Spurrier admits he fricked us proper ...

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“I had done a poor job and our assistant coaches did a poor job of recruiting,” Spurrier said, when addressing his departure from Carolina at mid-season of 2015.

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He’s correct in saying that the Gamecocks roster certainly fell a long way in a short amount of time. After peaking in 2013 with a third consecutive 11-win season and a final ranking of No. 4 nationally, the talent on the South Carolina roster began to dry up.

In 2014, the offense still had players. Carolina was ranked No. 11 in the preseason, but dropped its opener to Texas A&M, 52-28, a clear sign that the defensive talent had fallen off significantly. The Gamecocks finished a respectable 7-6, but blew two-touchdown fourth quarter leads against Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. Had Carolina won those three games, the Gamecocks would have won the SEC East. Likewise, South Carolina went up and down the field against Auburn at Auburn and dropped a 42-35 decision.

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Spurrier also made mention toward the end of the interview that he did not “surround himself with the right personnel” toward the end of his career to make his “plan”, which had worked brilliantly throughout a Hall of Fame career work. That was perhaps the most telling comment of the interview.

During the rise of South Carolina, starting in 2010, the Gamecocks had a staff full of assistant coaches who were excellent recruiters and evaluators. One-by-one, they left the program for other opportunities. Recruiting coordinator Shane Beamer left after signing day 2011 to join his father’s staff at Virginia Tech. His duties were filled by wide receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. Running backs coach Jay Graham left following the 2011 season to accept a position at Tennessee, his alma mater (he left Tennessee shortly afterwards). He was replaced by Everett Sands. Defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson left to accept the head coaching job at Southern Mississippi (where he failed miserably before going to Auburn and failing miserably) and his job was filled on-staff by Lorenzo Ward, who in turn filled out his defensive staff with Kirk Botkin (high school) and Grady Brown (Southern Miss). South Carolina also lost its strength coach Craig Fitzgerald to Penn State during this time and Spurrier promoted from within to fill his position.

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In all cases, these were coaching and recruiting downgrades and in many cases, coaching downgrades. As those assistants departed, he promoted one of the least successful recruiters on the staff to recruiting coordinator, promoted a first-time defensive coordinator that could not coach the entire defense and who subsequently made poor evaluation after poor evaluation in the secondary in recruiting, promoted an assistant strength coach to strength coach, hired a running backs coach (your running backs coach always should be a strong recruiter) who couldn't recruit (one in-state FCS coach was stunned when Sands was hired and told TBS off the record that he was not a strong recruiter) and who could not develop relationships with his players very well, hired a linebackers coach out of a Texas high school where he wasn't a coordinator, hired a secondary coach who had never coached anywhere bigger that Southern Miss. and hired two special teams coordinators who could not recruit. Then he hired a defensive line coach who was woefully inadequate in terms of player development and coaching the defensive line. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

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