The head coaches for South Carolina and South Florida returned to Alabama Thursday before bringing their squads to town for the Birmingham Bowl, which kicks off at 1 p.m. on Dec. 29 at Legion Field.

South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp speaks to the media at the Birmingham Bowl press conference. (Mark Jerald / Alabama NewsCenter)

South Carolina coach Will Muschamp is well familiar with the state, having been defensive coordinator for Gus Malzahn at Auburn. He left the Tigers for Columbia, S.C., before they faced Memphis in the December 2015 Birmingham Bowl.

“I enjoy being back in the state of Alabama, being in the Birmingham Bowl and playing at Legion Field,” the Gamecocks coach said. “I’m excited to be in Birmingham.”

T.J. Weist was a walk-on at Alabama who went on to be a graduate assistant for the Crimson Tide. He was the co-offensive coordinator at South Florida until being handed the reins as coach  Willie Taggart accepted the job at Oregon.

T.J. Weist, head coach of South Florida, speaks to the media at the Birmingham Bowl press conference. (Mark Jerald / Alabama NewsCenter)

“It was a great experience coming to Alabama,” Weist said. “The best decision I ever made was coming here, playing for Alabama, coaching for Alabama and I’ve been in college coaching ever since.”

This is the third straight Birmingham Bowl that will include an interim coach. D. J. Durkin stood in for a fired Muschamp when Florida came to town to face East Carolina in January 2015.

Darrell Dickey was the interim for Memphis when the Tigers faced Auburn in December 2015. Dickey stood in for Justin Fuente, who left to take the job at Virginia Tech.

Weist said his job is simply to lead the Bulls to a victory over a Southeastern Conference squad.

“We can make history for our university and for our program to get 11 wins,” he said of his 10-2 team. “(I want to) set the direction for this program, whoever the head coach may be – hopefully it’s me. I’m going to do everything I can to do that. But my job is to focus on these players for this football game. The athletic director will make the best decision for this university.”

South Carolina and South Florida to face off in 2016 Birmingham Bowl from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

Muschamp is focused on trying to stop the No. 25-ranked team in the country that didn’t fail to score at least 30 points in any of its 12 games this season.

“(Junior  quarterback) Quinton Flowers is an outstanding player,” the Gamecocks coach said. “He’s a guy who can create some issues. You can be in the right defense and he can hurt you because of his athleticism. The speed of their team concerns me because we haven’t been the fastest team on the field this year much.”

South Florida will face South Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl Dec. 29. (Mark Jerald / Alabama NewsCenter)

Weist said Muschamp’s reputation working with defenses is well known.

“Coach Muschamp has always been a tough-nosed, hard-minded, competitive coach,” he said. “They’re a very young team. It’s his first year so they’ve got a ways to go there to really get into his system, to learn how to play his style of football and to get the talent that he needs to work it right. He did well his first year to get into a bowl game.

“They do have a good football team,” Weist said, “and he’ll get them ready for this game.”

Birmingham Bowl Executive Director Mark Meadows said the bowl game has had an economic impact of about $130 million in its first 10 years, based on figures from the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“It’s really a good time of year because when this game happens, especially the last couple of years between the Christmas holidays and the New Year’s Eve holidays, it is usually the lowest point of hotel occupancy,” he said. “A lot of people aren’t going out to eat because they’re having family meals at home. This really helps the local economy by having the local hotels and restaurants impacted by having 15,000, 20,000 people in town.”