My time in South Carolina was fairly brief. I was just interested in the game - Columbia doesn't have much appeal. In another year, maybe Charleston would have been a worthwhile excursion but I had just spent five days in California two weeks earlier and there are trips coming up to New Orleans, Philadelphia and Cincinnati.
Arriving shortly after dark on Friday, there wasn't really much to see and I wanted to get a good night's rest knowing I'd be driving back immediately after the game.
I did take the opportunity to get up early and drive a little bit around downtown Columbia and the South Carolina campus. I wasn't particularly impressed. There was nothing "bad" about it, but it's nothing remarkable when I compare it to other schools I've visited and against other SEC locales.
As for the stadium, it's off campus. It's somewhat of an industrial area with a lot of surrounding lots due to being next door to the fairgrounds. As such, the tailgating scene is just what's going on in the lots, which on Saturday were quite wet and muddy due to the morning rain. They had these "Cock-a-booses" which I guess were kind of cool, these little tailgating train cars. Louisville had similar. But the overall scene was nothing like an Ole Miss, Auburn or Alabama. Missouri I guess is somewhat similar as that stadium was also removed from campus across a busy highway.
The stadium was big and old. With the annoying rainy mist that persisted until about noon, I was impressed with the turnout. It was mostly full, except for a few emptier pockets in the upper deck. A noon game for UCF in any moisture whatsoever would be worst case scenario attendance. South Carolina earned a reputation for great fan support when they would pack the stadium even when they were 0-11. The students filled up their sections, but those emptied out towards the end of the game. They were fairly low-key. They set up a small stage in front of the student section where "Cocky" (their mascot) and apparently some student spirit ringleader (wearing a garnet sport coat) would attempt to rally the crowd.
The seating on the east side was interesting - the first few rows would have completely obstructed views. The first row of seats is actually below field level due to a slight raise in elevation of the playing field. There is absolutely no way to see what was happening on the field. Not only do you have fans walking in front of you, there's a fence and other sideline obstructions.
Due to the wet fields, the band stayed in their section. They hype up their pregame as being one of the best in college football, but it pretty much amounts to the playing of the "2001: A Space Odyssey Theme" - which is awesome - plus a lot of dry ice (smoke). But not really unique to South Carolina. I guess it's similar to Virginia Tech adopting Metallica.
The video board was great. Massive of course. You need that in this day and age, trying to get folks out of their living rooms and into the stadium. The money spent on the leadership center would probably have been better served with a better video board.
The constant rooster calls/squeals over the loudspeakers were pretty annoying.
It was the 25th anniversary of South Carolina joining the SEC so they played a few clips during timeouts, like a snippet from the introductory press conference. Mike Slive and Roy Kramer were in attendance.
The atmosphere was so-so. It got completely dead after UCF took the lead in the first half. People were visibly distressed to open the second half - I got a few of those "sad look" faces in the photo galleries. Obviously the game quickly turned after that.
One neat thing I saw was underneath the stadium in my path to get to the field. In a hallway, they have paintings of every team captain for every South Carolina football season, dating back to the 1800s. The frames were about 11x14 or so and covered both sides from floor to ceiling. Kind of neat.
That's really about it. As someone who has finance their way to get to these road trips, I certainly appreciated having a close road trip that was driveable. Got home at 11:45 that Saturday night.
As for the team, the coaching situation, the AD dynamic, future of the program, etc., I've mostly stayed out of it since the Furman game. That was just absolutely shocking to me. I admit I was worried going in, but to see it actually happen was something else. My view of the South Carolina game was just to get through the game unscathed in terms of injuries and I think they did.
I will expound on some of these thoughts likely after the Tulane game - I think it's only fair to see how the team does against AAC competition and when Justin Holman returns (hopefully it's for Tulane but GOL said maybe not). But there are definitely talent issues on this team, in today's press conference GOL really had no choice to agree to a question I asked about the sanctions. He later admitted there are plenty of backup type players starting and a lack of team speed, primarily in reference to the current wide receivers.
Excessive graduation losses, injuries, some recruiting misses and not being able to sign full classes all play a role. Coaching, just like everything else, there's just been plenty of change. UCF has brand new coordinators (one in his first year) and three brand new coaches with minimal experience. Now, that may not be the difference in light of the personnel issues, but it's just an example of how much things have radically changed from last year's team. Kind of hard to reload, despite that being the company line prior to the season.
As I said before the season - and this is a belief shared by many - but when GOL took over the AD duties on an interim basis I fully believed the unofficial plan was for GOL to finish out this season as head coach, retire from coaching and assume the permanent AD role with Brent Key promoted to head coach.
After this sort of start, I'm not so sure anybody knows what's going to happen. I just can't see GOL retiring on such a down year. I know there's plenty of season left, but it really is hard to see UCF finishing 6-2 to become bowl eligible (and that's the minimum threshold of this being an "acceptable" season). If UCF can't beat Tulane and UConn, well, I think you get the picture.
If GOL wants to keep coaching into 2016, will he continue to juggle both roles as permanent AD as well? Maybe I assumed wrong, but I just thought the "interim" tag was more or less an opportunity for GOL to see if he wanted the full-time job and if he did, it would be his at the end of the year. But I know the common belief was that he'd also pass the torch, coaching wise, at that time.
At the end of the day, I fully believe the permanent AD gig is GOL's if he wants it (and I have no reason to believe he doesn't, despite a few comments he's made in recent weeks about not loving the bureaucracy aspect). The interesting thing is the timing of the coaching aspect. GOL has never declared a target date to retire, but he actually hinted way more this year that this could be it (his media day comments for one). Then again, and he repeated it today, the only thing he truly loves to do is coach and watch film.
