USC Sports: Calling out Coach Spurrier

I'm going to start this by saying that I believe, unequivocally, that Steve Spurrier is the best thing to happen to USC football since Joe Morrison laconically stalked the sidelines of Williams-Brice Stadium.
He has, to use a cliche, forgotten more about good football than I will even learn, and he has reshaped USC football into something that is feared by opposing teams at present, and perhaps will be feared for years to come. All things to be desiered, and he has delivered beyond the epectations of many.
But he said something that I cannot, in good conscience, let lie unchallenged.
A lot of fans bailed on the Gamecocks when they were up 21-0 at the half against East Carolina on Saturday.
He thought the fans should have stayed to the end, because there was a lot of football yet to be played.
I am generally one to stay to the last tick of the clock, and being a Gamecock, it has usually been a very bitter tick of the clock. I would tend to agree, though I have no idea how hot it was in Williams-Brice, nor if there was indeed a shortage of bottled water by the half.
But the way Spurrier said it bears challenging. He said he hoped Gamecock fans were not going to "return" to being one of those fan bases that shows up for a half and no matter what, heads off to party sometime around the beginning of the second half.
My USC experience began in 1984. I went with fellow students to the very first game of that storied year of Black Magic. So I was in the game when, USC trailing, told a friend, we need a "trick play, perhaps a halfback option pass," to get a quick score.
On the very next play, we had a trick play. A halfback option pass. For a quick score. We went up and went on to beat the Citadel. But that was in the fourth quarter of a packed Williams-Brice.
I didn't know much about football at the time, and to be honest, I was just trying to sound more informed than I was. I admit it was a lucky guess. But there was a lot of luck involved with USC that year.
In 1986, I remember sitting there, watching as time was almost near off the clock, in a game against Georgia, in which Coach Morrison was disputing a call that pretty much gave the game to the Bulldogs. It was odd, just standing there, for a LONG time, with an almost packed house, waiting for a reversal that never came. Coach Morrison kept the players on the field when Georgia guys were headed to the locker room.
I was there on a different night, in 1987, when we beat Clemson 20-7, the crowd just hazing Clemson QB Rodney Williams without mercy. I was doing that myself. Packed house. All night.
I was there under very different circumstances. In 1988, USC played Florida State, and the Seminoles must have been pissed about something. They shut us down completely on offense and roared over us on their offense. I think the final score was 59-0.
That was the first time I saw something: Fans leaving early. The performance on the field was pitiful, and I couldn't blame those who left, but I also couldn't join them.
We knew what ws going to happen and we had a little fun chanting, Jimmy Crack Corn.
"Jimmy Crack Corn, and I don't care, Jimmy Crack Corn, and I don't care, Jimmy Crack Corn, and I don't care .... We ain't gonna score tonight."
FSU was a perennial national powerhouse and we were breaking in a new quarterback. We weren't taunting our players, though they might have thought so. Just a grim acknowledgement that we weren't where we wanted to be.
But it was a first time. And it was a first of a few rare times. USC fans had a reputation for being among the best in the nation. Students caused the upper deck on the east side of the stadium to sway, and it became a catch phrase, instituted by our head coach. "If it ain't swaying, we ain't playing."
While Spurrier and Morrison have to my mind been the best things to happen to USC football since I have been a fan, the absolute worst thing, in the entire history of the program, was Brad Scott's tenure. It came to a head with me when I attended a game in 1998 where Mississippi State beat us 33-0 or 39-0.
And that's the second time I really saw it. USC fans left en masse, starting in the middle of the third quarter.
I was sitting in the new South Upper stands. I had binoculars and I trained them on the sidelines. The players were laughing it up, having a grand old time. They did not care. In that instance, I almost bolted myself. If the players don't care, why should I?
But I had my own reasons for caring. I was a graduate of USC and loved the Gamecocks.
I thought then that Brad Scott had to go. Depsite winning our first bowl under him, I never much cared for him.
That was the second time in following the Gamecocks in 14 years where I had seen a mass exodus of fans, early. While I agreed not with those who did it, both times, I could understand.
Lou Holtz was hired and gave us some initial success. He was then followed by Coach Spurrier, who turned us around. I pray that, whenever he leaves, the success he has brought has been institutionalized.
Both Spurrier, to some small extent, and Holtz, to a much greater extent, thought they had to teach the fans how oto be fans. While I think they were right to beat out and kill any "traditions' inside the locker room that might have cost us over the years, USC is a program rich in tradition and history.
The only thing it has lacked over the years has been winning, which can be laid at the foot of the many, many coaches we have had over the years. When we had a small moment of success, it was not sustained.
Through it all, we have had an extremely loyal fan base who have been with the team through thick and a lot of thin over the years, almost always, to the very bitter end. Only in extreme provocation have fans bailed out early on the team. That is NOT something in our history. Not never, but not often. Just once or twice. I believe fans bailed on the Gamecocks when Clemson beat us 63-17. We honestly weren't trying for some reason, that year under Coach Holtz.
The one thing USC has been known for, forever, Coach Spurrier, is a fanatical and absolutely loyal fan base. On occasion, we have bailed on our team. But it has been so rare an occurence to my mind that it just isn't in us.
I don't know why the fans bailed Saturday. I wouldn't have, had I been there.
But don't sell us short. It's not in our nature.
Lastly, I haven't been to many home games in a while. Tickets are too expensive for my family's tight budget. But I have heard some reports of fans leaving early since a certain fellow from Tennessee took over. Not a lot of fans. But a noticeable amount of fans.
Some of the fans have been eager for success so we can be like all those other big time programs.
But real USC fans are like the ones who were there for you when you beat No. 1 Alabama. They were there from the opening kickoff to the happy end. They were loud and raucous and helped the team  be at the Crimson Tide.
Those are the same fans who were there in a raucous game against Alabama when Coach Holtz stalked the sidelines. I was in the west upper for that game, and I could swear the stands were swaying, just a little. The score kept trading back and forth, but QB Phil Petty prevailed. Being up there for THAT Alabama game made me recall all the games I went to as a student at USC, when the upper deck swayed to the beat of "Louie, Louie."
Saturday, coach, was not the true USC fan base.
I appreciate your time, hope you reach the 200-win mark on Saturday and add at least 11 more this season, if not more. But whatever mark you and the Gamecocks reach, I am proud of you all.