Worst Case Scenario
posted by Scott Hood on Tuesday, June 19, 2007
What if Steve Spurrier suffered a sudden serious illness and was unable to coach the Gamecock football team for a lengthy period of time? Who would take over? More importantly, who SHOULD take over as interim head coach?
Think Spurrier is bulletproof? Hoeppner was 59 when he died. Spurrier turned 62 in April.
Indiana had already named assistant coach Bill Lynch as interim head coach for the 2007 season when Hoeppner passed away, so the Hoosiers had resolved the short-term succession issue.
If something happened to Spurrier and he couldn't coach the Gamecocks for part or all of a football season, I believe the best three candidates to replace him on a temporary basis are assistant head coach and secondary coach Ron Cooper, defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix or wide receivers coach Steve Spurrier, Jr.
Cooper certainly has the experience to handle the job. He's been the head coach at three schools – Eastern Michigan (1993-94), Louisville (1995-97) and Alabama A&M (1998-2001) – for a total of nine seasons. So, he's familiar with the intense media scrutiny that comes with being the top dog.
Nix, of course, is well respected throughout college football as a defensive coordinator and has drawn interest from a number of mid-major schools for head coaching positions during his two seasons in Columbia, most notably Alabama-Birmingham and Tulane last December.
Finally, there's Spurrier, Jr., who has served on the coaching staffs of two national championship teams and tutored a number of outstanding wide receivers. Spurrier was an assistant coach at Oklahoma (2000) and Florida (1996) when those schools won national titles.
Being an offensive coach, and having worked for his father for several years at three different locations, Junior is well equipped to flourish as a head coach while maintaining the offensive scheme favored by his dad.
In my opinion, experience is a key factor. That's why my choice would be Cooper.
WORST CASE SCENARIO, PART II: Montana is a big state, geographically speaking. But it's an extremely small state in terms of population. In recent weeks, both of its major state universities have experienced catastrophic problems off the field.
Montana State head coach Mike Kramer was fired nearly a month ago when a former player was arrested on drug charges after allegedly using his athletic scholarship money to traffic cocaine from California to Bozeman, Mont. The player was the fifth former or current MSU player to be arrested for a crime involving drugs or murder within the last year.
Moreover, in October 2004, a Montana State assistant coach was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
But before arch-rival Montana could gloat, the Grizzlies were forced to suspend all-conference cornerback Jimmy Wilson on June 15 after he was arrested on murder charges stemming from a shooting in Lancaster, CA., about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
So, between Montana and Montana State, that's four arrests on drug charges, two for murder and one assistant coach in jail. Maybe that's what they call it "Big Sky" country.
Reading about these tragic cases raised this question: How would the mainstream media here in South Carolina respond if a current or former USC player was charged with drug possession or, heaven forbid, with murder.
Considering the local newspaper here in Columbia had a five-inch headline the day after police questioned running back Cory Boyd following an incident at a nightclub hours after the spring game in which nobody was hurt and nobody has been charged, I shudder to think.
Would it rival the 9/11 coverage? Possibly.
The fact former Gamecock fullback Rob DeBoer is now entangled in a legal mess over the validity of Burn Lounge, a web site devoted to the downloading of digital music off the internet exacerbates the question.
Let's pray it never happens.
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The death Tuesday of Indiana head football coach Terry Hoeppner of complications from a brain tumor got me to thinking about how South Carolina would handle a similar situation
What if Steve Spurrier suffered a sudden serious illness and was unable to coach the Gamecock football team for a lengthy period of time? Who would take over? More importantly, who SHOULD take over as interim head coach?
Think Spurrier is bulletproof? Hoeppner was 59 when he died. Spurrier turned 62 in April.
Indiana had already named assistant coach Bill Lynch as interim head coach for the 2007 season when Hoeppner passed away, so the Hoosiers had resolved the short-term succession issue.
If something happened to Spurrier and he couldn't coach the Gamecocks for part or all of a football season, I believe the best three candidates to replace him on a temporary basis are assistant head coach and secondary coach Ron Cooper, defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix or wide receivers coach Steve Spurrier, Jr.
Cooper certainly has the experience to handle the job. He's been the head coach at three schools – Eastern Michigan (1993-94), Louisville (1995-97) and Alabama A&M (1998-2001) – for a total of nine seasons. So, he's familiar with the intense media scrutiny that comes with being the top dog.
Nix, of course, is well respected throughout college football as a defensive coordinator and has drawn interest from a number of mid-major schools for head coaching positions during his two seasons in Columbia, most notably Alabama-Birmingham and Tulane last December.
Finally, there's Spurrier, Jr., who has served on the coaching staffs of two national championship teams and tutored a number of outstanding wide receivers. Spurrier was an assistant coach at Oklahoma (2000) and Florida (1996) when those schools won national titles.
Being an offensive coach, and having worked for his father for several years at three different locations, Junior is well equipped to flourish as a head coach while maintaining the offensive scheme favored by his dad.
In my opinion, experience is a key factor. That's why my choice would be Cooper.
WORST CASE SCENARIO, PART II: Montana is a big state, geographically speaking. But it's an extremely small state in terms of population. In recent weeks, both of its major state universities have experienced catastrophic problems off the field.
Montana State head coach Mike Kramer was fired nearly a month ago when a former player was arrested on drug charges after allegedly using his athletic scholarship money to traffic cocaine from California to Bozeman, Mont. The player was the fifth former or current MSU player to be arrested for a crime involving drugs or murder within the last year.
Moreover, in October 2004, a Montana State assistant coach was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
But before arch-rival Montana could gloat, the Grizzlies were forced to suspend all-conference cornerback Jimmy Wilson on June 15 after he was arrested on murder charges stemming from a shooting in Lancaster, CA., about 75 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
So, between Montana and Montana State, that's four arrests on drug charges, two for murder and one assistant coach in jail. Maybe that's what they call it "Big Sky" country.
Reading about these tragic cases raised this question: How would the mainstream media here in South Carolina respond if a current or former USC player was charged with drug possession or, heaven forbid, with murder.
Considering the local newspaper here in Columbia had a five-inch headline the day after police questioned running back Cory Boyd following an incident at a nightclub hours after the spring game in which nobody was hurt and nobody has been charged, I shudder to think.
Would it rival the 9/11 coverage? Possibly.
The fact former Gamecock fullback Rob DeBoer is now entangled in a legal mess over the validity of Burn Lounge, a web site devoted to the downloading of digital music off the internet exacerbates the question.
Let's pray it never happens.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.