I think (Horn) is doing a fine job. South Carolina’s hard. Hard deal to get going. That’s why you’ve got to stick with a guy, and you’ve got to give him seven, eight years, and let him get it going.

– John Calipari, University of Kentucky Head Coach

We should really thank Coach Cal for his opinion, even though he appears to be trying to wave down a train that left the station about a month ago. And it’s pretty easy for a guy like him to chime in: secure in his job; secure for life financially; leading one of the premiere programs in the country; able to look at the top 20 high school players in America and say, “OK, I’ll take him, him, him, annnnd the 6’10” guy over there who can step on campus and average 15 and 10 every night.”

In last night’s post game, after Kentucky’s 86-52 win over South Carolina (the score makes the game look closer than it really was, folks), Calipari continued to lobby for Horn by saying something to the effect, “If South Carolina or its fans want to restart every three or four years that’s their business but that’s not how I would run things.”

Thanks Coach, but it’s obvious you’re trying to protect one of your own. Trying to single-handedly stabilize the college coaching profession. Your effort is noble and appreciated, but the defense of Darrin Horn is growing weaker by the game.

First of all, nobody associated with the Gamecock program WANTS to restart every three or four years.  Prior to Horn, Eddie Fogler had eight years and Dave Odom had seven years at the helm.  Both guys had moderate success, but followed that success with average to poor seasons that led to their respective retirements. Enter the young guy, the hot coaching prospect fresh off a Sweet 16 with Western Kentucky to bring long-term stability to our program.

But anyone with eyes can see that things have gone in the tank for our program at lightning speed under the leadership of Darrin Horn, and when you look ahead to 2012-2013 and beyond I’m not sure it makes us feel better that this is the proverbial “young” team.  Allow me to rehash a few tidbits from the end of last year until now:

• Ramon Galloway, one of our top returning players, mysteriously transfers out of the program. I don’t know if anyone knows the real story of why he left, but he would be a nice piece to have on this team. Currently averaging 15 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists for LaSalle.
• Murphy Holloway, in one of the more bizarre transfer stories of all time, transfers to USC from Ole Miss, sits on our bench and practices with us for an entire season, then decides to transfer back to Ole Miss.  Currently averaging 10 points and 9 rebounds for Ole Miss.
• November brings losses to Elon on the road and Tennessee State at home
• In December our top two commitments for 2012-2013, Ian Baker and Carlos Morris, jump ship due to perceived instability with the program
• Currently ranked 284th in the country in points per game
• Currently ranked 289th in the country in rebounds per game
• Currently ranked 328th in the country in assists per game
• Currently ranked 266th in the country in shooting percentage

Besides those facts, just watching our team gives you the sinking feeling that we’re either a) sorely lacking in talent or b) not coached very well.  I’m certainly not here to bash the players.  I appreciate those guys, that they chose to attend USC, and that they pour their heart out every chance they get to play.  But you can’t escape from the fact that players like Brian Richardson and Lakeem Jackson were brought in to be cornerstones of the program, and now they’re fighting to just get a few minutes every game.

Whose fault is that?  I’m going to give the players the benefit of the doubt that they’re working hard and trying to get better every day.  And if that’s the case, then the coaching staff is not developing these guys, or they’re not being put into a system that gives them a chance to complete, much less win.

Look, a lot of people have been talking about “realistic expectations” in defense of Horn when it comes to our program.  I get that.  There is not a single program in a major conference with resources like ours that has underachieved more in the last 40 years.  (Name one, please, to make me feel better.)

But that doesn’t mean we should accept it.  And it doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to all the arguments that are starting to build up against Darrin Horn. He wasn’t brought in to be a miracle worker, but he also wasn’t brought in to a bare cupboard either, as evidenced by our 21-10 record his first year.

I’m not screaming for the dismissal of Darrin Horn. Despite taking the time to jot these few words down, I quite frankly don’t care a whole lot at this point.

