David Jones

FLORIDA TODAY

GAINESVILLE – Is this the year South Carolina goes all the way to the top of the Southeastern Conference after knocking on the door since Steve Spurrier's arrival?

A lot of people seem to think so. The SEC West showed some vulnerability last year after being the dominating factor in the league for the past several years. The last SEC East team to really dominate the league was Florida in 2009. But now, South Carolina is a trendy favorite to break the string.

"We've got a pretty good team, we think," Spurrier said. "Most of the magazines got us about 9, 10, 11 in the country, something like that. Hopefully, we can live up to that prediction. But we do have a lot of good players, wonderful attitudes on the team."

One of the things that makes South Carolina such an attractive pick to possibly get out of the SEC as a national title contender is the schedule. The Gamecocks lost two games last year — Georgia and Tennessee — by a combined 13 points on the road. Both are in Columbia this fall. The Gamecocks own the nation's longest home winning streak at 18.

Another factor is Mike Davis returning after rushing for almost 1,200 yards a year ago. He's also a solid receiver. Dylan Thompson is a fifth-year quarterback who has completed 55 percent of his throws and looks primed for a huge year in a league with few experienced throwers returning.

Building South Carolina as opposed to Florida has been very different, Spurrier said.

"When I got to Florida in 1990, the team was already there," he said. "There was no recruiting to be done for about two years. So the first two years we finished first in (the) SEC, won it. Weren't eligible the first year, but the team was there. They were ready to play, offense, defense. We found Shane Matthews, the quarterback. The third year we sort of had a bunch of young guys that hadn't played much before. That was one of the most fun years I've had in coaching, '92. We finished 9-4, I think, overall. Alabama beat us in the championship game in that close one here in Birmingham. But those guys really achieved a lot for a couple of true freshmen playing offensive tackle for us, really a bunch of young guys that year. They went on and won a bunch after that also.

"South Carolina, we inherited some good players. Not quite near the level that we had at Florida. But that first year was a fun year at South Carolina, it really was. We won a game in Knoxville for the first time in school history. And beat Florida there at home for the first time since joining the conference, I think the first time since 1939, somebody said. We had some fun wins.

"But, really, the recruiting started a lot better, I think, about four years later. Stephon Gilmore was Mr. Football in South Carolina. Then we got Marcus Lattimore, Jadeveon Clowney, four in a row Mr. Footballs. Then recruiting got a lot better. We found some boosters, some big-time donors that give over a million bucks. When I got there, we had one person to give over a million bucks in the history of the school. Now we have 12 or 13, something like that."

Spurrier declares, "We've got a program now."

It didn't come fast. It was a long, winding path at a program that had been mediocre before he showed the way to continued success. South Carolina has won 11 games for three straight years for the first time in school history. It's a pattern very similar to what happened at Florida, where Spurrier was able to string some good years together before winning it all in 1996.

Spurrier also learned to master a different kind of recruiting that he didn't have to do at Florida.

"I think one of the head coach's responsibilities is to get to know some of those big boosters," he said. "I certainly have got to know all of ours. In fact, my wife, we have a dinner for all of them each year before the season. I think it's going to be Aug. 15, two or three weeks before the season starts. But they're very important. Joe Rice is one of our big donors. I was kidding around with him recently. He took me to the Bahamas on his jet airplane, on his yacht, pretty good trip.

"You're sort of like an owner of the team. The big donors in college are similar to like an owner in the NFL because they put the money up. The best part of it, they don't tell us what to do, though. They're sort of the owners from a distance. They don't tell you who to play, what plays to call, so forth. But the big donors are very important, extremely important to all athletic programs. There's no question about that. You got to have the facilities to keep up. Within the last eight, nine years at South Carolina, ours are up there amongst the best now. That's been a big reason for our success."

Spurrier is already certain of making history this fall as the first to coach 10 seasons at two different schools in the league.

"Obviously, you never know what your path in life is going to lead to," he said. "When I left Florida after 12 years, I thought I was going to coach NFL five or six years and retire to the beach and play golf a bunch and travel around, this, that and the other. But that was a bad plan. It was. Later you found out, that was not a real good idea. But that's the way I was thinking back then.

"After the two years with the team I was with (Washington Redskins), I said, 'This isn't for me.' The situation I was in was not for me. So the South Carolina opportunity came up and that's how I ended up at South Carolina. Some people ask, 'How did you end up there?' I said, 'I was available and they were the only ones who offered me a job the end of 2004.' I wanted to coach again. I wanted to go out a winner, not a loser. Fortunately, South Carolina was really the best opportunity I could ever ask for. It was a school, you could probably describe their football tradition as mediocre, they had a losing record overall, way under .500 in SEC games. Nowhere to go but up."

The Gamecocks are soaring beyond heights they never even dreamed of when he arrived on campus. Now the unthinkable? Can South Carolina win a national title?

Maybe.

But everything has to go right, especially in the first year of the playoff in college football. Realistically? It's probably not going to happen. But then who would have even considered when he arrived in 2005 that Spurrier would be starting his 10th year at South Carolina and talking about coaching several more?

"It has been interesting," Spurrier said. "It's really been a fun nine years. Obviously, the last three, four years have been a lot more fun."

And there's a chance this year could be more fun than anyone could have ever dreamed in Columbia when he arrived.

At a glance

Each of the 14 SEC teams is being featured over two weeks. On Saturday, Georgia coach Mark Richt tries to replace Aaron Murray. Previous stories on Florida, LSU, Alabama, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Auburn are also available on floridatoday.com.