Spurrier years...
- Thread starter ghostofpepsicock
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It's the epitome of ungratefulness to consider what he did for us and our university as a curse. Just my opinion of course.
I am afraid he showed us the maximum we ever could be and even that fell short. Curious losses to Vandy, Kentucky, UT, etc. made it less than what it could have been honestly. Still, one for the thumb was awesome times and the domination of #1 Bama was just a sweet thing to watch.
I know most folks have mixed feelings about the Spurrier era. However, I will say it was more of a blessing than a curse. Just take into account what Spurrier accomplished: 6 wins over Clemson including 5 straight, 5 Bowl victories including 4 in a row, 3 straight 11 win seasons, multiple victories over Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. During his tenure, we fielded teams that can compete and potentially win every game!!!
Anyone who thinks those years were a curse is a Clemson fan or brain damaged.
3 straight national Top 10 finishes, including number 4 in the nation, by a Head Coach who was PAST his prime: that proved you can win big in football at the University of South Carolina IF you have a competent, experienced Head Coach who is a proven winner. I have absolutely no mixed feelings about the Spurrier era. We were VERY fortunate to have him here. It is regretful that we have yet to follow-up with a similar caliber of Head Coach. We have no one to blame for that except the hiring authorities at the University of South Carolina. James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli, on his dying bed in the mid-1990s, told his daughter and step-son not to screw up the Bond franchise. If only someone had said to our guys in 2015 not to screw up the football program. If only...............
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Not a curse in any way, shape, form, or fashion.
Pretty much ended in the worst way possible but grateful he coached here and had the success he had.
What kind of question is that? Or did it somehow go over my head?
I think it’s more a question of how do you break through in the SEC as opposed to can you compete with everyone. We finished in the top 10 for 3 straight years, but never got an opportunity to face a team that was higher ranked in a bowl game. That seems like BS, but that’s life in the SEC when you don’t win the division or the conference.
Do I think we could have beaten LSU or Bama in 2011? Probably not. Do I think we could have beaten Bama and Notre Dame in 2012? Yes! Do I think we could have beaten Auburn and FSU in 2013? Auburn, maybe. FSU, no. But none of that matters if you don’t take care of business. You have to win them all. It’s virtually impossible to break through in the SEC if you haven’t done it before.
Do I think we could have beaten LSU or Bama in 2011? Probably not. Do I think we could have beaten Bama and Notre Dame in 2012? Yes! Do I think we could have beaten Auburn and FSU in 2013? Auburn, maybe. FSU, no. But none of that matters if you don’t take care of business. You have to win them all. It’s virtually impossible to break through in the SEC if you haven’t done it before.
He showed us we can have a winning program, but then his laziness and ego left us back in the dungeon. We have yet to recover.
I am grateful for the Spurrier years and believe South Carolina can be successful in football.
Blessing. Showed us being a factor in the SEC race is possible. This place will have 45,000 in WB Saturday in part because of SOS. At least half the fanbase expects more now. Before him not so much.
I mean a curse as fans meaning we want those years back and they’re probably not returning…you misread what I meant, not curse as in the “chicken curse”
I see. If we never had those years, we never miss them. That success does seem to taunt us. But it was a great time to be a Gamecock football fan. We were winners!!
A blessing in the short term.
Long term, I think potential coaching candidates can’t help but notice how the job chewed up and spit out 2 coaching legends in a row. Some must be wondering: if Spurrier couldn’t get it done, who could??
The only possible curse I can see is how many in our fanbase were OK with going back to being the Lovable Losers after he was gone. I had honestly thought he had changed our culture and overall mindset.
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Those were some good years, but he let off the gas those last four years. While we were enjoying those 11 win seasons we were not reloading on the recruiting trail. He left us in a mess that we have not yet recovered from.
That has to be a factor with HC candidates. It certainly looked even worse when Spurrier left during the middle of the season.
Not a curse. But he did let us taste greatness. It’s like being so poor you’ve never tasted cake, and you get a bite, then you never get another and you long for that cake. I didn’t care about the cake before...now everything we see is a saltine cracker
Please delete this thread. It's literally embarrassing to your unborn grandchildren
Spurrier was ready to retire after Clowney left for the pros. I don't believe this job chewed him up and spit him out. He achieved something here that no other coach did.... a Top 10 program. I think what he did here could have attracted a quality successor. But Tanner fked up and got conned into hiring a certified loser. And then members on the Board got bamboozled by some former players and hired someone who, thus far, is looking like Will Muschamp 2.0. Columbia is home to a clown show.
I know you meant no harm but MOST folks do not have mixed feelings about the Spurrier era. The sample of 25 year olds who work at Starbucks during the day and drive for Uber at night then come on here and brag about how much they made in crypto trades are by no means a majority of Gamecocks. Just a a majority on this board and the other one.
