Influx of heralded prospects due to "snowball" effect
Steve Spurrier knows why NFL free agents want to play for the Philadelphia Eagles.
After all, he's seen the same mentality help turn around his South Carolina football program. Speaking Sunday at the school's preseason media day, Spurrier mentioned he recently saw a television analyst credit the Eagles' influx of new talent to players wanting to be on the same team as All-Pro quarterback Michael Vick. The logic made perfect sense to USC seventh-year coach.
"Really good football players like to play with other good football players," Spurrier said.
That appears to be the case for USC in recruiting as of late. Starting with the commitment of junior cornerback Stephon Gilmore out of Rock Hill's South Pointe High in 2008, the Gamecocks have seen heralded prospect after heralded prospect decide on Columbia, all emboldened by the talented prep standouts who have committed prior to create what Spurrier calls a "snowball effect."
In particular, Spurrier said he has seen an added buzz with the success of sophomore tailback Marcus Lattimore, who burst on the scene last fall en route to being named National Freshman of the Year.
"I started thinking, Marcus Lattimore might have been our best recruiter last year," Spurrier said. "I guarantee you, everybody came through — Jadeveon (Clowney) and all them guys — and Marcus spent time with about every one of them."
Clowney, also a South Pointe product, echoed his coach's belief, saying he wanted to follow his former teammate Gilmore and keep playing together.
"I said, 'I'm going to play with him, regardless of where he was,'" Clowney said.
End to Ellington saga?: Even though the story died back in the spring, Spurrier felt it necessary to "set the record straight" about how point guard Bruce Ellington made his way from the USC basketball program to the football team.
Referring to a "misleading, fabricated story" — a thinly veiled shot at a piece in The State newspaper that alleged Spurrier "poached" Ellington from men's basketball coach Darrin Horn and his staff — Spurrier denied he "jilted" the basketball program and coached Ellington through a somewhat strange explanation of the "timeline" of his decision.
"I talked to coach Horn about how I wanted to come out and play football because I missed it, and I talked to him first before I came and ever talked to coach Spurrier about playing football," Ellington said. "Coach Spurrier never talked to me until I came to him."
Spurrier defends quarterback play: In his six-plus seasons at USC, Spurrier has been hard on his quarterbacks on many occasions. However, he took an opportunity to defend them Sunday.
"Our quarterback play hasn't been that poor," Spurrier said. "Our receivers are setting all kinds of school records — someone's got to be throwing it to them."
He has a point: Four of the major university career receiving records are held by players from the Spurrier era (2005 to present), and there have been 34 100-yard receiving games recorded during his tenure.
USC solid in classroom: Spurrier was eager to mention his team's combined 2.71 grade point average last year and that five members of the football program graduated in the last calendar year, a record according to Spurrier.