And that may be the biggest indictment of all.

Someone has one last Letter of Intent to send you.

Happy National Signing Day Y’all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you aren’t reading the NSD Game Thread on the College Football Reddit, then you are missing a ton of this:

Help me out here, how many stages of grief are there?  Upon hearing about the Jeep Hunter dismissal, the editorial staff at TRC probably blew through them all in short order.  We went from #1 Groggy Comprehension (Huh, who?  Hey, I was asleep – don’t call me right after lunch!), to #2 Curious Googling (Oh, THAT Jeep Hunter), to #3 Bargaining (Look, I’ll buy you a beer if you will STOP talking about Jeep Hunter) to #4 Acceptance (Hey, Whaddyagonnado?) in the short span of a half work day.

With that now behind us (and a long weekend to drink off the other, more upsetting, news that decrepit Madonna is providing the Super Bowl halftime show) we here at TRC are now mentally prepared to give you our rundown of the top ten DB coaching candidates, with unassailable reasons why they will all-ALL, MIND YOU- be considered by the HBC:

10.  Willie Martinez.  Former Defensive Coordinator for UGa, Martinez is well-known for having roomed with Mark Richt during their mutual time on the University of Miami’s football team.  Think about that for a minute:  he survived rooming with the most boring man in all of sport.  That alone is a strong testimony to his will and self-determination.

9.  Charlize Theron.  Well, more accurately the character she played in Three Days in the Valley.  Or maybe that Sci-Fi flick where she jumped around in the black unitard.  Hot as hell in both those movies, and I’d pay some serious scratch to watch her prowl the sweaty sidelines at the WB.

8. Charlize Theron in all the other movies she did.  Except Monster – that was gross.

7.  Troy Douglas.  Formerly of UNCarolina, Mr. Douglas has a solid reputation of joining programs on the verge of NCAA probation, and then reconstructing a serviceable pass defense despite the eligibility Armageddon.  Not saying that is about to happen here BUT OH MY GOD WHAT IF WE GET HAMMERED FOR WHITNEYGATE I HATE YOU JOE PERSON!!!

6.  Dr. T. Berry Brazelton.  You may or may not remember him, but his “touchpoints” approach to defense got me through a rough ten years or so of dealing with young people.

5.  Duce Staley/ Terry Cousins/ Chris Rumph/ Steve Taneyhill/ Mark Dantonio.  Because this is the internet, and that is the sort of nonsense we are required to discuss.

4.  Vic Koenning.  He is available still, right?  Got let go with the Zooker up at Illinois, I think.  He should be considered just because it would royally hack off Mr. Dabo Cornelius Swinney.  That’s right, I’ve invented a middle name for Dabo.  Tweet that.

3.  Brad Scott.  Just to make him run around a little.  Hey, I’m concerned for his health, and it looks like he makes the CTU guys carry him around all the time.

2.  A Pellini.  Don’t care which one.  Hire one just for the faces they make.

1.  Steven Orr Spurrier.  You figure he would call an all-out double zero coverage blitz on EVERY snap.  Guaranteed to get the ball back one way or the other, right?

Think that should cover it.

Signing Day Adam being, of course, the day before Signing Day Eve.

Feel free to use that one, and you’re welcome.

That to the side, longtime followers of TRC will remember  that I profess absolutely no interest in recruiting.  This representation of ambivalence is carefully crafted with an eye toward giving me an aloof detachment from the entire dirty process.

But it’s all a lie – I absolutely DO follow recruiting – just not the daily ebb and flow of commitments, decommits, bags of cash doled out at the local Mcdonalds (that’s a CTU fan conspiracy favorite from back in the Squeaky Watson days), etc.  Instead of getting wrapped up in all the drama, I prefer to take a million-mile view based on the final class rank.

I then sit back and wait a year or two and see who from the class actually enrolled and whether or not they actually contribute to the team.

