Even La Socialista Is Hating On Spurrier Now

For the record, we’ve never criticized South Carolina head football coach Steve Spurrier for being too hard on his players.

We’ve criticized him for his anemic offense and for bitching about the fans booing (the week after he lost to friggin’ Vanderbilt last year), but how he chooses to go about motivating his athletes is his business.

All we care about is winning, which Spurrier has yet to prove he can do consistently here in Columbia.

Anyway, we got a lot of grief for writing an open letter to Spurrier last month suggesting he should resign if his Shamecocks lost to the Clempsun Farmers … which they did in such uninspired fashion that for the first time ever, we’re not following the team to its post-season bowl destination this year.

Seriously, if you put forth zero effort, your program gets zero dollars from us.

And while La Socialista (a.k.a. The State newspaper) columnist Ron Morris isn’t necessarily jumping on our “Fire Spurrier” bandwagon, from the looks of his latest column he’s certainly not 100% enamored with the “Oh Balls! Coach” these days, either …

(Spurrier’s) public chiding and condemnation of players has reached the point of diminishing returns. His comments no longer appear to be motivating in nature, but rather harmful.

For his benefit, and the benefit of his program, Spurrier should curtail making public his critical comments of players. Spurrier needs to take to heart the business methods of praising in public and criticizing in private.

Spurrier’s way does not appear to be working anymore. That comes to light because of the contrasting styles exhibited during USC’s humbling loss at Clemson one week ago. One team played with confidence and dealt well with adversity. The other played scared and crumbled when facing any obstacle. My guess is the teams reflected the approach of their coaches.

An important task for every football coach is to motivate his team while instilling confidence in his players. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney inherited a shattered team seven weeks earlier and went about restoring its confidence with constant praise for the attitude and work ethic of his players.

USC stumbled along this season with an ineffective offense whose weaknesses were exposed in humiliating fashion in losses to Florida and Clemson to close the regular season.

Wow … somebody at La Socialista is actually willing to go against an overpaid establishment figure and criticize a lack of positive outcomes? Remarkable.

Anyway the point is this … Spurrier is beginning to “feel it.” And not just from us.

Photo by Travis Bell, Sideline Carolina.

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