Why are coaches coming to South Carolina? C&F hopes it has something to do with garnet and black. But it also has something to do with green.
The surprising aspect of the Staley hire is the steep price USC paid to land her -- a guaranteed annual package of $575,000 after subtracting Staley's yearly $75,000 contribution toward her Temple buyout.
The figure is nearly three times what USC was paying Walvius and places Staley among the top 10 highest-paid women's coaches in the country, according to Hyman. ...
When announcing USC's new nine-year, $50.6 million multimedia rights deal with ISP Sports in February, Hyman said the increased revenues would allow the Gamecocks to hire "some of the best coaches in the country." ...
Staley's hire reshuffled the deck among USC coaches, putting the 38-year-old Philadelphian third behind football coach Steve Spurrier ($1.75 million) and Horn ($800,000) in terms of guaranteed income. Baseball coach Ray Tanner is fourth at $370,000, although Tanner has a deal with Easton worth an additional $110,000.
Coincidentally, as The State notes, only one coach in school history has won a national title: track's Curtis Frye, who makes $183,000. (In fairness, Frye notes that his salary is "pretty good compared to the league.")
"There's a price for excellence," Hyman says.
That's fine, as long as the excellence shows up.
Chad Gray: The victim? He sure thinks so. You might remember that Gray was sent packing by Horn.
But Gray said the causes of his dismissal were "minor things" and felt Horn exaggerated the situation.
Gray cited one example: He had two meetings scheduled at 9:45 and 10 a.m. He went to the first one, and couldn't notify them of missing the second one because "that was during the time that I didn’t have a phone."
That was also a reason for not promptly returning phone calls, which the player acknowledged was another condition he supposedly didn't meet.
"They're making it sound too serious," said Gray, who remains in summer school until the end of the month.
Let's hope there's more to it than that. C&F is all for discipline, but this sounds a bit strict.
Horn's model for discipline?
Another chance for a couple of ex-Gamecocks. Granted, it's in Canada, but it's football. So Demetris Summers and Moe Thompson have headed to the home and native land. Best of luck to them.
Elsewhere...
Toughen up. Apparently not satisfied with last year's brutal schedule, Washington has added LSU to the 2009 and 2012 slates. But the Huskies should be okay; the only other nonconference games on tap are mid-major programs Idaho and Notre Dame.
Wrong place, wrong time? J.D. Quinn has either incredibly bad judgment or incredibly bad luck. You decide.