Man in the Hat media

The one truth heading into this college basketball season for South Carolina men's team was expectations were low, at least nationally. Coming off an 11-21 season, excitement could best been described as tepid for second year coach Lamont Paris. Hell, the Gamecocks were picked to finish dead last in the league in preseason media polls.  But behind some key transfer additions, as well as an influx of freshmen talent, the Gamecocks are sitting at 21-3 and tied for first in the Southeastern Conference with seven games left.  Already, this is the best second year improvement under a new coach in program history. Better than Frank Martin, who had back-to-back 14-win seasons; better than Eddie Fogler, who went from nine wins to 10; better than George Felton, who went from 15 wins to 19; better than Frank McGuire, who went from six to 11 from 1964-1966.  For context, previous coaches Darrin Horn, Dave Odom, Steve Newton and Bill Foster all had second-year setbacks in win totals....

Shane Beamer has his next offensive coordinator.  The South Carolina head football coach will enter his third year with Dowell Loggains running the offensive side of the ball. Loggains, 42, takes over for Marcus Satterfield, who took the offensive coordinator job at Nebraska. Loggains spent the last year as tight end coach at Arkansas. The university's Board of Trustees approved Loggains contract Tuesday during its monthly meeting. It is a three-year deal for $1 million per year, according to David Cloninger. Dowell Loggains has been approved as South Carolina's offensive coordinator. He has a three-year deal (through 2025) at $1 million per year. — David Cloninger (@DCPandC) December 13, 2022 Loggains contract at Arkansas was a two-year deal, and topped at $400,000 this year. Under Satterfield in 2022, South Carolina averaged 31.7 points per game, ranking 45th in the country. The Gamecocks averaged 257.8 passing yards (T-42nd with South Alabama) but was one of the worst rushi...

Year two of the Shane Beamer era is in the books, and it is safe to say the vibe in Columbia is far more positive than it was at the end of the 2020 football season. That mood is thanks in large part to the last two weeks of the season with a blowout win and a 31-30 win over rival Clemson. Both were wins over top 10-ranked teams, a program first.  Coming off a two-win season that saw former coach Will Muschamp fired during the season, Beamer has injected the near dead program with energy on the back of going 16-10 and a two bowl game appearances. The bowl game this year has not been played yet. There are still plenty of kinks to work out, but it is clear Beamer is building the program identity around special teams and defense in an attempt to replicate the reputation and success his father had at Virginia Tech.  LINK: Beamer's first season cause for optimism LINK: Dabo Swinney: "Education isn't important" He also has a major hire coming at offensive coordinator with M...

Marcus Satterfield is out as offensive coordinator at South Carolina after two seasons. The stint is set to end with Satterfield set to take the OC job with Nebraska, according to Pete Thamel.  Sources: Nebraska is close to hiring South Carolina OC Marcus Satterfield as the school’s new offensive coordinator. Satterfield worked with Matt Rhule at Temple, Baylor and the Carolina Panthers. South Carolina’s offense scored 94 points in wins over Tennessee and Clemson. — Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 28, 2022 The Satterfield era of offense was mixed to put best. While there were high moments, the highest a 63-38 drubbing of Tennessee and a 31-30 showing the following week against Clemson, there were also bafflingly bad performances. The lowmark being a 38-6 loss to a bad Florida team and a 23-10 loss to an equally average Missouri squad. All this was in the last five games of 2022.  Carolina averaged 31.7 points per game this year, but if you eliminate the two outlier, 50-...

College expansion is back in the news with the news Southern Cal and UCLA are set to join the Big 10 in 2024.  This movie puts every geography buff into a hissy fit with two teams from LA joining a conference comprised almost exclusively with teams from the Great Lakes and RustBelt region of the United States.  In the following days, the quartet of Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado were in preliminary talks to join the Big 12. Set aside the comedy of Colorado crawling back to the Big 12 after leaving a little over a decade ago, these moves could signal the Pac 12 going the way of the Southwest or Big East conferences.  If these moves all go through, the Pac 12 would be down to the Pac 6 with Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Cal and Stanford, and virtually dead in the water. But I postulate a different future than those 6 remaining schools joining a different conference. Let's get this first major domino out of the way - Hawaii is not an option. ...

The University of South Carolina has its next men's basketball coach. Athletics director Ray Tanner named Lamont Paris as the 33rd coach in program history, and first African-American head coach. The hiring comes roughly two weeks after Tanner severed ties with Frank Martin, ending a decade-long tenure where Martin went 171-147, but made just one NCAA tournament appearance. He also failed to win a conference title. He was the second-winningest coach in program history, behind Frank McGuire. LINK: Martin out, who is next in Paris, 47, comes to Columbia after spending the last five years leading Chattanooga. The Mocs went 87-72, peaking with a 27-8 mark this year with an NCAA tournament berth. They also won the regular season and Southern Conference tournament championships. Before becoming a head coach, Paris spent 20 years as an assistant spanning Division III, II and I programs, most recently at Wisconsin from 2010-2017.  And the initial reaction to Paris by fans was...cool to put...

The University of South Carolina is in the market for a new men's basketball coach with the news of Frank Martin's firing. The move ends a decade where Martin went 171-147, but made just one NCAA tournament appearance and did not win a conference title. He finishes as the third-winningest coach in program history. LINK: Martin out as USC coach Last year Martin kept his job due in large part to outside influence and the school having to pay a massive buyout of former football coach Will Muschamp. The Board of Trustees at the time had concerns paying two massive buyouts. You can read a more in-depth look at that below. LINK: Martin saga leaves USC with egg on its face Martin's contract was reworked to be much friendlier for the school, which was reported in April by WLTX. The big takeaway was if he was fired after April 1, 2022, the buyout wouldn't exceed $3 million. That is on top of his $3.3 million salary from the season. Now, athletic director Ray Tanner has another b...

