From: Leon
I got to thinking the other day about how so many people are anticipating a dramatic improvement in offensive line play because we got a new coach. How much impact does an assistant coach have on the play of his unit? Coach Elliot and the oline are a topic for another day because this led me to another thought. Remember how excited Gamecock Nation was when Coach Spurrier was hired? Think back to that first year. We had just come out of the 95% run offense of Coach Holtz's later teams and were expecting to need neck braces for all the high flying passes. But, look at the entire coaching staff that season. How bad a staff was that and for how many seasons has that negatively impacted our program?
Head Coach-Spurrier-top notch
QB Coach/Recruiting-Reeves-not too good
RB Coach-Madre Hill-ugh
Oline Coach-Hunt-Have you seen our oline?
WR Coach-Spurrier Jr-getting better each season
TE Coach-Chatham-average on a good day
Dline Coach-Oliver-ok
LB Coach/Defensive Coordinator-Thompson-awful
DB Coach-Cooper-good coach with a lot of baggage
DB Coach-Wommack-ouch
The impact of this staff's poor coaching, talent evaluation, recruiting efforts, and player development is still being felt today. Yes, we won some games, but have not improved to the next level. Our dramatically improved staff from top to bottom should put forth a higher quality team this season. Does that translate into more wins? I don't know.
