The headline everywhere this week has been the same - the evil genius returns.
And just below the banner screaming of USC coach Steve Spurrier's return to Athens and SEC play is his 11-1 record all-time against Georgia.
The storyline continues with all the success he had offensively at Florida, and all the points his teams scored, and how he won a national title, and that he won 122 games in Gainesville, and how revolutionary the fun 'n' gun scheme was and that he even made lowly Duke into a winner for a few years before the ACC became the power it is today.
Footnotes below all the praises heaped on Spurrier leading up to this weekend's matchup:
- He is coaching at USC, a perennial underachiever in the strong SEC, and even before it joined the conference.
- The program he took over is in shambles. Gamecock players ended 2004 in an all-out brawl with rival Clemson, and 12 players were arrested this offseason for crimes including stealing the team's own video equipment from Williams-Brice Stadium and for breaking into a campus dorm room. The rap sheet continues with another Gamecock being arrested for DUI, The State newspaper reported.
Other players were suspended for various reasons, and the program faces NCAA sanctions including the loss of scholarships for rules violations under former coach Lou Holtz. The school should have known this was to come when it hired him.
Spurrier even pulled the scholarships from current Gamecock players, almost unheard of in college athletics.
- Spurrier has no running back. Last year's leading rusher, Demetris Summers, is no longer with the team. Last week against a usually bad Central Florida team, the team ran for 32 yards on 28 attempts. The team's top back, Mike Davis, ran 11 times for 15 yards.
- Carolina just can't beat Georgia (it has lost the past three meetings). The games have been somewhat close, but the Gamecocks always choke like last year, blowing a 16-0 first-half lead to lose 20-16.
Spurrier's return is a big deal. He won at Duke and turned dormant Florida into a national powerhouse. There is the potential for him to turn things around in Columbia, but the 60-year-old ol' ball coach can't perform miracles.
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