Change in team culture because best players became best leaders
Notorious within the team for borderline inappropriate cartoon drawings, gold teeth, a dog named “Blooh” and fake game balls, the South Carolina senior class still remembers when it wasn’t so fun to be a Gamecock.
“It was bad,” senior cornerback Akeem Auguste said of his freshman season when USC was 7-6. “We came together and we saw how the older guys did their thing. We really tried to change it and do things differently and be accountable for everybody. It’s really just worked in our favor.”
Though the seniors playing their final game at Williams-Brice Stadium against Wofford Saturday will leave their mark as the winningest senior class in program history, their greatest impact has been the change of culture that has taken place within the team.
“Our best players are now our best people,” recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. said. “In the past, some of our best players weren’t our best people, which makes it hard to be a great leader. You want your best players to be your best leaders because everyone emulates those guys. We’ve had a strong core of senior guys that are great off the field and are great on the field. It makes a huge difference because it trickles down to everybody. It’s meant a lot to us.”
USC coach Steve Spurrier remembers former defensive end Melvin Ingram addressing a group of kids before last year’s spring game. Asked about his favorite memory at South Carolina, Ingram described his final game, beating Nebraska in the Capital One Bowl to have a program-record of 11 wins in a season.
“Hopefully for these guys, the best feeling is down the road for them,” Spurrier said.
Most of the group enrolled when the Gamecocks were coming off a 31-10 defeat to Iowa in the Outback Bowl. For highly touted recruits like senior spur DeVonte Holloman, going to USC was a chance to do something unheard of.
“It feels good for somebody to say that you’re the first to do this or you’re the winningest senior class,” Holloman said. “Things like that make you feel good.”
The group accomplished their goal, winning an SEC Eastern Division title, a school-record of 11 wins and three consecutive wins over archrival Clemson. The coaches believe that it’s because the team’s most talented players have also been an example, learning what to do and not to from the seniors they looked up to when they were freshmen.
Senior center T.J. Johnson said his style isn’t to be vocal before the team, but to talk to a teammate one-on-one. Senior free safety D.J. Swearinger is the opposite; he stood before the entire team at halftime of the Kentucky game when USC was trailing.
For some players, it’s about forming a bond and being an example. Defensive line coach Brad Lawing said he’s seen senior defensive end Devin Taylor mentor freshman Darius English in the same way Ingram mentored Clowney. In an interview with the media, senior tailback Kenny Miles was interrupted when freshman Mike Davis started bowing towards him, referring to Miles as “king” and “superstar.”
Miles laughed and said Davis was his best friend.
“Sometimes those other guys, they don’t always listen to us coaches very well,” Spurrier said. “But they will listen to a player who really plays well and plays with tremendous effort. If you don’t play very well and don’t play with great effort, no, you can’t be much of a leader. We have a good bunch of seniors who are that way.”
Winning breeds enjoyment on any team. Though underclassmen describe the seniors as hard workers and dedicated football players, they’re also among the team’s biggest pranksters.
Taking advantage of a white board in the locker room, Swearinger once drew a picture of Miles as Jackie Chan. Swearinger considers it to be his best prank.
“My eyes are low,” Miles said. “It’s just the way they are — I was born that way. In baby pictures, I’ve got little eyes. We all joke on each other all of the time. He caught me one day — he drew a picture of me looking like Jackie Chan with my eyes closed and everything like that. It’s all in good fun. During two-a-days, that’s what we do because we’re here all of the time, so we draw little cartoons of each other.
“D.J. is a funny looking guy, too — don’t get me wrong. We draw pictures of him in the jungle all of the time because he calls himself ‘jungle boy.’”
Swearinger catches grief from fellow seniors over his blue pit bull, named “Blooh,” because of the name’s unconventional spelling. He wears gold teeth throughout the game, which he bought at a store across from the mall for “a little bit of money.” He said it goes well with the trash talking he does on the field.
“He always wears the grill,” Miles said. “It’s cool. I like it. I can’t rock one of those, but I think it’s cool that he does. It makes him look tough.”
The team also gives out fake game balls, usually sarcastic in nature. Johnson got a fake game ball for his high snap in the second quarter against Kentucky. Senior tight end Justice Cunningham once got a fake game ball for his sweaty cleats. Senior linebacker Shaq Wilson said he likes to find look-a-likes of teammates and text it to them.
“It’s just a lot of fun jokes,” Swearinger said.
Miles said he doesn’t get wrapped up in Senior Day because at the end of the day, there’s a game to play. Win or lose, the senior class has already captured the record for most wins in a four-year period, though it may not last very long.
“It feels good that we’re coming out with the most wins,” senior defensive tackle Byron Jerideau said. “But like Coach Spurrier said, the group next year might beat us.”