Most coaches funnel in crowd noise during practice the week of road games to simulate the raucous environment their teams will be playing in.

Will Muschamp does that for home games too.

During his weekly news conference Tuesday, South Carolina’s coach explained his reasoning for that strategy while discussing his team’s improved defensive communication. It’ll be even more important Saturday when the Gamecocks host the up-tempo offense of No. 9 Texas A&M.

Home crowds are usually at their loudest when the opposing team’s offense is on the field, so Muschamp wants his defense to be able to communicate despite the noise.

“We’re going to have to have our best day (communicating) Saturday because we’re going to be at our place,” he said. “It’s going to be pretty loud. When you’re on the road defensively, you don’t worry about it as much. It’s funny, a friend of mine came to practice a while back, and we were playing a home game. He said, ‘Why do you have crowd music for a home game?’ I said, ‘Defense.’ He said, ‘I never thought of it that way.’

“When we’re on defense, we’ve got to communicate, and it’s going to be loud. It’s not as much so on offense. Because of their tempo and because of our crowd noise, we need to have our best day communicating Saturday.”