I was at that game at Auburn. We were playing with our third team quarterback and facing the revenge of Kenny Irons. It was horrible.
Did SOS have it right?
- Thread starter 4ever2thee
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I think what I find most frustrating about the Spurrier era was when we always seemed to lose 1 game a year to an opponent we shouldn't have struggled with. We should have played in probably 2 more SEC CGs.
Exactly. We had two losses to Tennessee and one to Auburn - at a minimum - that had they not happened, could have changed the face of USC football.
That's why I daydreamed during the last coaching search about how cool it would be if Mike Leach was talking to the media at our podium. I've moved on though.
And u see what Whammy, Deke, and jr did to them.
Yes, and Muschamp moving forward will most likely be coaching against 2 top 5 teams annually for the foreseeable future..plus SC's got Alabama on the schedule next year
I hate people talking about how Spurrier quit on his team. What Spurrier did was get old. He could not overcome the negative recruiting other coaches do because he was old. The only mistake he made was that he was honest when he was asked how long he might continue coaching. That is a sad commentary on our society that being honest could get you so much hatred.
At least he walked away when he knew he would not be able to overcome all this.
At least he walked away when he knew he would not be able to overcome all this.
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Please, he quit on his players with less than 2 months left in the season .. he is a quitter, period
Honest? He said a few more seasons... He didn't mention quitting in the middle of one of those seasons
You would help me a great deal by elaborating on that third sentence. It can be interpreted a couple of different ways.
Spurrier was the best and anyone who tries to argue that is ignorant. I hated the way he left, but he is still the best thing that ever happened to South Carolina football.
Yes, he was our best. And in true Carolina fashion, our best turned out to also be our most ephemeral.
Well, as usual this thread went in a completely different direction. The OP was about the approach to recruiting. And nothing else.
Comparing SOS's 6th year to BOOM!'s 3rd is disingenuous. After SOS had been here 5 years I told my buddy he seemed to be sullying his legendary reputation here. But since we've seen this program at a higher level, some seem to think we can just get back there without years of rebuilding.
I love Spurrier and think he moved us forward significantly. He left at the right time. It would have been nice if he could have hung on for the rest of the season (which maybe would have kept us from losing to Citadel), but hey. Spurrier was the Bobby Cox of college football. He won a ton of games and probably should have won some more titles, but I'm darn glad we had him.
I just think it's unfair to pretend that Spurrier's success in his first few years far eclipses what Muschamp has done so far with a much worse foundation than what Spurrier inherited.
My point is that conversations, if they go on long enough, tend to go off course. It is a fundamental truism. I don't know what y'all's problem is. It has nothing to do with me.
Spurrier was high IQ, possessed uncanny intuition and a quirky charm. It was always entertaining to listen to him talk to himself during those press conferences. When everyone was looking one way, he was looking the other. His Achilles Heel was of course his ego, however, the positives typically outweighed the negatives.
Some posters played competitive sports and some posters just watched... I'm beginning to understand which ones played and which ones watched.
There is NO WAY someone who played sports, with through all the ups and downs, all the wins and losses.... and that person side with a QUITTER... a grown man millionaire quit on young men... the supposedly leader of the program and some give him a pass.
....Not, I.... if he'd won a National Championship at SC and quit in the MIDDLE of the season a few seasons later, he'd be nothing more than a QUITTER in my mind.
You don't QUIT!!!!......I will continue to beat this dead horse, every time someone praises Steve Spurrier for what he did at SC
There is NO WAY someone who played sports, with through all the ups and downs, all the wins and losses.... and that person side with a QUITTER... a grown man millionaire quit on young men... the supposedly leader of the program and some give him a pass.
....Not, I.... if he'd won a National Championship at SC and quit in the MIDDLE of the season a few seasons later, he'd be nothing more than a QUITTER in my mind.
You don't QUIT!!!!......I will continue to beat this dead horse, every time someone praises Steve Spurrier for what he did at SC
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How else are you interpreting it? That he got old and couldn't coach anymore? No I think he could coach just as well right now. Problem is high school players want to play for the same coach their entire career.
