Mounce returning to football, leaving Clemson

Traffic
Traffic	Conditions	DOT cameras
Incidents	Construction

Traffic

Richard Mounce is returning to football, which means hell be leaving Clemson.

Mounce, named the states Mr. Football following his senior season at Blythewood High in 2007, received a release from his Tigers baseball scholarship Tuesday and plans to transfer to a school where he can play football again.

Steve Mounce, Richards father, said his son met with Clemson baseball coach Jack Leggett Tuesday morning.

"He had a fantastic meeting with him," Steve Mounce said. "Leggett said he would assist him in any way."

A dual-threat quarterback at Blythewood High, Mounce led the Bengals to a 14-1 record and the 2006 Class 3A state championship as a junior. In a 23-21 win over Timberland in the state final at Williams-Brice Stadium, Mounce rushed for 198 yards and amassed 423 total yards (rushing and passing) to account for all but four of the Bengals yards on offense.

In his two varsity seasons at Blythewood, he led the team in rushing and surpassed the 3,000-yard passing and 30-touchdown plateaus. He threw 73 touchdown passes, including a state-record nine during a 2006 playoff win over Blue Ridge.

He initially chose baseball because the Tigers had offered him a scholarship when he was a sophomore in February 2006. And, despite his heroics on the football field at Blythewood High, he received no scholarship offers from Football Bowl Subdivision teams.

As a freshman outfielder/first baseman at Clemson last spring, Mounce played in 26 games with seven starts. He batted .238 with one home run and eight RBIs. He also played for the Columbia Blowfish in the Coastal Plains League this summer.

But Steve Mounce said his son realized his passion for baseball paled compared to football.

"His heart has always been in football," Steve Mounce said. "After playing just baseball, he said he just does not love it like the other guys love it. He loves football and now hes going to attempt to play it."

Steve Mounce said its too soon to say where his son might wind up but said Richard will play football only at his new college.

Other Football Championship Subdivision schools where he could possibly go include Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina or Liberty.

Your comments

We encourage an open and civil exchange of affirming and dissenting opinions on our stories. We invite you to respectfully comment on our content as part of our interactive community.

Click here to read our comment guidelines and learn about our commenting system. Report abuse by clicking the "Report Abuse" link.

Hide this FAQ and policy statement

About our commenting system

Having trouble commenting?

You must be signed in to comment. You can sign in using your account at thestate.com or your Facebook, Twitter or Disqus accounts.

If you are logged in and still unable to comment, you might need to log out and log back in, delete your browser's stored cookies or change your browser's cookie settings to allow "third-party" cookies.

For more on managing browser cookies, view our help document here.

How do I report abuse on comments I deem inappropriate?

Yes. Report abuse by clicking the "Flag" button.

What are some of the features of Disqus commenting?

You can select how comment threads are organized. Some people prefer to read the newest comments first, while others prefer to read the oldest comments first. Others prefer to sort on comments that have the best rating (highest number of "likes") or are the most popular now (highest number of "likes" and replies). The choice will be yours. You can lock in your personal preference by selecting from among the options presented in the "Sort by" drop down menu that appears above the comments you are reading. This setting follows you across the site as your read articles and can be changed at your convenience.

You will have the option of subscribing via email to a comment thread by clicking the "Subscribe by email" button at the bottom of the comment box. New comments will be sent directly to your email inbox, where you may read and respond by email.

You will be able to subscribe via RSS to a comment thread by clicking the "Subscribe by RSS" button at the bottom of the comment box. This link will include step-by-step instructions on how to set up the RSS subscription.

If you are logged in using your Facebook account, you will be able to share your comments on specific articles to your Facebook profile page, just by clicking the "Share on Facebook" link directly beneath the comment box. This is a per-post selection, so each time you comment on an article or reply to another comment, you will need to indicate your interest in sharing the post to Facebook.

Will I need to register?

You can register with thestate.com to comment, or log in with an existing Disqus, Facebook or Twitter account. If you have forgotten your thestate.com username and password, you can have the information resent to you by clicking here.

What about my avatar?

We have created a default avatar for readers that log in using their thestate.com username and password. If you want to display a unique avatar, you can upload one to Disqus, Facebook or Twitter, and then comment on thestate.com stories using that account instead.

Will I be able to indicate my approval of a comment?

Yes, by clicking the button labeled "Like."

Will I be able to "reply" to comments?

Yes. The ability to reply to specific comment posts will remain a core of thestate.com commenting.

We ask that you remain civil, and that you follow these guidelines:

Do not resort to personal abuse. You may disagree with the content of an article, with the reporter or with other readers comments, but do not attack anyone personally. Do not libel or defame anyone or violate their privacy.

Keep your comments succinct and stay on topic. Comments that bear no relation to the story will be deleted.

Do not use foul language. Don't try to camouflage profanity with asterisks or other symbols or foreign phrases.

Avoid hate speech. Abusive comments, racist rants or defamatory statements about any group will be deleted.

Do not use threatening language. Repeated bullying or taunting will be cause for banning your account.

Use standard English grammar and observe accepted rules for capitalization, punctuation and spelling. Do not post a comment using all capital letters.

Do not post spam or advertising of any kind.

Do not add images to your comments.

Do not link to Web sites outside of thestate.com.

Do not use an avatar that is offensive or portrays someone in a negative light. Do not misspell or emphasize letters in a person's name to ridicule them or portray them in a negative manner.

Do not report comments as abusive simply because you disagree with them. Report them only if they violate these guidelines.

We reserve the right to delete posts that do not follow these guidelines. Posts that violate these guidelines or are otherwise offensive should be reported immediately. Click the "flag" link under the offending comment.

If a post is determined to have violated the guidelines listed above, it may be (1) blocked or (2) deleted from our system.

Users who continue posting comments that violate these guidelines may, at our discretion, be blocked from submitting future comments as well.

Read the terms of service for our Web site here.

If I run into problems or want to share feedback, who should I contact?

For problems with article commenting, or feedback on the changes, please email online@thestate.com.

Enter Keyword(s):	Enter a City:
Select a State:	Select a Category:

Wednesday, Sep. 30, 2009

Wednesday, Sep. 30, 2009