How Steve Spurrier saved Blake Mitchell’s career with the Gamecocks
The meeting left former South Carolina quarterback Blake Mitchell nothing if not worried.
He came to Columbia as an Elite 11 passer, recruited by a wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator Skip Holtz, who sold a vision of an attack that threw the ball around. And here was Lou Holtz, the head coach and Skip’s father, laying out a different plan.
“Some of his philosophies towards the end, he sat in the quarterback meetings, it was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to run the ball 15 times a game to win,’” Mitchell said. “’We’re going have to have a quarterback run the ball 15 times.’”
Mitchell was a pocket passer through and through, and he’d hoped to play early in his career. This development was not ideal.
“I’m sitting there thinking that if we’ve got to run it 15 times, then I’m not the guy,” Mitchell said. “I probably won’t ever play.”
And that set the stage for Steve Spurrier to all but save Mitchell’s career.
After a year of redshirting and a season playing behind Syvelle Newton and Dondrial Pinkins, Mitchell saw Holtz and his affinity for option offense move on and Spurrier’s Fun-and-Gun attack arrive. The former Heisman winner had chucked it around as head coach of Florida and Duke and sold his new pro-style passer something new.
“It was the best thing that happened to me as far as my football career,” Mitchell said.
The Gamecocks jumped from 10th in the SEC in pass attempts to fifth. Mitchell put up 2,370 passing yards.
The next two years, Mitchell dealt with some of the peculiarities of Spurrier with quarterbacks, as he ended up splitting time with Chris Smelley and Newton, but the LaGrange, Georgia product still departed Columbia with the third-most yards and touchdowns in program history.
He never ran for more than 47 yards in a season and never carried more than eight times in a game (far short of 15).
These days, he’s a sales manager for a roofing company in the state. He also finished a half-Ironman triathlon in 2018.
He said he found his current career a little by accident. He had a tryout with the Buffalo Bills and played a little Arena Football. But that life wasn’t for him.
He worked in construction, bounced through several jobs and eventually ended up at a bank after graduating. Then happenstance guided him to his current path, where he’s been the past seven-plus years.
“I was working at a bank, and one of my customers came in and he kind of had his own business going and was going to work for a supplier,” Mitchell said. “Just said, ‘Hey, I’ve got an opportunity I thought would be a good first for you.’”
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 1:00 AM.
