It’s always nice to see two teams from Palmetto state on ESPN’s top 25 list for next college football season.
The fact that South Carolina is not one of these is not surprising. If it is too early to say whether Clemson will finish first or in Coastal Carolina on 23 in 2021, it is very, very early to say whether Gamecocks will be competitive within the Eastern SEC in 2023.
That’s because South Carolina Football Management, Inc. is involved in an almost unprecedented experiment inside a huge laboratory near campus.
Garnet and Black hypothesis: You can hire a football coach with no coaching or coordinator experience, have him hire a pair of coordinators with no Power 5 conference coordinator experience, and win enough games to satisfy a SEC fan base hungry for attention.
The beginning of the Shane Beamer Era in South Carolina is fascinating.
It is so unprecedented that, if it works, it will change the way coaches are hired and teams are formed throughout college football.
Arkansas hired a coach a year ago (former Georgia forward coach Sam Pittman) with no experience as a coach or coordinator. But he quickly brought in defensive coordinator Barry Odom, who served in Missouri before becoming head coach, and offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, who led the attack for a year in the state of Florida.
All of the other current principal coaches at the SEC – and most others in the history of the SEC – had prior experience as principal coach.
Some anxious people point to two-time national championship winner Dabo Swinney and his early days at Clemson as a comparison. But strictly speaking, when Swinney was hired as a full-time coach for the 2009 season, he had a seven-game trial in 2008 as an interim coach. It is true that Billy Napier, 30, was the offensive coordinator in 2009. But defensive coordinator Kevin Steele did the same job in 2007 under Nick Saban in Alabama.
Rugged journey ahead
Beamer, 43, exudes enthusiasm.
Defensive coordinator Clayton White, 43, and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield, 44, also have that “hungry” and “push” attitude that Beamer wants to represent the show (and Satterfield seems to be more suited to Beamer than Mike Bobo , who fled to Auburn last week).
Many South Carolina fans feel the same way when dealing with annoying supporters from Clemson, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, LSU …
Still, for Gamecock Nation, this is projected as a more turbulent trip than a flight from Miami to Bermuda in bad weather. Although Beamer, White and Satterfield are impressive on paper and in the introduction, they are an inexperienced trio by any measure.
Good news for Gamecock fans: South Carolina’s 2021 enemies will have to fight for Western Kentucky and the Temple ribbon to read White and Satterfield, respectively.
Bad news: see the good news.
The defense team is so young that Beamer said this week that no team in the country has a group of more capable technical assistants “if we need some bodies on the field”.
It’s like a college football version of “Moneyball”.
Ray Tanner and Brad Pitt
It wasn’t exactly that way when Will Muschamp was fired in November.
It is not the same type of advanced analysis that determines squad movements as in Michael Lewis’ bestseller on Oakland A’s made into a film starring Brad Pitt as general manager and former Charleston resident Billy Beane.
But sports director Ray Tanner is a baseball guy.
Tanner, as head coach twice winner of the South Carolina national championship, made his debut at the College World Series in 2002, the same season that Lewis studied the A’s.
Ultimately, “Moneyball” is not about trying to save money or design more hikes or make fewer flags. It is about taking advantage of market inefficiencies.
South Carolina is trying to win while saving money on one of the cheapest coaching teams in relation to market prices in the history of the SEC. And doing so while other schools spend like sailors who spend like drunk university administrators.
Brilliant, maybe.
First, however, comes 2021.
The preparation work for the spring practice includes working the transfer portal for at least another quarterback, plus a few receivers and a few capable tacklers.
The field: Hey, young man, do you want to play SEC football and a lot?
The same with recruitment, which was successful this week when class 2022 quarterback Gunner Stockton fell apart in a group of suitors, including Bobo in Auburn, SEC rival East Georgia and almost every other school on time. future.
But someone will write a bestseller if this Gamecock “Moneyball” experiment works.
Brad Pitt as Ray Tanner in the film? Not so sure.
Follow Gene Sapakoff on Twitter @sapakoff