was ranked 10th in the SEC and 27th nationally. The current clas

RIO DE JANEIRO - Triple jumpers Will Claye and Christian Taylor are inseparable when track and fields spotlight shines its brightest.The Gator Greats mythical 2011 NCAA Outdoor Championships duel remains, in a word, legendary. Their gold-silver finish at the 2012 Summer Olympics introduced the world to a burgeoning friendly rivalry. Their dazzling performances at last months United States Olympic Trials electrified a crowd of 20,000-plus fans at Historic Hayward Field.If history is an indication of what is to come, this Claye-versus-Taylor clash should be one of the cant-miss spectacles of these Olympic Games.Taylor was energized just talking about it a few days ago.Its going to be tight, Taylor said. I know hes ready. I know hes excited.Anything but a second straight gold-silver finish, something no two Americans have ever done, would be a stunner.Claye and Taylor, 1-2 finishers at four of the last six annual United States Track and Field Outdoor Championships, are far and away the worlds best triple jumpers competing in Rio de Janeiro.Four of the top seven leaps in the world this year, including the farthest two, belong to Taylor. Claye boasts the other three. Both jumped at least 57 feet, 11 inches this year. No one else surpassed 56 feet, 10 inches.Yep. They are more than a whole classroom ruler better than every other triple jumper this season.Compiling such a strong year is business as usual for Taylor, the defending Olympic gold medalist and one of only two multi-time IAAF World Championships gold medalists in history.His first world championship came in 2011, two months after turning 21 and concluding a three-year career with the Gators. He became the youngest triple jump world champion in history, and no one his junior has won the title since.Taylor captured his second title at the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing, two years after a degenerative knee issue forced him to switch his takeoff leg. Imagine a left-handed pitcher winning the Cy Young Award and then deciding to throw right-handed. In Taylors mind, that would be harder than what he, entering the prime of his career, had to do.His gold medal-winning jump, an astounding 59 feet, 9 inches (18.21 meters), shattered the previous American record of 59 feet, 4.25 inches (18.09 meters). It was also the second-best mark in history, the closest any man has come to breaking Jonathan Edwards world record of 60 feet (18.29 meters), set back at the 1995 World Championships.In each of his four full years competing in the Diamond League, track and fields professional circuit, Taylor won the triple jump crown. He is undefeated through four meets this season.Titles and medals are incredible achievements. But they are not what he is chasing anymore. Each time Taylor steps on the runway, he is gunning for Edwards world record. And he can only reach it if challengers rise up and push him.Having the best competition of my life (in Beijing) and falling short ... is just more motivation, more fuel. Taylor said. Every meet I talk about challenging my competitors. I cant do it alone. If I couldve jumped 18.29 I wouldve done it at practice, and maybe I wouldnt be here now. But you need that environment. You need that fuel.Clayes resume, even without an outdoor world title or Olympic gold medal, is plenty impressive.In addition to his silver medal in the triple jump at the 2012 Olympics, Claye won bronze in the long jump. No man had medaled in both horizontal jumps at the same Olympiad since 1936. He owns a pair of World Championships bronze medals, a World Indoor Championships gold medal, and two USATF Outdoor titles as well.Clayes latest American crown came at this years Olympic Trials, six days after devastating news his top-three finish in the long jump final would not qualify him for Team USA because he was one centimeter short of the Olympic entry standard.Taylor finished right behind Claye, suffering his first loss May 2015. It did not bother him a bit. Actually, it thrilled him.I know it sounds weird, but its exciting, Taylor said. Just to get that fire, that hunger back again. When you lose, you start to challenge yourself to wake up again and push a little harder in training. For me, it was a nice little awakening.To see Will back at his best level is very exciting for me. Were always going back and forth. To have Gators one and two, thats what its all about.Their love for the Gators is anything but hollow. They do not just talk about Florida like it was merely a necessary step toward their professional careers.They genuinely love being Gators.At a pre-competition Olympic Trials press conference, Taylor donned a Florida polo. He wears orange and blue spikes any chance he gets. For the Trials, though, that would not be enough. So he broke out a pair of gator scale-patterned spikes. When he first unveiled them on Instagram, Taylor said he