Already this week, Will Muschamp has fielded multiple questions related to the development of the South Carolina program, and possibly clinching bowl eligibility this week against Vanderbilt.

But the Gamecocks’ coach at his weekly press conference with reporters was not in the mood to reflect on the season until it’s over. Instead, he prefers to take a basic fundamental approach in season.

“We expect to win, and we understand in order to do that, you’ve got to prepare the right way,” he said. “You got to go out and practice the right way, you’ve got to go in meeting rooms with the right frame of mind. We’ve got to go into walk throughs with the right frame of mind to understand your opponent and respect your opponent. … I think all the other stuff is just clutter you create in your life, and right now we have to have singular focus on Vanderbilt.”

Muschamp declined to say if the program is “on schedule,” instead referred his answer back to Vanderbilt.

“To me, you reflect when the year is over, we’ve got a lot of football to play,” he said. “I told our guys, you’ll be defined by how you are at the end of the season, and it starts with Vanderbilt.”

Muschamp expounded on the return of injured offensive linemen Zack Bailey, Cory Helms and Malik Young and what it would do to the team’s depth.

“Any time you’re able to shuffle the deck, so to speak, you create experience, you create depth on your team,” Muschamp said. “It’s not about putting the next guy in, it’s about putting the best available player in and we’ve certainly been able to do that. … The last two weeks, those guys have played extremely well against SEC opponents and especially in the second half of wearing people down and running the football and we were able to do that in both games.”

Muschamp said Mon Denson would be the third running back to replace the injured Rico Dowdle. Denson has redshirted and battled various injuries to see his first action more than two years after he got on campus.

“You spend all that time in the offseason, you spend all that time in the summer, to not get a return or gratification of going out and playing,” Muschamp said. “Mon’s never been a negative guy. He’s always been a very positive guy, a guy that’s very popular with his teammates. That tells me a lot of the type of person he is. Because he’s a wonderful person. He’s a guy, be ready when your number’s called. He’s a great example for everybody.”