Poor Senior Leadership - Again
posted by Scott Hood, Saturday, September 01, 2007
It's called lack of senior leadership.
There are 20 seniors listed on this year's USC roster. Problem is, less than half of them are expected to make a significant contribution in 2007. Mitchell and Thompson were two of those players.
There's also Jasper and Casper Brinkley, Cory Boyd, Brandon Isaac, Lanard Stafford, William Brown and Andy Boyd. Still, that's less than half of the total number of seniors.
Leadership is exemplified in a number of ways, both on and off the field. Mitchell and, apparently, Thompson failed to take care of their business away from the field and so they'll sit and watch while their teammates face Louisiana-Lafayette at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Hopefully, the remaining seniors like the Brinkley twins can pick up the slack. I just wonder if there's enough of them.
Thompson, of course, will sit out three more games after tonight. Too bad. He arrived in 2004 with much fanfare but now he's in danger of leaving USC with just three career starts.
I question whether Thompson will be able to rebound from this latest setback. He was barely heard from after returning last year. He lined up for 29 plays against Kentucky but played sparingly the rest of the way.
His suspension opens the door for Lemuel Jeanpierre to start at right guard. If he does, all of his hard work and commitment will have paid off. Jeanpierre hasn't missed a workout or practice since joining the program in 2005 as a defensive lineman.
Many players would have refused to change sides of the ball like Jeanpierre did. Instead, they would have transferred. But Jeanpierre went willingly, knowing the shift was in the best interests of the team, even if he had never played the position before.
But it took Thompson falling down again to open the door. Throw Jordin Lindsey into the mix and USC will play tonight without three seniors who were expected to show the way in 2007.
So, many younger and more inexperienced players will have to produce under the glare of the spotlight.
Of course, we've seen this lack of senior leadership thing before. The 2003 team was ripped apart by dissension before being embarrassed at home by Clemson. That doesn't happen when you have seniors who are vocal and demand excellence from the rest of the players.
The same thing happened in 2004. The brawl with the Clemson is the lasting legacy of that season. The group of seniors in 2005 weren't much better. Spurrier made it known during the 2006 Gamecock Club tour that few of the departing seniors from the team that lost to Missouri in the Independence Bowl would be missed.
Hopefully, there are better days ahead for USC when it comes to seniors stepping up and providing solid leadership. Maybe that will be the case with the Brinkleys and other players.
Hopefully, with players like Lemuel Jeanpierre around, the days of questioning the Gamecocks' senior leadership are nearing an end.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
The four-game suspension handed to OG James Thompson for violating team rules - it's the second time in two seasons he's been whacked with that penalty - and the one-game suspension given to Blake Mitchell for missing too many classes underscores a problem I've been talking about for the last two years.
It's called lack of senior leadership.
There are 20 seniors listed on this year's USC roster. Problem is, less than half of them are expected to make a significant contribution in 2007. Mitchell and Thompson were two of those players.
There's also Jasper and Casper Brinkley, Cory Boyd, Brandon Isaac, Lanard Stafford, William Brown and Andy Boyd. Still, that's less than half of the total number of seniors.
Leadership is exemplified in a number of ways, both on and off the field. Mitchell and, apparently, Thompson failed to take care of their business away from the field and so they'll sit and watch while their teammates face Louisiana-Lafayette at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Hopefully, the remaining seniors like the Brinkley twins can pick up the slack. I just wonder if there's enough of them.
Thompson, of course, will sit out three more games after tonight. Too bad. He arrived in 2004 with much fanfare but now he's in danger of leaving USC with just three career starts.
I question whether Thompson will be able to rebound from this latest setback. He was barely heard from after returning last year. He lined up for 29 plays against Kentucky but played sparingly the rest of the way.
His suspension opens the door for Lemuel Jeanpierre to start at right guard. If he does, all of his hard work and commitment will have paid off. Jeanpierre hasn't missed a workout or practice since joining the program in 2005 as a defensive lineman.
Many players would have refused to change sides of the ball like Jeanpierre did. Instead, they would have transferred. But Jeanpierre went willingly, knowing the shift was in the best interests of the team, even if he had never played the position before.
But it took Thompson falling down again to open the door. Throw Jordin Lindsey into the mix and USC will play tonight without three seniors who were expected to show the way in 2007.
So, many younger and more inexperienced players will have to produce under the glare of the spotlight.
Of course, we've seen this lack of senior leadership thing before. The 2003 team was ripped apart by dissension before being embarrassed at home by Clemson. That doesn't happen when you have seniors who are vocal and demand excellence from the rest of the players.
The same thing happened in 2004. The brawl with the Clemson is the lasting legacy of that season. The group of seniors in 2005 weren't much better. Spurrier made it known during the 2006 Gamecock Club tour that few of the departing seniors from the team that lost to Missouri in the Independence Bowl would be missed.
Hopefully, there are better days ahead for USC when it comes to seniors stepping up and providing solid leadership. Maybe that will be the case with the Brinkleys and other players.
Hopefully, with players like Lemuel Jeanpierre around, the days of questioning the Gamecocks' senior leadership are nearing an end.
Link to this entry - Discuss this entry - Return to Blog Home
Previous Blog Entries
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 @.