wanted people to see how big of a Gator I really am!While Clayes Gator pride is not always on display for everyone to see, it undoubtedly runs just as deep as Taylors.Being a Gator will always stick with me, Claye said at the Trials. The Gators produce greatness. Its something engrained in every athlete that touches that campus. When we come to these meets, even though I dont have a Gator logo on my chest, Im still a Gator at heart.International competitions are more like family reunions for Claye and Taylor.Fellow Gators Omar Craddock, a two-time American champion who wore The Swamp socks his first day at Olympic Trials, and Marquis Dendy, the 2015 American long jump champion and triple jump bronze medalist, went head to head with Claye and Taylor at last years World Championships. Four Gators, in one event. Unreal.This years Olympic Trials also saw the rise of junior KeAndre Bates, who became the third collegian since 1972 to log top-10 finishes in both the long jump and triple jump.The professional foursome is already delighted their family gatherings around the globe will soon include Bates on a more regular basis, because, as Craddock put it at the Trials, they are in it together.Those are my brothers, Claye said. You never want to lose to your brother, but you always want to see them do well. As a Gator, we want to see another Gator do great. It always reminds me of the old days jumping with Christian and Omar, and now weve got KeAndre Bates; hes pushing us too.The old days, back when their training sessions at Florida were more competitive than meets, set the stage for this impending Claye-Taylor showdown.The aforementioned 2011 NCAA Outdoor Championships featured three lead changes and four of the top jumps in collegiate history-all from Claye and Taylor.They logged two of the top seven wind-legal marks in collegiate history. Taylors winning jump, a wind-aided 58 feet, 4.75 inches, remains the all-conditions collegiate record. Clayes second-place mark, a wind-aided 57 feet, 9.75 inches, ranks fourth all-time. Third place that day? Fifty-five feet, 0.25 inches. They were in a class all their own.The following year, at the Olympics in London, they were 14 centimeters better than the bronze medalist. Claye led for three jumps. Taylor took it from him for good on his fourth leap.At Julys Olympic Trials, they were 18 centimeters clear of the field.All there is left to ponder is which Gator will stand atop the podium for the medal ceremony, and how far he will jump to get there.Weve made a name for ourselves as Florida jumpers, Claye said. Weve got to hold that name up. Weve got to go out there and compete, and we always seem to do it. I know that were going to go out there and represent the Gators well in Rio.Claye and Taylor jump in Tuesdays (Aug. 16) final, slated for 8:50 a.m. on NBC Sports Network. Watch it live here.Editors note: Unless noted otherwise, all quotes were obtained at 2016 United States Olympic Trials press conferences and mixed zone interviews this past July. Cheap Air Max . PAUL, Minn. Cheap Air Max From China . Terms of the deal were not immediately available. 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COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- Steve Spurrier, never one to mince words, is pretty honest about how his last season with South Carolina went.Spurrier, now an ambassador and consultant for athletics at Florida, his alma mater, says he believes theres only one direction for the Gamecocks to go under new coach Will Muschamp.It was such a lousy year last year, Spurrier said. Theres no way he could do as poorly as the outcome last year.Muschamp, 45, will be looking to begin to rewrite his coaching legacy, starting with Thursday nights opener at Vanderbilt (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). He was fired after four seasons as Floridas coach from 2011 to 14. He spent last season as Auburns defensive coordinator before taking the South Carolina job.I think you live and learn each year, whether youre a head coach, coordinator or business manager, Muschamp said. You learn different things that work and different things that dont.Muschamp wasnt the Gamecocks first choice to replace Spurrier -- they had their sights set on Georgias Kirby Smart, North Carolinas Larry Fedora and Houstons Tom Herman before hiring him -- but hes out to prove he was the right one.With a rare do-over as a head coach, Muschamp insists theres more to him than the screaming, maniacal sideline character that helped earn him the reputation as one of the sports best defensive coordinators.Im not worried about that, Muschamp said. Perception is not always reality in life. Im not overly concerned about the perception of things. I think people who know ball and know me know that Im a good coach.There havent been many head coaches who were afforded second chances to prove their critics wrong, especially in the SEC. There have been only a handful