EDITORIAL: Great USC season will require great USC players

There was a time when Steve Spurrier ruled the college football landscape. The 1966 Heisman Trophy winner coached the Duke Blue Devils to the 1989 ACC championship, and then coached the Florida Gators to a 122-27-1 record, seven SEC championships, two national championship game appearances and a national title from 1990 to 2001.

During his coaching years at Florida, Spurrier was considered the foremost offensive mind in college football. His Fun ’n’ Gun Gators didn’t just beat opponents, they embarrassed them.

While most programs were sticking with ball-control ground games, Spurrier had the Gators throwing over, through and around defenses seemingly at will.

During the past decade, though, Spurrier has lost his identity. Now in his fifth season of continuing a tradition of mediocre football at South Carolina, Spurrier is no longer feared. Sure, Spurrier has had his moments at South Carolina.

In his first season in Columbia, he was named SEC Coach of the Year after the Gamecocks went 7-5, won a school-record five straight SEC games, got their first win ever at Tennessee, their first victory over Florida since the 1930s and finished second in the SEC East.

Since then, though, the Spurrier-led Gamecocks have gone 8-5, 6-6, 7-6 and are 6-4 this season. With games left against top-ranked Florida this week and in-state rival Clemson on Nov. 28, it appears the Gamecocks are destined for another ho-hum 7-5 or 6-6 season.

While there is a feeling the Spurrier-led Gamecocks can compete with any opponent in the SEC, the more prevailing feeling is they can’t beat anyone in the league on a consistent basis. And that’s exactly the feeling we had about the Gamecocks when Spurrier’s predecessor Lou Holtz led them to a 33-37 record in six seasons.

It’s not that Spurrier or Holtz haven’t been good coaches for South Carolina. Both are Hall of Famers, so both know a little something about the Xs and Os of the game.

Success in college football, though, isn’t just about drawing up the perfect play. It’s about having players who can execute the perfect play, and South Carolina football just hasn’t had enough great players.
While the Gamecocks are able to put a decent first 22 on the field, they haven’t been able to put 22 great players out there. And when it comes to depth, the Gamecocks have consistently been lacking.

College football powerhouses win with future NFL draft picks in the starting lineup and future NFL draft picks down the depth chart. When one outstanding player goes down to injury, another outstanding player takes his place and the powerhouse doesn’t skip a beat.

Programs that are consistently in the hunt for championships are programs that have a tradition of signing the top high school recruits in the country.

To say South Carolina football is stuck in neutral because Spurrier’s skills as a coach are eroding would be misguided. What the Ol’ Ball Coach is putting on the chalkboard isn’t the problem. When the Gamecocks take the field, they have a good plan. They don’t have the horses to always get the job done.

With Florida being a hotbed for high school football talent, Spurrier had little trouble signing top recruits. It was like shooting Gators in a barrel. Outstanding players were always jumping in the boat.

As Spurrier and Holtz have no doubt discovered, getting top recruits to commit to Columbia for four years has been a tough sell — probably tougher than they imagined.

Until Spurrier improves his ability to recruit or the Gamecocks find another coach who can sell Columbia better than he has, South Carolina football is probably about as good as it’s going to be.

— Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Editorial Board members are Mark Laskowski (regional publisher), James Bennett (regional editor), Sam Bundy (sports editor), Kimberly Ginfrida (news editor), David Johnson (regional circulation director), Charles Tomlinson (Lake City News & Post editor) and Jackie Torok (metro editor).