South Carolina coach Will Muschamp will face off against a long-time friend this week in Ole Miss co-defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin.

Muschamp shared his thoughts on Wednesday on the SEC coaches media teleconference.

“Well, when I got the job at Florida, they were getting ready for the Outback Bowl I believe and Coach Meyer allowed me to come to practice and watch practice and just watch DJ, up close and personally,” Muschamp said. “He was coaching the linebackers was also the special teams coordinators very impressed with him on the field. Then you meet him and you realize that, well, what a genuine good person that he is. But he’s an outstanding football coach he’s a great husband. He’s a great father guy that I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for he’s been through a very difficult time there obviously in Maryland and, you know, I hate what he went through. But, but he’s an outstanding person and a guy that I’ve got a tremendous respect for just from what you’ve seen from this moment.”

Against Ole Miss this week, Muschamp said the quarterback decision will be made on Saturday.

The South Carolina defense will get a test this week against the high-flying Ole Miss offense.

“Two elite runners in Ealy and Conner are both elite. It starts with the running back position in our league they’re always you’re always gonna have a face a box where there’s one more and you got to run through compact and make people miss and all three of those guys are more than capable,” Muschamp said. “Both quarterbacks have legs. So that creates an extra gap. But the tempo they created, and obviously they you know they make you play a little more split safety as far as because of the threats they have outside with more and Moore and Mingo that are really good players. So there’s a lot of weapons there but it starts with the lead backs and I think those two guys especially the older guys.”