of men who have coached two teams in the league, including Nick Saban (LSU and Alabama), Spurrier (Florida and South Carolina) and Paul Bear Bryant (Kentucky and Alabama). Most of them were successful at their first stop.Thats why Muschamp was somewhat of a surprising choice to lead the Gamecocks. After guiding the Gators to a 7-6 record in his first season in 2001, they went 11-2 and played in the Allstate Sugar Bowl the next year. But then the bottom fell out, as the Gators went 4-8 in 2013 and 7-5 in 14 (Muschamp didnt coach in the bowl game after stepping down after a 6-5 regular season).South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner says Muschamp accomplished more at Florida than his record might reflect. When Muschamp took the Florida job, he had never been a head coach, and he replaced Urban Meyer, who guided the Gators to two national championships.Unlike a lot of people, I didnt think the Florida situation was a failed attempt by Will Muschamp, Tanner said. A lot of people say he failed at Florida. I know people say that, but I dont see it that way. It was four years, and there was adversity but there was also success.Former Texas coach Mack Brown, who hired Muschamp as his defensive coordinator in 2008 and later designated him as UTs coach-in-waiting, said his former assistant coach should be more prepared in his second stint as a head coach.?Hes at a great place, Brown said. When you walk into a place like Florida or Texas, without any head coaching experience, the learning curve is so steep and youve got a short time to get there. After youve done it, it gives you a totally different experience as a head coach.More than anything else, Muschamp knows hell put more emphasis on his teams offense.dddddddddddd. His Florida teams lack of production on that side of the ball was his ultimate undoing. In his final three seasons with the Gators, they never ranked better than 12th in passing or 10th in scoring in the SEC.Every place is different, and at the end of the day I knew we had to be productive offensively, Muschamp said. If you go back and look at Florida, we did try different things, schematically and coordinator-wise. We went through some things and we werent productive. That falls on my shoulders, and I feel much more comfortable about our staff and the buy-in from our players right now.Muschamps last offensive coordinator at Florida, Kurt Roper, will direct the South Carolina offense, and he retained offensive line coach Shawn Elliott, who coached the Gamecocks in their final six games after Spurrier resigned last season.While senior quarterback Perry Orth is expected to start against the Commodores, freshman Brandon McIlwain is expected to play in the game. Another freshman, Jake Bentley of Opelika, Alabama, who skipped his entire senior year of high school to enroll at South Carolina this summer, might be the teams best passer.That future at that position at South Carolina is as good as anywhere in the country, Muschamp said.But South Carolina has plenty of holes everywhere else, which is why fans might not see immediate results. The Gamecocks are expected to start only two seniors (left tackle Mason Zandi and Orth) on offense, after finishing 12th in the SEC in total offense (362.1 yards) and scoring (21.9 points) in 2015.South Carolina has five seniors starting on defense, but star linebacker Skai Moore will miss the season while recovering from neck surgery.The Gamecocks dont have a lot of depth. For all the good Spurrier did at South Carolina, such as guiding the Gamecocks to three consecutive 11-win seasons from 2011 to 2013, a first in the programs history, he didnt exactly leave behind a wealth of talent.The drop-off at running back, receiver and defensive back is pretty scary for us, Muschamp said.At least help might be on the way. South Carolinas recruiting class this past February was ranked 10th in the SEC and 27th nationally. The current class of 21 committed players for 2017 is ranked seventh in the league and includes seven players in the ESPN 300.I really believe that our fan base is educated and pays attention to recruiting, Tanner said. They understand the situation were in right now, where recruiting had taken a step back. We all want to win the next one, but I think theyll be extremely patient with Will if thats what it takes.If the Gamecocks stay healthy and a handful of young players contribute, they might be able to finish 6-6 or better. Country singer Darius Rucker, a lifelong South Carolina football fan, has promised a free concert in Columbia if the Gamecocks make a bowl game.Hows that for lofty expectations?I think fans will be patient because Steves time didnt end up well, Brown said. Everybody feels like theyre down. I dont think the expectations are very high. Its kind of a new birth. Steve had a good run, but its over. Steve had a fun run, and now its time for Will to start over with realistic expectations. ' ' '