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Morris: USC bridging the gap in the East

Posted on 11.18.08
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STEVE SPURRIER SAW clearly Saturday the talent gap South Carolina must make up to challenge Florida in the SEC East Division. Eric Hyman saw first-hand the differences in facilities between USC and Florida during his visit to Gainesville.

Both are convinced USC can catch up.

After first touring the Florida facilities then watching the Gators’ 56-6 romp, I’m not so sure, at least not for a while.

USC fans should take solace in knowing their athletics director and football coach are at least taking the correct approach to catching up with a program that has turned out to be the beast of the SEC East.

Hyman has embarked on a $200 million project to upgrade USC’s facilities. By the time his long-range plan is complete, that cost likely will soar to the $300 million range.

As the new athletic campus gets off the ground, Hyman has been visiting athletic facilities throughout the Southeast. On his visits to Auburn, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Florida, Hyman occasionally has brought along members of the board of trustees and USC administrators.

“People are becoming educated and have a better grasp of where we are in the marketplace,” Hyman said. “It’s just like any other business; we’re trying to recruit young people and we want to make sure that there is a commitment from the university to the person we’re trying to recruit.”

What Hyman found on his visits was that a commitment to prospective athletes via outstanding facilities was made many years ago at other schools. Most other schools in the SEC as well as the ACC are light years ahead of USC.

Florida’s facilities are eye-opening. The basketball practice complex is considered among the best in the country, with equal division of coaching space and gym floors to the men’s and women’s programs. The two programs share top-of-the-line weight rooms and training rooms as well as a two-level lobby that rivals any museum in the country.

Baseball, track, swimming, tennis. You name it and Florida can match any program in the country in terms of facilities. Then you get to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, which appears to be in a constant state of upgrade.

The latest addition to the stadium is the Heavener Football Complex, which serves as the main entrance to the stadium. Again, few museums are as plush as the building’s lobby. Even the waiting room for recruits on game day is state of the art.

“I come back and start tripping on my Prozac,” Hyman said of such visits.

He returns to a USC athletic department that operates out of a 50-plus-year-old Roundhouse and a virtually nonexistent academic center for athletes. No place on campus serves as a shrine to former athletes and their achievements. In part, the same facilities that were considered futuristic when constructed in the early 1970s remain in place today.

There are bright spots. The Colonial Life Center for basketball is more than adequate. The football stadium weight room is top level. The recently completed training facility at Williams-Brice Stadium is nothing short of spectacular, every bit as good or better than Florida’s.

There also is coach Ray Tanner’s $36 million baseball stadium that is nearing completion, and ground has been broken on a academic center for athletics. The latter is the one facility Hyman believes USC can jump ahead of all others and serve as a cornerstone to big-time recruiting of student-athletes across all sports.

“What the baseball stadium was to (Tanner), the academic center will be to me,” Hyman says. “I really want this done first class, and I really want it done correctly. Obviously, this is something that will have a sustaining impact 20, 25, 30 years down the road. So if we want to do it, we want to do it right.”

The facilities improvements have everything to do with recruiting. That is where Spurrier might have a greater challenge than Hyman. He must convince young athletes to join a program with a history of little football success.

Until USC catches up to the Georgias, North Carolinas and Floridas in facilities, Spurrier’s recruiting pitch is to jump on board a program on the rise. His status as a legendary coach is another selling point. He also can offer an athlete a chance to play immediately.

“We need a few more players here and there, but we’re having a good recruiting class thus far,” Spurrier said following Saturday’s game. “We know what we need to do, and hopefully we can get there.

“(Florida’s) got a collection of players that are very good, very good, maybe the best in the country right now. ... If we put together some recruiting classes like Urban (Meyer) put together ... He’s put together some real speedy guys. Hopefully, we’ll do that someday and we’re on our way.”

The difference is that while USC is beginning to get on its way, the established programs like Florida have been upgrading facilities and establishing a winning tradition for decades.

“The good news about the SEC is that it’s the best league in the country, and the bad news is that it’s the best league in the country,” Hyman says. “You can’t go in and try to hold serve in this league, because if you don’t address the issues, the only thing I can guarantee is that you’ll be farther behind.”

Unfortunately, USC has not held serve in many years. Only now is it beginning to hold serve. No doubt, USC will begin to break serve in the near future. Only then will it close some of the gap between itself and the Floridas of intercollegiate athletics.

Listen to Morris Tuesdays from 4-5 p.m. on ESPN Radio 93.1 FM

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