The South Carolina baseball team is not looking good in 2022.  After a sweeping loss to rival Clemson, the Gamecocks were outplayed in a midweek loss to then-two-win Xavier, falling to 7-5 on the year. So how did things get here? For full context, the seeds for the inadequacy were planted a decade ago. After two national titles in three consecutive World Series appearances, Ray Tanner stepped aside to become the schools athletic director, and named assistant coach Chad Holbrook to the head gig. Over the next five years, Holbrook labored under what can now be called unrealistic expectations, going 199-105, while amassing a 91-67 conference record. The time included three trips to the post season, two super regional apperances and three 40-win seasons. But, no CWS appearances, no national titles.  After the 2017 season, Holbrook was gone and Tanner turned the program over to Kingston, who parlayed successful stints at Illinois State and South Florida, going a combined 273-180-1 ...

Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney has made the news after the most recent early signing period, but not for the class of prospects he and his staff signed. During his signing day press conference, Swinney remarked on the current state of Division I football, the transfer portal and name, image, likeness (NIL) deals. "It's chaos right now. Tampering galore," he said. "Adults manipulating young men. Education is like the last thing now." And, he is right.  Division I college football, and the NCAA as a whole, have put a priority on business and making money for its college athletics over education. So you will be happy to hear that Swinney has bucked the trend of college coaches and had his contract filled with incentives tied to his teams academic performances. On top of his $8.3 million salary for 2021, which will increase to $10 million per year in 2027 and 2028, he will get addition money for graduation rates, team GPA and retention. And it also puts a ...

Two years ago the South Carolina football team was in search of an offensive coordinator. Last year, they were in search of an offensive coordinator. This year, the Gamecocks are potentially in the search for an offensive coordinator. Marcus Satterfield wrapped his first year in Columbia leading one of the worst offenses in the country, ranking 116th out of 130 teams.  That equals out to 319.6 yards per game and just 27 touchdowns on the year.  Granted, the drop wasn't much from the previous year under Mike Bobo, which finished 72nd overall, but that unit was able to field a 1,000-yard rusher in Kevin Harris. This year's team, under new head coach Shane Beamer, did not have a 1,000-yard rusher, but the overall yardage was comparable to last year, and was spread across four backs. The top passer Luke Doty didn't eclipse 1,000 yards, but battled injury and missed the latter half of the season. Top receiver Josh Vann, had 679 yards but the rest of the corps was inconsistent to...

The South Carolina football team wrapped up its first regular season under first-year coach Shane Beamer, and all signs point to a positive direction moving forward.  There is still a bowl game likely to be announced, but I don't really count bowl games into how a season goes, unless you are in the college football playoff, which at 6-6, is not happening for Carolina. LINK: Grading the 2021 Gamecocks After going 2-8 last season, Beamer and staff worked Carolina to a 6-6 mark and also snapped a two-year bowl dryspell. It is the best debut in six decades and arguably best all-time. Over the last 60 years, first year coaches have seen mixed debuts at Carolina.  • 1961: Marvin Bass took over a three-win team and went 4-6. He did not have a winning season in his five-year stint. (+1 game swing) • 1966: Paul Dietzel took over a five-win team and stuck up the joint going 1-9. He went on the have just three winning seasons and one bowl appearnce in nine seasons. (-4) • 1975: Jim Ca...

The 2021 football season is mostly wrapped up for South Carolina.  While there is a bowl game left, I don't put much stock into how bowl games go. So, let's pull our best Montessori school impersonation and arbitrarily grade this season. LINK: Beamer's first year cause for optimism Special Teams The most overlooked phase of the game was about as good as one could as for. Kai Kroeger averaged 43 yards per punt, pinned nearly 40 percent inside the 20 and boomed 13 50 yards or more. Mitch Jeter booted half of his kickoffs for touchbacks while Parker White capped his career going 13-of-14 on field goals and was perfect on extra points.  The return game didn't yield points, but it was actively destructive to the cause either.  Fans should feel confident heading into next year with both Kroeger and Jeter set to return. Jeter is the early heir to kick field goals with graduation of White.  Give this side of the ball an B for the year. Nothing damaging, but there is room to ...

Texas is back in the news. It seems the state can't get out of the news actually. This time, it is about books in schools. State representative Matt Krause, a Republican from Fort Worth and chair of the General Investigating Committee, is at the center of controversy after announcing the committe will investigate school library book collections. The focus on books that feature human sexuality and systemic racism.  LINK: Texas looks into 850 books In an October 25 letter, Krause, penned, “the committee may initiate inquiries concerning any ‘matter the committee considers necessary for the information of the legislature or for the welfare and protection of state citizens." On first reading, this edict gives a wide range of power to this panel, and comes off as unchecked with an air of "we know what is best for you," a sentiment that seems to fly in the face of conservative ideology, which has long stated individuals know what is best for them.  Not to mention the hypoc...

The Big 12 is back at the center of college football news.  Before I move on, :cough: sorry, choked on a feather there from my heaping helping of crow when I wrote that Texas and Oklahoma weren't going to the SEC, and were just using it as a business ploy to gain more influence. If you want a laugh, read this frosty cold take from yours truly. LINK: Boy was I wrong about Texas, Oklahoma and the SEC But dreams of the Big 12 going the way of the dodo were over exaggerated.  In a release this morning (September 10) the league extended invitations to Brigham Young, Cincinnati, Central Florida and Houston. The four schools submitted applications roughly a week ago. Assuming no other schools leave, this gets the league back to its namesake of 12 teams after sitting at an annoying 10 teams the past few years. Now if we can just get the Big 10 to rename itself the Big 14 all will be right with the world. But I digress. College athletics transactional, so who are the winners and loser...