To illustrate by contrast: this morning on WCCP’s Mickey Plyler Show, the co-host (name escapes me but he sounds young and over-eager) was waxing enthusiastic about all things recruiting and remembering what he described as the “most free publicity Clemson has ever received until the big winning streak this year in football” (quick aside here – no idea what winning streak he is talking about, so it must not-a-been much).  That event, he opined, was the signing day press conference from 2008, where Jamie Harper, Daquan Bowers, and Kyle Parker all inked with the Tigers as a part of the supposed #2 class in the country.

How’d that work out for them?  Counting, of course, the redshirt year for some of the signees, I guess that great class did win the coastal division and the ACC championship, but it also lost three straight to the Gamecocks, lost a Charlotte Bowl to South Freakin Florida, and set the all-time NCAA record for a lopsided bowl loss.

They couldn’t see that coming in the 2008 press conference, could they?

My point here is this:  enjoy signing day, but don’t stress out about it.  It will all work out in the end, and signing day braggadocio notwithstanding, all of our football programs will be about where they were before all the ink hit all the Wednesday paperwork.

One prediction – there’s gonna be a big surprise or three.  I base this entirely upon the following: its been quiet in the southeast this recruiting cycle.  Too Quiet.  All of the pundits are talking about how the recruiting game has changed and is now pretty straightforward, standardized, and boring.  This guarantees, of course, that recruiting Armageddon will arrive on Wednesday.  So prepare yourself accordingly.

Not that any of it really matters.

Click here, then ignore the horrible sound quality for the first minute, then enjoy ramblings about:

• National Signing Day and how the Gamecocks will fare
• The dismissal of Jeep Hunter and what it all means
• A preview of a preview of the upcoming baseball season
• Chad Kelley Chad Kelley Chad Kelley
• basketball

Enjoy!

TRC brings you the historic 20th episode of Unleashed tonight at 6 p.m. It’s hard to believe three guys with nothing to talk about have produced 10 hours worth of podcasts.  Tonight we’ll try to make a boring week exciting with:

• Another coaching change
• Gman with a report from yesterday’s baseball scrimmage
• How the basketball team did this week
• On This Week in Dabo – Chad Kelley, American Idol

Plus, Tbone tells us how to make a Mitt Romney cake from several flavorless ingredients.

Reports are out there that Carolina Runningbacks Tight Ends Safeties Spurs Coach Jeep Hunter is no longer a part of the coaching staff.

We here at TRC are saddened by this news for many reasons, not the least of which is the fun that can be had by googling “Jeep Hunter.”

Witness:

 

 

 

The word ‘parvenu’ might not be the most common of english usages, but it nevertheless conveys a meaning that any of us would readily understand.  It’s “new money”, but with a decidedly pejorative connotation.  Think The Great Gatsby, trying to overcompensate for a meager upbringing by lavishly spending new-found wealth.  Garish fortune notwithstanding, the erstwhile tycoon still struggled for acceptance among the elites.

Confused?  Let me illustrate:

Once upon a time, there was a relatively minor football program at a state agricultural college that was tucked away in an undeveloped backwater of a small southern town.  This program was not considered a threat by any of the football elites, in fact it was only marginally competitive with other regional schools.  This school blatantly lifted its athletic traditions from other, more successful, programs and ultimately offered repeated and desperate protestations that it deserved to be treated with the same respect.

But the school had a problem, and the problem was money.

Such were the school’s financial woes that its head coach created a new concept:  a non-alumni booster organization.  This group would raise much-needed capital from the modest working folks that surrounded the school.  A relatively meager amount was required to join – only ten dollars a year.  But the idea worked, and quite well.  “I Pay Ten a Year” became a slogan for those farmers and factory workers who had no hope of a college education, but could still identify with the upstart college program up the road.

Money poured in.

