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re: 2019 Football Season Thread (4-8, 3-5): Season Over
Posted on 8/26/19 at 1:21 pm to I Bleed Garnet
Posted on 8/26/19 at 1:21 pm to I Bleed Garnet
Interesting article the Post & Courier spoke with Sparky Woods who is now at UNC.
LINK
Man, I never quite realized how bad things were during that period. Steroids, Morrison's death, injuries, constant changing of university leadership.
LINK
quote:
A 24-28-3 record over five years was the ultimate reason the late Mike McGee, then USC’s athletic director, summoned Woods to his office following the 1993 season. The only thing that matters is wins and Woods’ teams didn’t get enough of them.
Yet Woods never had much of a chance to succeed. He was hired 16 days after the death of coach Joe Morrison, whose success on the field was nearly trumped by the controversies off it.
It was February 1989 and USC was reeling. A 6-0 start to the 1988 season unraveled in the wake of former player Tommy Chaikin’s tell-all piece to Sports Illustrated, titled “The Nightmare of Steroids.”
Morrison died of a heart attack three days before the recruiting cycle began. Woods, plucked from Appalachian State where he was a three-time conference coach of the year, was hamstrung by not being able to get several blue-chip prospects who were interested in USC under Morrison.
“I didn’t know how bad it was until I got down there, really,” said quarterback Bobby Fuller, who followed Woods from ASU. “It was a mess, man.”
quote:
Woods began with two winning seasons but bowl games were declined, university officials wanting to improve the program’s outlaw image by stressing academics over postseason play. The drop in recruiting was evident as USC began SEC play in 1992.
“Getting into the SEC was a testament to where we were going.
quote:
It had low points. A promising 5-1-1 start in 1989 skidded into the wall when star quarterback Todd Ellis was injured. The Gamecocks lost four straight to end the 1991 season and lost the last three games of the 1993 season.
And it had one of the lowest and highest moments in program history. Angry and frustrated after an 0-5 start in 1992, his players voted for Woods to resign. He responded by saying he would see them at practice.
Every player showed up, the Gamecocks turned to a cocky freshman quarterback and the legend of Steve Taneyhill was born. The resurgent team ran off five wins in six games and gave the USC-Clemson rivalry its most powerful image — the defiant Taneyhill, arms raised to the heavens, staring down the Death Valley crowd as the rain poured and the Gamecocks claimed a 24-13 victory.
quote:
That season, where a splintered team healed to play some of the best football USC has ever seen, summed up Woods’ tenure. There were great moments but they always had rough edges.
South Carolina quarterback Steve Taneyhill helped engineer the turnaround of the 1992 season in his first career start.
An injury-marred 1993 season ended 4-7 but Woods saw a great future. Yet he wouldn’t benefit from USC’s institutional stability after three presidents and three athletic directors since 1988.
“The changeover to the new president and athletic director, I didn’t think they had been through the growing pains we did and it was hard for them to understand,” Woods said.
“The changeover to the new president and athletic director, I didn’t think they had been through the growing pains we did and it was hard for them to understand,” Woods said. “Their call was to make decisions. There are no hard feelings, or anything like that, but three or four years after I left, the number of pro football players we had indicated we had done a lot right.”
Woods was fired in 1993 and resumed the nomadic life of a coach, first helping Pete Carroll with the New York Jets and then assisting at Memphis, Virginia, Mississippi State and Alabama (Woods was a combined 2-4 against USC at his SEC stops).
quote:
Woods got blamed for not winning enough. But give him credit for the rescue.
Man, I never quite realized how bad things were during that period. Steroids, Morrison's death, injuries, constant changing of university leadership.
This post was edited on 8/26/19 at 1:23 pm
Posted on 8/27/19 at 7:40 am to scrooster
quote:I've been out of the loop a bit the past week or so - was wondering how ticket sales were goin. I can't roll with our usual crew this year but 4 of our 8 will be there again - after the nightmare Belk bowl.
BTW he told me they sold out all of their allotted tickets .... but I'm hearing differently. Heard they only sold a little over 10k and BoA and Belk got the rest of them back for distribution which are basically being bought up by our fans so we should outnumber them by quite a bit although it is not going to be a sellout.
