South Carolina entered its bye week this week with an uneven start. The Gamecocks had a chance to develop major momentum but stumbled in a loss at LSU last week to snap a two-game winning streak.

WR Shi Smith and running back duo of Kevin Harris and Deshaun Fenwick have been two of the few bright spots for the Gamecocks. But coach Will Muschamp shared on the SEC coaches media teleconference what he’d like to see in terms of improvements down the stretch.

In losses, especially recently, it’s been the defense that has yielded big plays.

“So I’d like overall improvement on the defensive side of the ball,” Muschamp said. “I think early on we gave up more explosive patches than we have that was extremely disappointing and then I think the run defense last couple weeks has not been what we need it to be so we’ve got to prove them on both levels as far as our run defense is concerned in our, in our past defense is concerned, continue to explore for more explosive players on offense has been outstanding.”

The Gamecocks are still looking for a second receiver to emerge outside of Smith.

“Deshaun and Kevin have been really good Nick Muse has been a very good tight end for us in our first five ball games we need somebody else to emerge and Jalen Brooks and get some other guys involved offensively, to give us some more opportunities to move the ball down the field we’re coming off a game that we needed to finish drives which averaged eight yards of play,” Muschamp said. “That’s pretty explosive offensively. So we’ve got to continue to find more guys all offensively that can can put us in position to score. And those are the two things I think special teams obviously you know Parker (White) probably will end up kicking off as we continue to move forward. You know, we just need to be more consistent there.”