop growing until you retire, and it’s his job now to continue to do that and I’ll do the same thing with him and push him, but completely happy.

He’s happy. He’s in a great spot right now mentally about his game and excited to get him back here on campus and watch him continue to grow, not just as a player now but as a leader, too. Because again, when you’re 6’6”, 250, and you run a 10 (second) 100, everybody’s going to look up to you to see what you’re doing. And he’s got a great attitude, a great mindset.

I’ll tell you guys here, nobody really knows this, but when the first day those freshmen showed up in December, we kind of took them out on the field and started walking through some formations. And there was one guy that walked out there and tried to start helping all those kids understand where to line up, how to line up, what the plays were, what the concepts were. And it was Nyck Harbor.

So he also has some leadership qualities in him that he’s starting to believe in what he’s doing to help other people. And I think it’s all that culmination of everything has allowed him to be where he’s at today. And listen, there’s a lot of work. I’m not saying the kid is going to be an All American or, you know, an SEC player of the year, but I know he’s a dag on stinking good football player and we’re going to push him this fall to, you know, try to become the best he can possibly become and helps us win football games.

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