re: 2019 Football Season Thread (4-8, 3-5): Season Over

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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).

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Woods got blamed for not winning enough. But give him credit for the rescue.

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