All I know is that it's going to be a very interesting couple months.
Arriving shortly after dark on Friday, there wasn't really much to see and I wanted to get a good night's rest knowing I'd be driving back immediately after the game.
I did take the opportunity to get up early and drive a little bit around downtown Columbia and the South Carolina campus. I wasn't particularly impressed. There was nothing "bad" about it, but it's nothing remarkable when I compare it to other schools I've visited and against other SEC locales.
As for the stadium, it's off campus. It's somewhat of an industrial area with a lot of surrounding lots due to being next door to the fairgrounds. As such, the tailgating scene is just what's going on in the lots, which on Saturday were quite wet and muddy due to the morning rain. They had these "Cock-a-booses" which I guess were kind of cool, these little tailgating train cars. Louisville had similar. But the overall scene was nothing like an Ole Miss, Auburn or Alabama. Missouri I guess is somewhat similar as that stadium was also removed from campus across a busy highway.
The stadium was big and old. With the annoying rainy mist that persisted until about noon, I was impressed with the turnout. It was mostly full, except for a few emptier pockets in the upper deck. A noon game for UCF in any moisture whatsoever would be worst case scenario attendance. South Carolina earned a reputation for great fan support when they would pack the stadium even when they were 0-11. The students filled up their sections, but those emptied out towards the end of the game. They were fairly low-key. They set up a small stage in front of the student section where "Cocky" (their mascot) and apparently some student spirit ringleader (wearing a garnet sport coat) would attempt to rally the crowd.
The seating on the east side was interesting - the first few rows would have completely obstructed views. The first row of seats is actually below field level due to a slight raise in elevation of the playing field. There is absolutely no way to see what was happening on the field. Not only do you have fans walking in front of you, there's a fence and other sideline obstructions.
Due to the wet fields, the band stayed in their section. They hype up their pregame as being one of the best in college football, but it pretty much amounts to the playing of the "2001: A Space Odyssey Theme" - which is awesome - plus a lot of dry ice (smoke). But not really unique to South Carolina. I guess it's similar to Virginia Tech adopting Metallica.
The video board was great. Massive of course. You need that in this day and age, trying to get folks out of their living rooms and into the stadium. The money spent on the leadership center would probably have been better served with a better video board.
The constant rooster calls/squeals over the loudspeakers were pretty annoying.
It was the 25th anniversary of South Carolina joining the SEC so they played a few clips during timeouts, like a snippet from the introductory press conference. Mike Slive and Roy Kramer were in attendance.
The atmosphere was so-so. It got completely dead after UCF took the lead in the first half. People were visibly distressed to open the second half - I got a few of those "sad look" faces in the photo galleries. Obviously the game quickly turned after that.
One neat thing I saw was underneath the stadium in my path to get to the field. In a hallway, they have paintings of every team captain for every South Carolina football season, dating back to the 1800s. The frames were about 11x14 or so and covered both sides from floor to ceiling. Kind of neat.
That's really about it. As someone who has finance their way to get to these road trips, I certainly appreciated having a close road trip that was driveable. Got home at 11:45 that Saturday night.
As for the team, the coaching situation, the AD dynamic, future of the program, etc., I've mostly stayed out of it since the Furman game. That was just absolutely shocking to me. I admit I was worried going in, but to see it actually happen was something else. My view of the South Carolina game was just to get through the game unscathed in terms of injuries and I think they did.
I will expound on some of these thoughts likely after the Tulane game - I think it's only fair to see how the team does against AAC competition and when Justin Holman returns (hopefully it's for Tulane but GOL said maybe not). But there are definitely talent issues on this team, in today's press conference GOL really had no choice to agree to a question I asked about the sanctions. He later admitted there are plenty of backup type players starting and a lack of team speed, primarily in reference to the current wide receivers.
Excessive graduation losses, injuries, some recruiting misses and not being able to sign full classes all play a role. Coaching, just like everything else, there's just been plenty of change. UCF has brand new coordinators (one in his first year) and three brand new coaches with minimal experience. Now, that may not be the difference in light of the personnel issues, but it's just an example of how much things have radically changed from last year's team. Kind of hard to reload, despite that being the company line prior to the season.
As I said before the season - and this is a belief shared by many - but when GOL took over the AD duties on an interim basis I fully believed the unofficial plan was for GOL to finish out this season as head coach, retire from coaching and assume the permanent AD role with Brent Key promoted to head coach.
After this sort of start, I'm not so sure anybody knows what's going to happen. I just can't see GOL retiring on such a down year. I know there's plenty of season left, but it really is hard to see UCF finishing 6-2 to become bowl eligible (and that's the minimum threshold of this being an "acceptable" season). If UCF can't beat Tulane and UConn, well, I think you get the picture.
If GOL wants to keep coaching into 2016, will he continue to juggle both roles as permanent AD as well? Maybe I assumed wrong, but I just thought the "interim" tag was more or less an opportunity for GOL to see if he wanted the full-time job and if he did, it would be his at the end of the year. But I know the common belief was that he'd also pass the torch, coaching wise, at that time.
At the end of the day, I fully believe the permanent AD gig is GOL's if he wants it (and I have no reason to believe he doesn't, despite a few comments he's made in recent weeks about not loving the bureaucracy aspect). The interesting thing is the timing of the coaching aspect. GOL has never declared a target date to retire, but he actually hinted way more this year that this could be it (his media day comments for one). Then again, and he repeated it today, the only thing he truly loves to do is coach and watch film.
All I know is that it's going to be a very interesting couple months.