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Spurrier and Briles
Two Different Programs Facing Similar Challenges
Picture it. Your favorite college team is basically an underachiever. There hasn't been a winning season in over a decade, and the conference is top heavy with football powers that show no signs of weakening. This situation, with a few variations, is fairly common around the world of college football. Fans of South Carolina, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Baylor, etc. have been or are currently in this spot. Even though much time is given to debating the various reasons that programs have reached such a state of affairs, the point is essentially moot. The real question is, how to get out of the middle of the pack and make progress to the front. The question has been answered differently in different places.
South Carolina, with an all-time record of just under .500, has generally opted to go with the proven winners. 3 of their coaches had won national championships at other schools prior to their arrival in Columbia. Paul Dietzel (LSU), Lou Holtz (Notre Dame), and current head coach Steve Spurrier (Florida) have paced the Gamecock sidelines while drawing on their football wisdom in order for the Garnet and Black to get ahead. The Gamecock nation is widely recognized as one of the nation's most loyal; games at Williams-Brice Stadium are almost always sold out no matter how the team is performing. Dietzel, Holtz, and Spurrier have all been successful in their own way. Dietzel's 1969 squad was the only conference champion in school history, Holtz was the first coach to have a team finish in the top 20 in consecutive years as well as play in consecutive new year's day bowls. Spurrier has beaten perennial SEC East tops Florida and Tennessee, and after 4 seasons is still in the process of shaping the Cocks into a team that can realistically compete for the division and conference championships.
The 90's, though, were a dark decade for the Gamecocks. Despite the school's first ever bowl victory (1994 Carquest), the program languished near the bottom of the SEC after entering the conference in 1992. Neither of the men who led the program during those times were proven winners as Division 1 head coaches. Sparky Woods, who led the program from 1989 - 1993, was hired when previous coach Joe Morrison passed away in February of 1989. Most coaching hires are made immediately following a season, so the school had to find someone willing to take over the reigns in an awkward situation. Woods had been the head coach at Appalachian State, a Division 1-AA school now famous for its 2007 upset win over Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Woods was behind the 8 ball from the start, and his players walked out on him and demanded his resignation following an 0-5 start to the 1992 season. Fortunately for Woods, he decided to start flambouyant Steve Tanneyhill at quarterback, and South Carolina won 5 of their final six games. The high hopes dissipated after a disappointing 1993 season, and Woods was let go by the school. The administration decided to look for a new man to head the football team among the assistant coaches at schools that were dominating the college football scene at the time. It follows a certain logic that a young coach with experience at a winning school could take the team into the upper echelon of the SEC over time. Unfortunately for Gamecock fans, the man that the University turned to was Florida State Assistant Coach Brad Scott. After early success, the Scott Era became known for lackluster defenses and offenses that clicked sporatically, and almost never against conference foes. His last season, 1998. ended with 10 consecutive losses after an opening week win over Ball State. So ended the school's experimentation with hiring young assistants. Since Scott, the Gamecocks have been coached by previously mentioned champions Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier, who over the course of the decade have gotten the program off the canvas, and may be a serious contender within the near future.
Flash over to Waco, Texas, home of the Baylor Bears. The Bears' all-time record is 2 games over .500, and have not fielded a winning team since 1995. Their head coaches have included such remember-me-nots as Kevin Steele and Dave Roberts. Following an awful stretch of 17 wins in six seasons, the Bears turned to Guy Morriss for leadership. Does that name sound familiar? Morriss was the head coach at Kentucky who was largely responsible for cleaning up some messes made by Hal Mumme. Morriss will also be remembered for being bathed in Gatorade by his team as LSU won the "Bluegrass Miracle" game on a crazy play as time expired. Morriss left Kentucky to return to his home state of Texas to revitalize a program that had only one win in its previous 36 conference games. In a way, Morriss was successful. While he did not field any winning teams, his gutsy playcalling and tenacious attitude led to support from the boosters and the fan base. For example, 03 and 04, Morriss' first two in Waco, produced identical 3 win seasons. But, in 03 a heavily favored Colorado team was dropped by the Bears, and in 04 Baylor got its first win over Texas A&M since 1985. 2005 should have been the year of the Bear, as Baylor won its first ever Big XII game on the road. (Iowa State) However, close losses to A&M, Nebraska, and Oklahoma kept Baylor from bowling after the conclusion of the regular season. The 06 and 07 campaigns were marked for blowout losses to conference foes after injuries to key Bear players. Following a 45-17 loss to Oklahoma State in the regular season finale, Morriss was let go by Baylor. Once again, the question loomed for a University: Where can a coach be found that will lead us to the light at the end of the tunnel? Within a week, the Bears had name their man, another Texan, Art Briles.
Coach Briles had made his bones coaching the Texas High School league, and turned a lackluster program at Stephenville High into a dominant force in the 1990's, winning four state championships. Briles left for the college ranks following the 1999 season to join the Texas Tech staff of Mike Leech. After 3 seasons as the running backs coach in Lubbock, Briles was offered and accepted the position of head coach at the University of Houston. The Houston Cougars had won 8 games in the 3 years preceding Briles' arrival, including an 0-11 campaign in 2001. Briles, known for his creativity in playcalling and offensive formations, had the Cougars in a bowl game in his first season, a triple overtime loss to Hawaii in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl, a game that still gets some play on ESPN U and ESPN Classic. After a 3-8 season in 2004, Briles had the Cougs bowling again in 05, this time a loss in the Ft. Worth Bowl to Kansas. 2006 would prove to be an excellent year for coach and team, as the Houston Cougars captured the Conference USA title and would square off against another offensive mastermind, Steve Spurrier, whose South Carolina Gamecocks would be facing the Cougs in the Liberty Bowl. Houston 8-4 season in 2007 would earn them a trip to the Texas Bowl, where they would lose by 7 points to TCU. Briles, though, would not coach Houston in the bowl, for he had already accepted an invitiation to coach Baylor.
It seems that most people think that letting go of Morriss was a bad idea, but once that decision was made, hiring Briles was probably the best move for the school administration. Coach Briles is one of those coaches whose creativity and imagination are such strong qualities that even in defeat, you can bet the fans watching the game will be entertained. Briles has been successful whereever he's been, and success breeds success. The situation that he finds himself in Waco is not an envious one, but if anyone is up to the challenge that Baylor faces, it is the wiley Coach Briles. Assuming he's given a few years to get things going in the direction that he wants them to, Baylor should at least be competitive in the BIG XII for the first time. Surely, the powerful defenses of Texas and Oklahoma may seem insurmountable at first, but a coach that is constantly thinking and strategizing like Briles will eventually crack the code. Briles knows football, he knows Texas, and he knows how to win. That combination should spell excellent things for Baylor down the road.
In essence, we have looked at two programs, South Carolina and Baylor, who are in nearly the exact same situation. Both hover at the .500 mark, and both have huge hills to climb to get to sit among the elite of their respective conferences. It looks like, after some trial and error, both schools have found the right coaches to accomplish their goals. Briles has yet to coach a game in Waco, but even the most pessimistic of sportswriters has to admit that he gives them the best chance to compete they've had in years. Spurrier was doing well in Columbia until the collapse at the end of 2007, but he's still got the massive support of the administration and the Gamecock nation at large. Spurrier's recruited well during his tenure as the Cocks' head man, and this will be the year that the dividends start to pay off, at least on the defensive side of the ball. Regardless, following the progress of these two teams as they battle for respect as much as victories should provide for a very interesting season.