I suspect 50K announced and 65/35% Fighting Gamecocks.
quote:we definitely saw Ole Miss do that last year in our shootout win in Oxford. Thankfully DK Metcalf won't be wearing targoat blue this weekend
Phil Longo, the UNC OC, replaced Werner at Ole Miss and they evidently know each other pretty well. He was at Sam Houston State before going to Ole Miss. Longo runs what he calls an "Air Raid offense" so we should expect them to try to sling it around quite a bit.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 8:18 am to 1801
Gamecock Club is selling tickets BOGO right now. I picked up two more last night for some friends who are coming down from DC for the weekend.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 8:40 am to UpstateCock2007
107.5 said this morning that if you wake up Saturday morning and decide to go you would have no problem getting tickets. The belk bowl in charlotte was such a cluster frick that many Gamecock fans are staying away.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 8:55 am to SOSFAN
quote:
107.5 said this morning that if you wake up Saturday morning and decide to go you would have no problem getting tickets. The belk bowl in charlotte was such a cluster frick that many Gamecock fans are staying away.
This is 100% our plan. Getting cheap tickets last minute.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 9:31 am to SOSFAN
quote:
such a cluster frick
I love a good cluster frick. Ill be there
tbh I was at NCState for the opener two years ago and it was fine.
Maybe ppl just whine too much.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 9:33 am to SECUSC4
Did you have to show your ticket everytime you went back to your seat?
Posted on 8/27/19 at 9:36 am to SOSFAN
That’s probably true. Had a few friends do that back in 2017 for NC State. I think the turnout Saturday won’t be as good as it was that day.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 10:07 am to UpstateCock2007
Are fans really using the bowl game cluster as an excuse not to go to the opener? Good or bad, the ending of a season has zero bearing on the beginning of a new one.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 10:08 am to UpstateCock2007
Wtf is this about Hinson quitting?! Mike just told me it's supposed to be announced at the presser today. Said his heart condition isn't improving as expected?
Anybody else heard this?
Anybody else heard this?
Posted on 8/27/19 at 10:21 am to Carolina_Girl
Confirmed. Champ will discuss it today during his presser.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 11:00 am to UpstateCock2007
Damn I hate that for him. I know that has to hurt. What a roller coaster. First told he probably couldn't play again then that the procedure went better than planned and he'd be able to return in 3-4 weeks and then right back to he definitely is done. I can't imagine how he is feeling.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 11:04 am to SOSFAN
quote:
107.5 said this morning that if you wake up Saturday morning and decide to go you would have no problem getting tickets. The belk bowl in charlotte was such a cluster frick that many Gamecock fans are staying away.
It was the cluster frick of all cluster fricks .... worst managed Bowl game I have ever been to. Stadium management completely fricked it up.
ETA: I've had a lot of broken bones and surgeries in my life. That neck injury Kiel suffered .... I had the same one playing ball in Europe. Compression fracture of the C5 vertebrae. It's a scary thing and when you combine the cyst, he did the right thing. With Hinson, I've had a couple of heart attacks, seven stints, and two years ago I had a cardiac ablation. It's more common in us older folks when they want to tighten up a valve or a wall in a chamber but occasionally it happens to younger people who might have a slight defect. It shouldn't be career ending. I suspect we might find out it's something more, more to the story, than just the ablation for Hinson. It's a shame because he is a helluvan athlete. I hope he didn't become disenchanted and is transferring or something. He didn't strike me as the type the couple of times I chatted with him. So it may be something else, something maybe they found, I dunno. Maybe he's just tired of playing sports. We'll eventually find out the whole story though.
This post was edited on 8/27/19 at 11:12 am
Posted on 8/27/19 at 12:07 pm to scrooster
Wtf? Evan Hinson is transferring to play basketball so it cannot have anything to do with his heart or he wouldn't be cleared to play that, either.
What the hell happened??
What the hell happened??
Posted on 8/27/19 at 1:10 pm to Carolina_Girl
Was afraid of that.
He's lost his mind if he thinks he has a future in basketball.
He's lost his mind if he thinks he has a future in basketball.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 1:14 pm to scrooster
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe going D2 or somewhere.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 1:16 pm to UpstateCock2007
Word on tha skreet is Stormtroopers for Unis
Posted on 8/27/19 at 2:08 pm to scrooster
Brother plays for Ole Miss, right? Wonder if he's somehow going there?
Posted on 8/27/19 at 2:18 pm to SECUSC4
I like the storm troopers look or the black magic look.
Posted on 8/27/19 at 2:32 pm to SOSFAN
How about some throwback storm troopers?
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