Girardeau: There's always hope for SC football

Ed Girardeau is a 1982 South Carolina graduate and has been a columnist for Spurs & Feathers since 2012. You can reach him at edgirardeau@spursandfeathers.com. History shows there’s always hope for Gamecock football By Ed Girardeau | Contributing writer A s football seasons go, some seasons are worse than others. 2019 will go down as a mostly forgettable year, particularly the final few weeks.

It had its moments. Obviously, beating No. 3 Georgia will always be remembered. Years from now, we’ll remember pulling off the upset and not remember necessarily that the season was otherwise lost. We will always remember Bryan Edwards. He goes down as one of the best wide receivers in school history alongside Sterling Sharpe, Sidney Rice and Alshon Jeffrey, just to name a few.

Of course, in the moment, it would seem that this is the worst it’s ever been at South Carolina. By comparison, 1998 (1-10) was worse. I’m hard pressed to think of anything good about that year. Sure, 1999 was 0-11, but it was Lou Holtz’s first year and there was hope, which paid off in the next two seasons.

The years are littered with mediocre and bad seasons. There were some awful teams in the 60s. The 1982 season stands out for me. That was Richard Bell’s one season as head coach. Four wins and a loss to Furman. It was dismal.

In 1986, SC went 3-6-2. That was Todd Ellis’s freshman year. You could tell there were better days ahead, and the 1987 and ’88 seasons brought that to bear with back-to-back 8-4 marks.

The 90s and 2000s had its share of three- and four-win seasons. Quite frankly, the worst was 2015 with Coach Spurrier “resigning” at midseason. Three wins and a loss to The Citadel. Hope was a goalkeeper for the USA Women’s Soccer team as we certainly had none in football at the time.

All of that is a reminder that there is always hope. Things did get better in each of those situations.

Firing the coach is not always the right decision. After a poor season, that would be an easy choice. Nobody is happy with the results. We knew coming in this could be a tough season. We have had a habit of firing coaches with a relatively poor result for it.

Going back to 1966, Paul Dietzel, who came from LSU with a national championship on his resume, was hired. He coached nine seasons and won South Carolina’s only championship in 1969 by going undefeated in the ACC. But after a 7-4 season in 1973, 74 opened with five straight losses and he resigned.

Jim Carlen coached seven seasons and was fired.

After Bell’s one year, Joe Morrison had six seasons before his untimely death.

That was followed by Sparky Woods’ five seasons and Brad Scott’s five. Lou Holtz lasted six seasons before being replaced by Spurrier.

Spurrier was pretty mediocre in his first five years. He had 7, 8, 6, 7, and 7 wins. I won’t bore you with the comparison with the current staff. Yes, it’s similar, but the point is, there were those who wanted to replace Spurrier. Fortunately, that didn’t happen and we know the glory years followed. Sometimes, the best bet is to stick with what you have.

Firing the coach would admit defeat and mean going back to square one. We’re going to stay the course, and here’s hoping Coach Muschamp can get the offense turned around. Last year, the defense was one of the worst in the country. This year, it showed marked improvement.

Here’s hoping the offense can do the same.

With loyal devotion, remembering the days …

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