In a ceremony at the S.C. State House yesterday the governor presented Mooney with the Order of The Palmetto.
Mooney Player gets much deserved award
- Thread starter Forever Fowl
- Start date
I wished USC BOT back when we had a chance hired Mooney Player, I bet he would have been money in bank for Carolina and change the course of the football program...
Before we hired Carlen he politicked for the job intensely. He had a lot of support and a lot of pressure was brought to bear on the BOT. I don't know how close he came to getting the job. I believe he offered to coach the team for free - no salary unless he won in his FIRST year. Turns out he knew something about the team roster because Carlen won 7 games in his first season.
Used some “trick” plays that always kept an opponent on their toes. And would use some strategy rarely seen now - like if the opponent had a great KO return man he’d have his kicker kick it OB and give it to you on the 40.
Yes, that whole episode showed how cola itself was placing undo pressure on bot.
Jim Carlen was one of the best hires this university ever made…..& his dismissal was one of the worst!
If I am not mistaken, Mooney told the BOT that they could take the previous coaches’ salary and divide it by the number of games they played. Then they would only have to pay him for the wins - nothing for a loss. We should have taken him up on the offer. I am rooting for Coach B. But our our leadership from the BOT to the President and on to the AD is a joke. Almost like they are trying to ruin the university.
He made it easy for them to fire him. I'll agree that he was a pro.
Presbyterian College can show us how to do this in athletics. Ruin a program, that is.
pepsicock
Well-Known Member
Once saw Mooney design a play where a brown football helmet with a white stripe down the middle, resembling a football, was hiked into an empty backfield. The whole defensive front chased it while the real ball was being hiked a couple of linemen down from the helmet. The guy scored untouched but, as rules would have it, the play was called back. To this day I am still not certain that it was an illegal play.
Again, USC made the mistake of having the head football coach also hold the role of athletic director.
He was a successful HS coach, but people don't seem to remember he bombed out at the collegiate level. He was an assistant coach at NC State for a while and never went anywhere. College is a completely different animal from HS. It's probably a good thing he never got the USC job.
Bombed out? Explain how, please. I only recall his coaching one year, possibly two, at NC State.
You might be correct that it was probably a good thing he never got the USC job. You might not be. We'll never know.
What would you call it? He coached briefly at NC State, was not rehired and was offered no other college coaching jobs after that. I'd say that is pretty much the definition of bombing out at that level.
Mooney Player was before my time, but I had always heard what a GREAT HS Coach he was.
USCALUMNI
