Will Muschamp recruited USF quarterback Quinton Flowers out of high school, while the former three-star prospect played in Miami. According to Flowers, Muschamp, then the coach at Florida, wanted the stand-out quarterback to play safety, joining a list of other coaches who wanted the nation's No. 9 dual-threat quarterback switch positions.
Muschamp said Wednesday that Flowers would've had a shot to play quarterback in Gainesville, the opportunity to play quarterback and nothing else eventually brought Flowers to USF.
"I told them 'If you don't want me as a quarterback, then you go get somebody else,'" Flowers said of his recruitment process.
During his recruitment, Flowers told The Miami Herald he wanted to stay under center in honor of his deceased mom, a statement he echoed Wednesday.
"That's the last thing my mom seen me play, so at the end of the day, I won't want to play nothing else," Flowers said.
Now the AAC Offensive Player of the Year, having set the school record for total offense in a season with 3,971 yards, Flowers leads the Bulls' high-powered offense against Muschamp's Gamecocks, looking to secure USF's 11th win of the season.
Despite the team's 10-2 record and appearances in the AP and Coaches' Polls , USF wasn't listed in any of the committee's six weeks of College Football Playoff rankings,
"We have 10 wins, but people don't respect us," all-conference linebacker Auggie Sanchez said.
"People doubted [Flowers] the whole time he was being recruited, and look at what he is now," Sanchez added. "People don't respect us, and that's driven us, and it's still driving us to this day."
The Gamecocks have their work cut out for them against the dynamic Flowers, and their main focus will be to limit the impact of his running ability.
"If we keep him in the box and make him focus on throwing the ball, we should have a good shot," linebacker T.J. Holloman said when asked about Flowers.
The Bulls rank seventh in the nation with 43.6 points per game, and the running attack leads the way, as USF amasses nearly 300 yards per game on the ground. Alongside Flowers in the backfield is all-conference running back Marlon Mack, another 1,000-yard rusher.
Muschamp stressed the importance of tackling and getting off the field on third down, as he has all season. The Gamecocks struggled this year to contain mobile quarterbacks such as Mississippi State's Nick Fitzgerald and Texas A&M's Trevor Knight, who combined to run for over 250 yards on the South Carolina defense.
"They have a bunch of great athletes," Holloman said of USF. "They're very explosive when it comes to their offensive schemes. We just have to settle down tomorrow, get out there, control the pace of the game."