it doesn't matter who the coach is. Until Gamecock fans start ponying up to NIL, I dont know how much better it will get. How about every time you complain on this message board, you donate a dollar to Gamecock NIL. We'd have 20 million by the end of the month.
It just doesn't matter
- Thread starter Sandstorm
- Start date
What was the excuse pre-NIL?
This suggest that a lack of NIL leads to a lack of talent. I have no idea if the school lacks "enough" for NIL nor what the players are getting on their own (which is what NIL was supposed to be). But this team doesn't lack talent. That's why so many of us are frustrated. It doesn't make sense. Most here weren't expecting another playoff run but what we've seen on the field, doesn't make sense. It seems it's mostly come from coaching, those guys without question are not under compensated. The head coach has already used the line "another playoff run in 2026" and didn't ask for more NIL at the same time. And without knowing the numbers, I'll say NIL isn't the problem.
VT board just put up 200 million+ to get thier coach and better players.
I'll put mine in when our board takes football seriously.
Seems like weird take, but I see it's just another attempt to defend poor coaching. Getting the best players money can buy won't correct that problem.
This excuse gets weaker every year when teams like Indiana can make the playoff in a new coach's first two years.
Plus our NIL is solid. The going rate for a top 25 team is now running around $20 million and according to Garnet Trust people we're "competetive" in that arena. As another stated, our roster isn't devoid of talent. In fact we have a top 20, if not top 15 roster, we just don't have a coach.
This.
Until someone prints a verified list of NIL collective expenditures per school, NIL will be the boogeyman man built in excuse.
We have top 20-25 recruiting classes, and highly ranked portal classes.
Well the next portal class better be a good one. We need starting help and depth help at every position, or just about every position. Are we solid at any position? I’m not sure.
Decent OL rarely go in the portal. Maybe a hidden jewel of a QB at a G5 or FCS school can be found. The portal can work for a very targeted position of need, not for building an entire roster.
Yet VT is dropping 200 million+.
Indiana also set up a a type of sabermetrics, it wasn't just a "good hire" of a coach.
We lag behind in funds from the Board but we do have talent and I hope it can be fixed.
The portal is an easy way for a coach to cover for lack of development of top 20 recruiting classes. It's on full display this year. Bring in a solid running back and your a success. (Rocket) Miss and your 3-7 with little to no offensive football. Except this applies to us at almost every position.
2025 College Football Team Talent Composite
This is very interesting to look at every year. It says we have the talent......so what is the issue? It can't be NIL.
Scheduling is one thing. Does anyone here wonder how aTm ends up playing the 5 worst teams in the SEC? Or how Indiana plays two ranked teams the entire year? Look at the schedules of all the playoff teams. (But.....watch where Arkansas and Florida are ranked the next time we play them.....somehow they will be a top team. I call that the chicken curse.)
The other issue is coaching. We don't have any! ...especially on the offensive side of the ball. Are we getting top 20 performances out of our top 20 talent? Not even close.
This is very interesting to look at every year. It says we have the talent......so what is the issue? It can't be NIL.
Scheduling is one thing. Does anyone here wonder how aTm ends up playing the 5 worst teams in the SEC? Or how Indiana plays two ranked teams the entire year? Look at the schedules of all the playoff teams. (But.....watch where Arkansas and Florida are ranked the next time we play them.....somehow they will be a top team. I call that the chicken curse.)
The other issue is coaching. We don't have any! ...especially on the offensive side of the ball. Are we getting top 20 performances out of our top 20 talent? Not even close.
VT isn't putting $200 million into NIL. Their school is increasing the athletics department budget by $229 million over the next 4 years. This will get them to $190.1 million in 2026-27, while we spent $183.6 million in 2024. I don't have future figures for us but it's easy to estimate our budget will be well over $200 million in 26-27. This money has nothing to do with NIL other than what the school is allowed to pay with the new rules.
Thanks for the clarification. I was under the impression (by local sources) that this was only for football related expenses.
This can get confusing. We did a deep dive on Missouri earlier in the year. They had a massive donation that was also supposed to be all NIL.
Turns out, the majority was for a stadium renovation. The rest went towards the 20 million that every school is capped at spending on NIL.
But the headline was misleading, and allowed some to claim Missouri was spending 60 million on NIL from just one donor.
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If you take away Spurrier's 3-year run, we've done nothing. Even he couldn't win a championship here. I doubt it'll ever happen.
I don’t think many people realize this, and/or write it off as age, apathy, or whatever.
