When D.J. Shockley talked to Bryan McClendon before the season started, McClendon was excited but cautiously so headed into his first season as an offensive coordinator.
When the friends and former Georgia teammates talked again at midseason, McClendon was much more confident, not just in himself but in his South Carolina football players.
“He kind of went from, ‘I’m not sure these guys can handle everything I want to do,’ to, ‘We can do what we really want to,’” said Shockley, who was McClendon’s quarterback when the pair won the 2005 SEC championship. “He was way more confident in what he wanted to do, what he was seeing and what he wanted to call during the game.