by Evan Debo
South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney was bound for greatness the moment he stepped on to a football field.
The 6-6” 275 lb. lineman wreaks havoc in opposing backfields and for the past calendar year has been regarded as one of the best defensive players to ever come through the college ranks.
Clowney would have most likely been the consensus No.1 overall pick in the NFL Draft last April, but he had to return to South Carolina for a third year as a part of the NFL’s draft requirements that a player must be three years removed from high school to receive eligibility to enter the pro ranks.
Many have questioned his motivation this year as he seemingly has nothing to play for and his numbers have dipped from a season ago where he was an All-American.
Last week, Clowney informed Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier that he was not going to play in the moments leading up to the team’s game against Kentucky due to a strained muscle near his ribcage.
Self-admittedly, Spurrier said in a press conference earlier last week ahead of their matchup against Arkansas that the coaching and training staff did not handle the situation properly and should have held them Clowney out themselves.
However, Spurrier made matters worse when he went on the record and said “If [Jadeveon] never plays another snap here, we all should be thankful and appreciative that he came to South Carolina.”
Spurrier went on to cite the team’s combied 26-5 record since Clowney came to Columbia in an attempt to curb the media from pointing fingers at Clowney’s motivation to play football.
We should be thankful and appreciative? Really Spurrier? What a way to lose the locker room.
To single out one player and to say we should all be thankful and appreciative of his decision to come play for the Gamecocks was something completely unprofessional in my opinion. What kind of message does that send to the rest of your team?
By insinuating that Clowney single-handily won your team 26 ball games, discredits the team effort and the support of the rest of the players, the trainers, and quite honestly makes the coaching staff look ridiculous in the process.
Anyone who has ever been a part of a team knows that it takes a collaborative effort to win. While there are always going to be stars on a team, those stars do not succeed if they have weak relationships with their coaches and teammates. And right now, Clowney’s relationship with his head coach is weak and it is not his fault.
With that comment, Spurrier has lost control of his locker room and if I am a player I would be furious.
Gamecocks quarterback Connor Shaw has had an impressive season in the pocket in 2013 passing for 977 yards, seven touchdowns, and zero interceptions heading into last week’s contest with Arkansas. Clowney and Shaw are two different players on opposite sides of the ball.
Before Spurrier just decided to enter ‘praise Clowney’ mode last week, he should have stopped to think about the consequences of his actions and how big of a role his star defensive end really plays on all fronts of the team’s success.
I think the worst part of the whole press conference was the fact that Spurrier was reading off of a piece of notebook paper. That, to me, indicates that he actually thought about singling out Clowney and decided it would be a good idea to award him individual honors for the team’s success.
In Spurrier’s 24 seasons as a head coach in Division 1 College Football, he has compiled a record of 213-78-3. The guy clearly knows how to win games, but if there is one thing that is clear about Spurrier moving forward, it is that the ‘old ball coach’ needs to learn some new public speaking tricks.