The Dabo Swinneys of the world convinced those players that Spurrier would not be here for them. It was not a lie. Our recruiting suffered and he knew his time was up. Staying longer would have only prolonged the agony.
I didn't know if you were saying he had hit the wall or that his age was being used against him on the recruiting trail to the detriment of the program. The latter was true for awhile before things went South, probably from the time he first came here. I think either one of those things would be too simplistic. Spurrier was never one to lead out in recruiting like Muschamp does. He went where Junior told him he was needed. What happened is that he lost his best coaches/recruiters, and when 2014 came along, we had not replaced the talent we'd had before - or the coaches. And Spurrier never had the recruiting program in place that Muschamp has now. He just didn't have enough gas left to climb the mountain again.
I don't really believe it was all about recruiting. I think changes in the staff had more to do with it than anything. He start delegating responsibilities to his assistants and they were incompetent. He made a mistake promoting Ward to DC and he made another huge mistake in hiring Deke Adams. After the Texas A&M massacre Spurrier seemed as surprised as us with how bad the defense was. Ward was reporting that the defense was going to be better than it had been in the past and it was far from it. Players on defense weren't developing under the defensive staff and when Clowney left, we were without any quality DEs. We had no pass rush whatsoever.
I’ll akways remember his first words in that press conference...
“Let’s get one thing straight! I’m resigning, I’m not retiring”.
Kind of hit me the wrong way. But either way the hard earned success USC had finally achieved was removed pretty quickly. Sad.
“Let’s get one thing straight! I’m resigning, I’m not retiring”.
Kind of hit me the wrong way. But either way the hard earned success USC had finally achieved was removed pretty quickly. Sad.
Someone with some balls should have then asked him, 'Coach, are you in the market now for a different HC position?'
People who have actually coached sports for a length of time, or have close friends who have been in the profession, will readily understand what I'm about to explain here. Those folks who see sports only from a former player's perspective can never really understand the incredible amount of mental stress a coach deals with 24/7. Burnout is a fact of life in coaching, from middle school to the professional ranks. If a man pours all of his mental, emotional and physical energy into his job, eventually he loses the desire to continue. The fire has burned down to an ember..... thus we have burnout. This is true in every sport, not just football. As to "someone who played sports", what about the college and NFL players over the years who "quit" during the preseason or even the regular season because they didn't want to subject themselves to the physical and mental grind of so many previous years? Should Spurrier have gone through the motions for another year or two with no passion, heart or desire for the job? If I am coaching a college football team and my star QB has suddenly lost all desire to practice and play anymore, should I still start him because I never believe in anyone quitting? Hardly, I'd wish him well for his future endeavors and move forward. To a lot of us on here, it took more courage for Spurrier to admit he was done, whenever it was, rather than continue like a zombie going through the motions with no real desire to continue.
I think that really all people wanted out of him was not another year or two but a few more games - or alternatively, a few less games.
Definitely a few less games, since he tried to retire after the previous season, but was talked out of it by several people.
Exactly. He should have retired after the Miami game and gone out a winner. I doubt many people would have faulted him for that that.
I'll be short... NO not "a year or two" as you state..How about 6 remaining games in the season, ..6 weeks.......is that to much to ask...
Courage... That is BS...he quit because his ego couldnt take losing so he bolted on his players
He's a QUITTER
.... and I'll be even more brief! Have you ever coached any sport, at any level?
That was unfortunate. But those who think he should have stayed the course in 2015 have the better of the argument, in my opinion. I don't hate him for doing what he did. He did too much for us for me to ever adopt such a stance. But he made a mistake.
Our recruiting suffered because he hired a bunch of also-rans to take the place of some damned good coaches and recruiters....had nothing to do with his age. They couldn't evaluate, couldn't recruit, and couldn't coach 'em up, period.
Damn! This ^^^^ is a GOOD post! It really sums up the reasons behind the Post-SOS fiasco.