That was Steve effin Spurrier. He was The Beatles. Every bit the equivalent of getting Nick Saban right now. When it comes to ‘coach’ power, it’s not going to get any better than that. The day of the press conference to announce his hire was one of the happiest days of my life. And he produced, to the degree that being South Carolina allows you to produce. The state produced a bevy of players at one time unlike any seen before. And ultimately he too failed. And that goes beyond coaching, NIL, and whatever; we have college football history and the universe itself against us, and it has been for a long, long time. We are in our lane. The Clemsons, the Georgias, the Alabamas, the Notre Dames, the Ohio States, they’ve been playing a whatever it necessary to win game to KEEP others in that lane for a looooong time, and still are I’m sure. We have not. We do not. We are not, because it won’t work for us. We are who we are, and shuffling coaches will not work this time any more than it has in the past. We are no different than West Virginia; some good years, some bad years. It’s football; rejoice in the good, mourn the bad, move on. The next day is dawning.
What makes that endeavor problematic is, how to convince players from other schools to come into this program with the promise "we are going to turn this around".
You are not just dealing with players, you are also dealing with the completion of other schools, also looking into the portal to solidify their decencies/vacancies as well.
It will take effort, and luck.
We pulled in rocket, partially because he was coming off an injury. That wont always work.
We probably wont compete with a lot of teams head to head. Our position is weak. So we need to shop at G5 or ACC schools. That has worked in the past.
Sadly, even Spurrier's glorious run really didn't amount to anything. He did not win a championship of any kind and when he did make it to the championship game, we sort of backed in with 3 conference losses. That is the only time a 3 loss team has ever been in the SECCG. Once we got to the SECCG, we lost in historic fashion. Only South Carolina could go 10-2 in the regular season three years in a row and not win their division once.
The chicken curse is real.
All of the drama around Faison's eligibility resulted in nothing. Everyone was convinced he was going to come in and be Rocket 2.0. He has proven to not be an SEC caliber RB. The portal is a tool for helping out at a given position i.e. filling roster holes at WR. It is not a cure all for building an entire team. The truly desirable players in the portal are going to get scooped up by the big boys i.e. Branch at UGA, Downs at Ohio State. The top talent players with no issues aren't going to want to come to a South Carolina.
Recruiting and player development are the lifeblood of a football team. SC recruiting has been above average but the player development has been completely missing.
BS. We finished in the Top 10 3x & the Top 5 in 2013. That amounted to a lot to me & a lot of other longtime Gamecock fans.
Those guys on those '11-'13 FB teams beat taters 5x and had an 18 game win streak at W-B. That ain't no BS chicken curse.
You sound like an entitled brat.
Reminds me of education, just throw more money at it and it will get better… Lol
Hate saying it for the 1k time, but I will not be contributing anything to NIL and due to the renovations will probably stop paying what I already pay now and step away. I don't enjoy the games. It seems as if they are just a social event for people who bought tickets online. Everyone there is getting hammered like its a concert or wedding reception and I'm tired of getting hit in the head with towels. Call me old fashion. The U is pushing out the old folks with the history and money to make way for Corporations and Gen Z donors? Ok. I don't see that going well. I'm sure they will be fine holding all those concerts for YoungNBAGeezy or whatever.
I don't completely agree with that.... Good players Trump bad coaching most every time....
I disagree. I can name several situations in all sports where a bad coach can completely waste the talent they have. Imagine asking a power forward or center to take 3's, A slow runner to steal, slow QB run sneaks, slower WR run a fly and speed WR run come back. Imagine having terrible route trees with good receivers, bad blocking schemes for your RB. A salesman analyze and an analyst sell.
The problem is that no one trusts Shane Beamer the "coach". He has produced a volatile program. It's up and down. Say what you will about coaches (Heupel, Kiffin, Drinkwitz). hired at either the same time or within a year that Beamer was, they produce teams that are in the hunt annually. We, on the other hand, in Beamer's 5th season, are fighting with Arkansas to finish last in the SEC. And Arkansas fired a Coach (Sam Pittman), who like Beamer had never previously been a OC nor DC, much less a Head Coach in his career, Arkansas determined that being Head Coach was over Pittman's head. I believe THAT even more than Saturday's national humiliation against TAM is what has Beamer in trouble.
I think this will be his biggest hurdle in hiring a competent OC. I truly believe most decent OCs will believe they know more than Beamer. Good assistants are not looking to work for coaches who they think know more than.