On Sunday and Monday, several NFL teams and players participated in protests during the national anthem.

As the rest of the world watched, debate was sparked and responses were given. Now, college coaches are addressing the issues with their teams, and South Carolina’s Will Muschamp is no exception.

On Tuesday, Muschamp said he had a meeting with the Gamecocks and discussed freedom of speech and the right to stand up for personal beliefs (via 247Sports):

“One of the great rights as an American citizen is freedom of speech,” he said. “It’s one of the things that make the country what it is. Standing up for what you believe in, to me, is freedom of speech. That’s a right every American citizen has and one that makes this country great.

“I talked to our team about the people who stood up for what they believed a long time ago about this country, and that’s why we are where we are today. My point is, listen, we can agree to disagree. At the end of the day, that’s one of my favorite sayings. We don’t have to agree, but it doesn’t make somebody right or someone else wrong. Standing up for what you believe in is extremely important to me, and I expressed that to our players today.”

It will be interesting to see if any college players join in on the protests this weekend, but it seems as though Muschamp will let players do what they see fit.

It’s a nice gesture from Muschamp to throw his support behind his players and their right to express themselves.