re: Whats holding USCe and A&M Back?

Except your highest ranked team in program history lost to Butch Jones.

History is pretty much impossible to overcome. Why do you think the same handful of teams win the title every year?

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Was A&M success all the legacy of Johnny football?

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That was certainly a big part of it and probably the biggest part. But the '12 team actually played defense (with mostly Sherman's players). A&M really hasn't since then.

See the '13 Cotton Bowl to start the second half with A&M up 14-13:
OU: 3 and out
A&M: TD
OU: 3 and out
A&M: TD
OU: 3 and out
A&M: TD

That's my favorite stretch of Aggie football, maybe ever.

ETA: Thanks for the downvote, 14-yr old LSU fan. You da man!

Only thing holding back USC is recruiting. Spurrier was never the UF Spurrier of olden days: in the first half of his tenure at USC, the Gamecocks had atrocious offenses at times, but the defenses were the most consistent performing units of the program. Spurrier had nothing to do with that - hell, USC had those defenses under John Thompson, Tyrone Nix, and Ellis Johnson. Where are they all now?

Then Spurrier was introduced to the zone read offense, particularly in 2010. He brought in Lattimore and Shaw who thrived in the zone read. Spurrier never coached zone read offenses at UF: it wasn't his offense. But the team had their best years in the system.

Then there was the recruiting: SC as a state had some excellent prep talent rise up during those latter years, and Spurrier's staff did an excellent job of corralling the vast majority of them. The staff had brought in a top 10 class in 2007 and another one just outside of the top 10 in 2009, but those classes didn't produce anything beyond the 7-6 type seasons Spurrier was realizing.

Then the top in-state talent surge, mostly on the defensive side, keeping the defenses stellar, and the zone read clicked into place, and boom we pulled off several 11-win seasons.

IMO, after the first one in 2011, Spurrier started looking towards the sunset. Johnson left to take over SoMiss, and Ward who was a solid recruiter, couldn't focus as hard when he was promoted to DC. Lawing got run out of Columbia, and he was a solid DL developer. He was replaced by a joke of a teaching coach, IMO. Beamer left to join his dad's staff at VT, and Bubba was a lousy RC in his place. And the level of prep talent in SC fell off after Clowney...

It's the story of a staff that takes a long time to build a program, but does so and then rides the talent to a few great seasons until they all matriculate out of the program, and then the staff kinda walks off out of the center view.

They never tried all that hard to keep it going - probably because Spurrier was old after all and when he started talking about calling it quits, the staff saw the writing on the wall and started quitting too.

It will forever grind my teeth that ANY staff of a SEC program - regardless how new or laughable or incompetent they may be perceived - would NEVER have allowed a program to build up to a top 10 national, 11-win a year program, without breaking their necks and backs to capitalize on the success and try to take the program all the way. But Spurrier and his staff got USC there, and they called it quits. Probably why most of the staff now has hard times finding jobs at Div. III programs these days..

1. South Carolina is a state of less than 5 million people.

2. South Carolina shares the Palmetto State with Clemson.

3. Clemson just won a national title and historically has dominated the rivalry.

4. South Carolina is close to historically good programs like UGA, Auburn, FSU, UT, UF and Alabama that have always poached the best in-state talent.

5. South Carolina's fans will show up win or lose. There is not as much financial incentive for us to succeed as there is at other programs where the fans require sustained success.

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Was USCe success all Steve Spurrier?

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Mostly.

Spurrier stopped giving a shite after 2013. He didn't have the desire/energy to make needed staff adjustments or recruit anymore.

Hard to continue performing at a high-level when the head guy packs it in. Our recruiting was dealt a major blow with his "2 more years" comment, and that's when the writing was on the wall that we were about to go through some shite.

It wasn't until the end of the 2015 season that it was obvious how bad things were with the program. As much shite as Muschamp gets, he's putting his heart and soul into building the roster back up.

Spurrier packing it in was the best thing to happen to the East and Clemson, but hey, what can ya do.

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1. South Carolina is a state of less than 5 million people.

2. South Carolina shares the Palmetto State with Clemson.

3. Clemson just won a national title and historically has dominated the rivalry.

4. South Carolina is close to historically good programs like UGA, Auburn, FSU, UT, UF and Alabama that have always poached the best in-state talent.

5. South Carolina's fans will show up win or lose. There is not as much financial incentive for us to succeed as there is at other programs where the fans require sustained success.

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Here you have a USCe fan who gets it.

A: History

once you are established as the little brother in your state it's virtually impossible to overcome.

State of Florida may be the exception, but the history is short and the recruiting pool is second to none.

Hit a peak or once in a generation break while the heir apparent is down, but that's about it.


History repeats itself for various reasons, once it's established it's in stone.

Big 6 .....lol