Steve Spurrier

[BB73]

thestate.gamecocks

Spurrier blasts admission process
Late rejection of two signees prompts him to threaten to leave

Saying he was embarrassed by the university?s rejection of two of his recruits, South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier said Sunday he would leave the school if there are no changes made in the admissions process.

Spurrier opened his media day news conference by attacking the university?s decision to deny admission to a pair of players who were qualified under minimum NCAA standards.

"As long as I'm the coach here, we're going to take guys that qualify," Spurrier said. "If not, then I have to go somewhere else because I can?t tell a young man, 'You're coming to school here,' he qualifies, and not do that. And we did that this year."

Wide receiver Michael Bowman of Wadesboro, N.C., and defensive back Arkee Smith of Jacksonville, Fla., were turned down by USC?s special admissions committee despite being NCAA-qualified.

Bowman caught on with East Carolina. Smith has talked with Minnesota, Georgia Southern and Bethune-Cookman since learning late last week his appeal had been denied. The high school coaches of both players said USC officials never provided a reason for the rejection.

Cont'd ...

[sandgk]

Spurrier then flashed his huge administration killing balls and promptly won the argument ...

Spurrier said he was not “blasting” USC president Andrew Sorensen, whom Spurrier said has agreed to change the admissions process.

Oh but wait, what about that class head count business?

After Bowman was denied admission last month, the athletics director at his high school, Fred Davis, told a North Carolina newspaper that Bowman was a victim of the Gamecocks’ oversigning during recruiting season. USC’s top-10 recruiting class included 32 players — five more than the Gamecocks were able to bring in this year under NCAA rules.

Mmm - no wonder those big balls are on a rodent's frame.

[methomps]

One way to avoid misleading the recruits is to not promise them something outside of your complete control.

[CleveBucks]

“There’s a perception out there that South Carolina oversigned and they’re just getting rid of guys. And that’s not true. That’s not true on our coaching staff,” Spurrier said. “We had a plan in place to grayshirt if they all qualified. And we were going to do that. As it turned out, we’re not going to have to do that right now.”

I wonder how Spurrier would've decided who would have to grayshirt?

[jlb1705]

Talk about the tail wagging the dog... Apparently he doesn't work for the university, the university works for him. I'm not naive enough to think that those young men were actually after an education at USC, but on the outside chance that they are, it sounds like they'll be better off at another institution anyway.

[Jeffcat]

personally, i disagree with the idea of giving athletes special admissions by getting in anyways. They let them get in by the bare minimum, while other students with better resumes that are not athletes make it in. I don't know how SC went about turning these recruits down, so I can't really say, but if they just were not up to snuff because spurrier is pushing a fine line, then I stand firmly behind SC instead of spurrier.

[coastalbuck]

Two different points here. Spurrier is right that the decision to allow enrollment shouldn't be made 2 weeks before school starts. That process forces him to make promises based on NCAA rules, not USC rules. On the other hand, if USC desires to make its admissions standards some degree tougher than the NCAA, that is their decision to make and not the old ball coaches...

[Tlangs]

Originally Posted by methomps