Caslen, Tanner and USC trustees should ignore the braying donkeys calling for Muschamp’s head
During my years as a sports columnist in Cleveland, I always found it amusing to witness the annual hand-wringing around town about the Cleveland Browns’ inability to be anything more than a lame NFL franchise.
And why was the local wailing so amusing?
It was because the reason why the Browns were so perennially sorry was obvious for everyone to see, but not many in Cleveland were willing to say it aloud.
It was because the team’s big thinkers would regularly make major decisions that were driven by a desire to pander to the sizable “braying donkey” element of the Browns’ fan base — the incessantly loud, predictably reactive and overly emotional segment of the team’s following — above all else.
That’s never a good way to run any organization.
And it definitely shouldn’t be the way to run a major college entity like the USC Gamecocks football program.
That’s why I applaud USC President Robert Caslen, athletics director Ray Tanner and the school’s Board of Trustees for ignoring — so far — the braying donkeys in the USC fan base who are demanding the firing of football head coach Will Muschamp.
Why do I say “so far”?
Because — to be totally blunt about it — I don’t think it will last.
In fact, I will confidently predict two things right now:
▪ Caslen, Tanner and the USC trustees will cave in to all of the braying.
▪ Caslen, Tanner and the USC trustees will eventually fire Muschamp to appease the donkeys doing the obnoxious hee-hawing.
And it will be a huge mistake for, well, two reasons.
The first, of course, is the $19 million buyout that USC would have to pay Muschamp if it fired him so early into his current contract.
Yes, it was crazy for the university to insert such a massive buyout clause in Muschamp’s deal.
But do you want to know what would be even more crazy for USC to do?
It would be actually paying $19 million to get rid of a head coach who will still have an overall winning record at USC — 26 wins in 51 games — even after the Gamecocks get whupped and whomped by Clemson in their season finale.
And here’s the second reason why Muschamp shouldn’t be fired: it would send a horrible message in general.
By all objective standards, Muschamp has represented USC with integrity and dignity.
Shouldn’t that count for something?
Yes, I know: Muschamp hasn’t had nearly the success of a college uber-head coach like Alabama’s Nick Saban.
But I’m also willing to bet that if Muschamp had a national title-winning quarterback who suffered a potential career-ending injury while needlessly playing in a lopsided game, he would show a lot more emotion and compassion than Saban seemed to display in his bloodless postgame remarks after star QB Tua Tagovailoa — bloodied and screaming in agony — was carted off the field with a severely dislocated hip.
And shouldn’t that count for something?
Of course, it should.
And Caslen, Tanner and the USC trustees should conjure up enough fortitude to make sure that it does — though I don’t think they will.
They should let the donkeys bray.
They should let Muschamp stay.
Opinion Editor Roger Brown can be reached at (803) 771-8464 or rjbrown@thestate.com. You can also follow him on Twitter@RBrown_SCOpin.
This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 8:36 AM.