In 1939, as the German’s were busy rolling through the jardins of Paris, South Carolina played the Gators and came away victorious. But as South Carolina was destined to suck for some karmic reason, they underwent decades of mediocrity. In 1991 South Carolina joined the SEC just as the conference was embarking on a decade of excellence in which there would be multiple national championships and annual bowl week dominance. Year after year, the SEC was a factor on the college football landscape with Alabama and Auburn taking their turns out west early in the decade and Tennessee being a top 5 team almost every year. Yet one team rose above the rest thanks to a brash offensive guru coming home to awaken a sleeping giant of a program. Former Heisman winner Steven Orr Spurrier put the Gators on the national map, making them the most fun team in college football to watch and a top five program for the decade despite a murderous schedule that included another powerhouse in Florida, the Seminoles. During this period of time, the Gamecocks were an afterthought as they took their beating year in and year out.

Florida Athletic Director, Jeremy Foley comfortably road Spurrier’s coat tails to his own level of prominence. The football success kept the boosters happy and helped increase Foley’s checkbook, which he promptly parlayed into making UF’s facilities second to none. Even UF Basketball improved in the 1990s. Foley was happy to bask in the glory of the SEC’s best overall sports program, but like Narcissus before him, he fell in love with himself and forgot the debt the program owed to the HBC.


To think, this big-toothed buffoon was once the hottest AD in the country.

(more…)