When the product on the field didn’t match either the aspirations of the desperate program or the expectations of the locals, questions began to be asked.  Difficult questions about how all that money was being spent.  The powerful within the department soon made a decision:  they would take their newfound cash, and use it to both purchase the national legitimacy they so desperately desired, and also placate their yeoman supporters.

They were gonna buy their way to success.

Initially, it seemed to work.    An unheard of accomplishment, the Mythical National Championship was obtained.  But then disaster struck, as the sport’s governing organization recognized the blatant shenanigans and slapped the eager upstarts with the worst penalties ever handed down at the time, and the second worst penalties still to date.

A second probation would soon follow, as more pay-for-play allegations swirled. But with new-found TV dollars added to the pile, the chance to cash in only grew.

These rumors continue until this day, although the school’s relatively low profile, remote location, and penchant for offering compliance officers ridiculously high salaries have thus far allowed them to escape NCAA notice.  Examples nevertheless abound, such as a star running back spurning the NFL and returning to school after discovering that the free use of a local lake house would vanish with the expiration of his amateur status.  Recruits were repeatedly (I mean, repeatedly, oh, and repeatedly) seen posing with large amounts of cash, and one in Marlboro County even widely claimed to have won the lottery on national signing day.  One recruit allegedly had his entire family comp’ed at a luxury hotel for weeks leading up to signing day.  Another player even admitted on air that the NFL wouldn’t be able to pay him as much as this school could.

Beyond paying players, this school demonstrates its desperate search for attention and importance in other ways.  It is currently paying the salary of its last head coach, last defensive coordinator, and last offensive coordinator, and all of them are working elsewhere.  At the same time, it is paying its current head coach an amount that could liquidate the local Dollar General, and just announced that it will pay its two current coordinators the highest joint salary of any school in NCAA history.

Our word of the day relates to this school because of the absolute glee with which its supporters celebrate these spending sprees.  Whether for coaches, facilities, or for players outright, the fanbase of this school is so hungry for acceptance, and so haunted by feelings of inferiority to their collegiate neighbors, that they will celebrate being first in anything, even if it’s just being  first in lavishly wasting money.

Someone who wildly spends money to try to obtain long-dreamed heights of social status, allthewhile only reinforcing their own undesirableness – that’s a parvenu.

You’re welcome.

Oh, and this picture, just because:

Oh holy crap what have I done.  How did I wind up here?  I was at Oklahoma…home of Wilkinson and Switzer and Sims and Holieway…home of seven National Championships and five Heisman Trophy winners.  Tradition.  REAL tradition.  Not clinging like grim death to some title that was bought thirty years ago…OK, so Switzer bought a couple, but still…  Aw geez, look at this guy, he’s my boss.  MY BOSS.  Bob Stoops WAS my boss, National Championship winner himself.  Protege of Steve Spurrier.  Sure, I was being semi-demoted because he brought his cro-magnon brother back, but so what?  That was a sweet gig.  Defensive coordinator for the Oklahoma Sooners football team.  I was a rising star.  Soon to be head head coach of a major program.  Now look at me.  Wearing a stupid orange and purple jacket and reporting to a real, live, honest to goodness clown.  I know that’s an overused term, but crap man, give this guy a red nose, floppy shoes, a 1969 VW bug and ten more like him and you’re charging $35 a ticket under a big striped tent.  God, those videos of him screaming and dancing and posturing, what a freakin’ phony.  How am I going to endure this?  OK, gotta calm down, hang in there Ven-man, stay the course.  Maybe we tank next year and I can slide into this guy’s job.  I mean, it’s the ACC, and it’s Clemson, but a head coaching job is a head coaching job, right?  A stepping stone.  Yeah, that’s how I have to approach it.  A fresh start.  Ugh, look at him.  Is that a booger?  Gross.  I’ve been here three days and I can’t stand to be in his presence.  I want to punch him in the face.  Geez I think I’m gonna vomit.  Seriously, how did I wind up here?