So they're looking for a new coach down in Columbia, and it's abundantly clear that they're veering off the route they took to find their previous two coaches.
The State sat down with South Carolina's president and asked about what they're looking for in Steve Spurrier's successor. The president painted a pretty clear picture:
Don’t expect another Steve Spurrier on the sidelines at Williams-Brice Stadium next season, University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides says.
Gamecock Athletic Director Ray Tanner will have make the final choice, but Pastides — chairman of the NCAA Division I board of directors — said on Tuesday that USC could look for a coach who relates well to players and their families with their knowledge about contemporary culture.
Spurrier, 70, was the third-oldest active college football coach before resigning Monday.
“When I look around at great programs today, I see people who are able to relate to players and their families in that way,” Pastides told The State. “So I think coach Tanner would look at that, among many other things.”
And this:
How do you handle potential fan disappointment if USC does not hire another legendary big-name coach like Spurrier or his predecessor Lou Holtz?
Pastides mentioned how Spurrier told reporters Tuesday that he might have been the right coach for USC in 2004, but that he was no longer the right coach.
“He’s probably not necessarily the model of who coach Tanner will be looking for. It’s a different day and age. Players are different. Expectations are different. So I don’t think we’re looking for someone exactly like coach Spurrier. I think the fans will be happy with a proven record of accomplishment, integrity and someone who can relate well to his players, his coaches and the fans. I think they’re out there. I tell you I have no idea who that might be.”
Hmmmm....
It doesn't take much deep thinking to conclude that the model for what they're looking for presides over a certain football program in the Upstate.
And boy, does that have to sting for Gamecock fans who aren't just totally delusional about where they are and what it's going to take for them to get back to where they were.
A few Wednesday links:
-- Kudos to Terry Bradshaw for telling it like it is.
“Most athletes, we’re the good ol’ boys, part of the good-ol’-boy fraternity, and we take care of our brothers and we cover up the bad habit, and the bad play,” Bradshaw said in a phone interview, when asked what made him take the subject on. “We want them to be our friend, and we want the owner and the coach to like us, and therefore we’re not doing our job.”
Bradshaw’s fellow commentators sat in awkward silence as he furiously protested Hardy’s return to the field after a four-game suspension for strangling his girlfriend and threatening to kill her on a bed full of weapons. Bradshaw called Hardy out as a “fool” for his unrepentant and bizarre remarks about coming out with “guns blazing,” and wanting to get a look Tom Brady’s wife, Gisele Bundchen, and her sister too when he played the New England Patriots. But the faces of his colleagues really froze when Bradshaw turned on Jones and did a devastating imitation of the Cowboys owner excusing Hardy in a cornpone accent, because he’s so desperate for a pass rusher. It was an imitation he reprised on the phone.
“‘That’s my boy; he can sack a quarterback,’” Bradshaw jeered. “‘He didn’t mean to do it, and he won’t do it again. Here’s $20 million, bless your heart.’”
-- Auburn's offense is putting "a lot of stress" on Mark Stoops. Why? I'm not sure.
Through five games, Auburn is averaging 343.8 points and 24.6 points per game, a far cry from Malzahn's first two years on the Plains. The Tigers averaged 485 yards and 35.5 points per game last season and were at 501.3 yards and 39.5 points in 2013.
Auburn's statistical drop is primarily due to the struggles at quarterback. Junior Jeremy Johnson was benched after tossing six interceptions in three games and displaying an inability to run the offense effectively. Malzahn turned to redshirt freshman Sean White, who was limited to short throws against Mississippi State and just 10 passes against San Jose State.
Malzahn has yet to name a starter at quarterback for Thursday's game, but Stoops said it hasn't changed his game plan.
"Anybody that uses the quarterback in the run game puts stress on you — adding numbers and taking shots down the field and so on," Stoops said. "Just like most people who will sit here and tell you, they wish they had a few throws over, a few things over, but they are plenty capable and they're very well-coached."
-- Art Briles talks about the importance of running the ball.
"We know we can throw the football," Bears coach Art Briles said. "If you can run the football, it kind of hurts people in the heart."
Baylor (4-0, 1-0) entered with the FBS' top offense in scoring (64.0 points per game), total offense (767.0 yards per game) and rushing yards (379.7 per game). The Bears gained 680 yards, 368 rushing.
"You think Baylor, you think throwing the ball," Russell said. "Being able to run the ball strong, it definitely opened up the pass game because that's below the box and basically it's one-on-one with, I feel like, the best receivers in the nation. It puts a lot of stress on the defense."
-- Utah, Ohio State, Baylor and TCU make USA Today's playoff projection.
"The Utes have that feel of a special team that's destined to create some history," Playoff Projection panelist Jim Ross said.
Although the top four teams earned their second highest percentage of the vote of any week this season, that doesn't mean there is much more clarity.
"I think the hardest part right now is the fact that some of the teams I think are the best/hottest have one loss already," said panelist Nicole Auerbach of USA TODAY Sports. "While I do strongly believe we will have one- and perhaps two-loss teams in the Playoff when it is selected in December, it's tough to take them over undefeated teams right now.
-- Bret Bielema claims he was pushed in the back last weekend at Alabama.
Dude...
"There was no intent on mine. Here's what happened, you're out on the field, there's a situation that happened when we get a turnover. A couple plays before that there was a little situation and some feistiness and I said to the officials, 'Hey, you should throw a flag and get this calmed down a little bit because guys were getting chippy' It was a big game. What happened is they came over to the sideline and 74 (Robinson) was in a tussle with (an Arkansas player) and they kinda got flipped out of bounds.
"I kinda knew, just as a coach, you feel these things coming and so one of the things I learned early on with coach (Hayden) Fry was when you're stepping in between players, especially if you have a game-like situation, to put your face to your players because it comes across as confrontational. So I jumped in front. ... I knew my players weren't going to touch me, I knew that.
"So I kinda jumped in front and then there's a lot of things going on. I know I got pushed out. I don't know if whatever happened, but I turned around and that's when I saw the flag and knew something happened. But the league told me it was more off of the action towards other players rather than anything directed towards my actions or him pushing me into my actions, or whatever it was."
-- Was the implosion against Texas the worst loss of Bob Stoops' career? Well, the list is getting pretty long.
In fact, it’s the 15th time in Stoops’ 17 seasons — and fifth time in the last four years — that Oklahoma has lost a game as a double-digit favorite. That’s one-third of his total losses.
Forget Clemsoning. Stoops’ teams have invented Soonering.
Monday, Stoops essentially laid the blame for yet another catastrophe at the hands of his players. After senior captain Ty Darlington said the players came out flat, Stoops said that was on them.
“The bottom line, you talk about it, you show ’em why, you show ’em — we (coaches) did our part,” Stoops said. “We showed ’em a hundred times. We went through the last, two years ago, the Texas game (a 36-20 loss in which OU was a 14-point favorite), where they’re ranked, where we’re ranked, what’s happening. You show it to ’em, you show it to ’em, you show ’em. We even showed 10 minutes of the game, of them beating us. So you can only — they’ve got to choose to be ready to play. I can’t figure out why that would be, that a 20-year-old, a 21-year-old, when you’re only getting to play so many times and you have a rivalry game, they’re not.”
"You can put it on me, but I don't play."
Wow.
-- And finally, a jam in a van by The Futurebirds:
LW
