Thursday, Jan. 01, 2009

Morris: Don't get married to trophy strife

TAMPA, Fla.

There is a different feel to this, the third Outback Bowl in eight years for the South Carolina football team. That feeling is easy to detect. This USC team realizes the Outback is not the be-all, end-all bowl destination.

That is quite a change in outlook from USC's previous two trips here, when back-to-back victories over Ohio State were considered the apex of not only Lou Holtz's program but the history of the program.

USC conducted pep rallies following both of those victories, parading the trophy around Williams-Brice Stadium. Holtz ordered special Outback Bowl championship watches for each of his assistant coaches.

Well, you might recall that a couple of SEC Media Days ago, Steve Spurrier said USC was ready to begin building a trophy case that housed significant hardware. He said USC's current case included only two funny-looking trophies, referring to the Outback trophies that feature a boomerang.

Make no mistake, Spurrier would like nothing more than for USC to defeat Iowa today and add a third boomerang to its trophy collection. But this boomerang will not hold any more significance to Spurrier and his program than the Liberty Bell trophy USC collected for winning the Liberty Bowl in 2006.

Face it, these are mid-level bowls. Independence, Liberty, Alamo, New Mexico, Sun, Chick-fil-A, Insight, Gator. They all are about the same. There is significance to each — like finishing a season on a winning note — but not much.

You might argue the Outback Bowl is played on New Year's Day. But playing on the first day of the new year has lost its luster because the measuring stick for judging the significance of bowls has changed considerably over the past decade or so.

These days, the only bowls that carry prestige are the ones involving the BCS, and there are five of those. By today's standards, a program has not achieved national prominence until it plays in the Orange, Rose, Sugar or Fiesta bowls or the BCS National Championship Game.

No one knows that better than Spurrier. When he was at Florida and consistently played in BCS-level games, he chided Tennessee for playing in the Citrus Bowl by saying, "You can't spell Citrus without UT."

That is why Spurrier consistently has talked in his four seasons at USC about the goal of winning the SEC East Division. That alone would put USC in contention for playing in a BCS bowl.

It also is why Spurrier has been cautious when talking about USC's appearance today in the Outback Bowl.

"We're obviously thrilled to be here in Tampa at the Outback Bowl," Spurrier said at the week's opening media conference. "We didn't finish as strong as we would like. Seven and five turned out to be a pretty good record this year.

"We beat some good teams, and our guys played pretty well most of the year. Not our best toward the end, but overall it was a good year for South Carolina."

Clearly, those words showed Spurrier does not have the USC program where he wants it to be. Really, with the exception of the 6-6 season a year ago, Spurrier gradually has brought his program along step by step. At least he has his players thinking that way.

"We definitely see better things ahead, but we're grateful to have the opportunity to play in the Outback Bowl," said Eric Norwood, USC's junior linebacker. "We know it's a very good bowl, but we also know it's a stepping stone for us."

Moe Brown, a junior wide receiver, said playing in a bowl game every season is important to building the USC program for better things ahead.

"We didn't go to a bowl last year, and that was very disappointing," Brown said. "At this time last year, we were sitting around the house looking at the TV eating cereal. So it's a big stepping stone for this program, for the confidence of the team and, overall, is just so good for our team. I believe it is a stepping stone to get to a nine-win, 10-win season that I think we can have here at USC."

That appears to be a different mind-set than those of the two previous USC teams that played in the Outback Bowl. Those teams defeated Ohio State and finished with 8-4 and 9-3 records and with No. 19 and No. 13 national rankings, respectively. Then the program fell into steady decline with 5-7, 5-7 and 6-5 records.

On the other sideline, there was little doubt Ohio State was not happy about playing in either Outback Bowl after years and years of competing with Michigan to reach the Rose Bowl. The losses to USC dropped Ohio State out of the final national rankings both seasons with 8-4 and 7-5 records.

The second Outback Bowl concluded coach Jim Tressel's first season at Ohio State. A year later, the Buckeyes defeated Miami to win the national championship, and Tressel's clubs have appeared in five BCS bowl games since, including two more national-championship games.

There might be a lesson for USC to learn in there somewhere. A loss to Iowa today should prove to be only a minor setback as Spurrier continues to push his program to greater heights.

A win should not be cause for great celebration. Another boomerang in USC's trophy case would be nice, but there should be better hardware to add down the road.

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

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