The vast majority of Gamecocks who actually have careers, a family and a mortgage fully recognize and appreciate that SOS was the best thing to ever happen to our football program by a long. long shot.
We caught lightning in a bottle when we got spurrier and all those nfl players for those few years.somehow, somebody opened up that bottle and let it escape.we had the chance to really get a nice run for a while but blew it.It was nice while it lasted.Beamer or any coach is going to be hard-pressed to even get that close again.me being a realist. Maybe with the expanded playoff coming, we will get lucky and have a Cinderella story, kinda like men's bb had a few years ago.
This is the thing. It took the combination of Spurrier and a historically unprecedented run of high level in-state talent to fuel those great seasons under Spurrier. Prior to all that talent, Spurrier was mostly just doing OK as our head coach. It was nothing short of divine intervention that allowed us to have Spurrier at the right time to land that in-state talent. Any other coach probably wouldn't have been able to bring most of those players in.
It's extremely unlikely our state will ever have a run of in-state like that ever again, so setting those season as the goal to achieve is incredibly unrealistic.
I believe other coaches would look at that as he did get it done. A coach could make a fine living winning at that level around here. Just to be in the race is what we need. Then every so often things work out.
Meh, to me, coaches would look at it and say: with one of the best coaches to ever coach the game and the most talented teams we'd ever had, the best we accomplished was getting our a**es kicked in the SECCG. And then there's the horrible ending to his career. It took an absolutely epic level of in-state talent to fuel those runs. When will that ever happen again?
I always thought if it had been handled properly we would’ve used that run to expand recruiting out of state. Which is how it will be built if it ever is. But as we know spurrier was right at that retirement age.
I was at the Auburn game during the regular season. And it was competitive. And that TD right before halftime in the title game took the wind out of our guys. And it went downhill from there.
Just wish Alabama would’ve held on (up 28-0) in the Iron bowl. We matched up much better with them.
People on here have no idea what they're talking about. These coaches aren't afraid of curses or whatever. They have enormous egos and sublime confidence in their abilities. They don't want to deal with a bunch of amateur hour idiots on the BOT telling them they have to keep Bobo so they can save a couple million bucks. They know a school that does that isn't serious about winning. And they're right.
Yes, definitely. That could have changed the trajectory of Gamecock football. What might have been.
Agreed. If we were cursed, would we have bounced back with 6 wins the next year, and then 9 wins the year after that? He actually left us in better shape than any departing coach has. He got us out from under another Holtz cloud, took us to places we haven't been, including a top 5 finish, and then left with no serious violations pending and a core of players that went bowl eligible the next year.
And while people moan about him "quitting" during the season, what is the trend today? It's coaching changes mid season, and for the very reason he gave at the time. Curse, my ass. Those years were a blast.
Only because there was no exit plan. Either they thought he would coach another 10 years or they thought it would be easy to hire his replacement. If we had a competent AD at the time it would have gone better. But even that does not detract from what Spurrier accomplished.
I never said anything about a curse. It's just reality. We've never had a coach come to a happy ending here.
And how many coaches ride off into the sunset in glory? Even Bear Bryant went out on a low note and then fell over dead. Tidy endings are for sitcoms. Holtz was never a long-term solution and said as much. Spurrier said he was good for ten years. And that's what happened.
Tanner had every opportunity to find the right person. But he botched it and we ended up with Muschamp because he got rolled by Jimmy Sexton.
It's true, most coaches don't go out on top. But it's just reality. You're crazy if you don't think coaches look at this and think "dang, that place even crushed Steve Spurrier." It's why we had to hire Muschamp. Nobody wanted the gig.
It seems to be the way of the universe. Certain legacy programs just persist through the generations while the mediocre programs continue with their lot. So many programs just like South Carolina have a few good years, then settle back to their baseline. Its become almost predictable.
I love the way some people think that every coach would be more worried about whether or not they can get it done than how they could spend 3-5 million dollars a year.
I would like to see a list of programs that went from perpetual also-ran to consistent winner. There are few.
The money here is nothing special. Besides, you'll find few coaches are willing to risk ruining their careers for a few million dollars. Most want to win and keep coaching for a long time, even it means a little less money to do so.
Oh, there's no question people think it's a mess.
Especially after trying to force Bobo on our coaching candidates. But it's not because the ingredients of success aren't present. It's because we're mismanaged on an epic level and our fans meekly accept it as the natural state of the universe.
Plenty of good coaches would've taken the job. Saying nobody will take the job is our way of absolving the leadership of bad choices and accepting our place on the football world - one step above Vandy.
