Meet the longtime SC coach who finds himself in the middle of the Clemson-USC rivalry
Bobby Lamb fires off a pages-long text.
Sixty-seven names are spelled out in the iPhone message that takes two laptop screens to scroll through. Lamb concedes he might’ve missed a few.
Louisiana head coach Billy Napier’s name appears. So does South Carolina receivers coach Justin Stepp. As do Atlanta Falcons running backs coach Des Kitchings and Clemson director of recruiting Jordan Sorrells.
The common thread? Each played for or worked under Lamb at some point in their football careers.
“Well, when I look at that list it’s kind of surreal that all these guys are doing so well,” Lamb said. “But it makes you proud that you’re able to have a small part in their success.”
Lamb is an icon in football circles in the state of South Carolina. He quarterbacked Furman between 1982 and 1985 before spending 15 years as an assistant on the Paladins’ staff.
After Bobby Johnson left for Vanderbilt, Lamb served as Furman’s head coach between 2002 and 2010.
“The one joke that we all have is that Lamb knows everybody and talks to everybody,” Kitchings told The State. “His cell phone is permanently glued to his ear.”
In almost 40 years of coaching, he’s landed men on both sides of the Clemson-South Carolina rivalry. Napier worked at Clemson for seven years over two separate stints. Stepp got his start with the Tigers, before landing on Shane Beamer’s inaugural staff last winter.
Saturday, Clemson and South Carolina will renew their annual rivalry after a year apart due to COVID-19-related scheduling adjustments. Former players and members of Lamb’s staffs will be on both sidelines.
“What he did as a player at Furman and how long he coached at Furman, (he’s) going to be one of the best coaches that comes out of the state from a college perspective once it’s all said and done,” Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, who worked for Lamb between 2008 and 2010, said.
The four-day Furman QB and WRs camp
Ask anyone about Furman’s four-day quarterback and receiver camp and they’ll take a momentary pause. It was grueling. The midsummer South Carolina heat certainly didn’t help.
Check-in was Sunday morning, followed by two hour-and-45 minute drill sessions with a brief break between. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday involved three sessions of similar intensity. Thursday was check-out day, but not without one more session on the field.
“By the end of the week you didn’t want to see a football again,” Kitchings quipped.
Heading up to Furman with four or five of his Wagener-Salley High School teammates in the mid-1990s, Kitchings and Lamb — who was coaching the Paladins receivers at the time — hit it off.
With fixations on an FBS scholarship, Kitchings visited both N.C. State and South Carolina. Neither offered him, but Furman did.
The speed that Lamb saw on the football and basketball games at Wagner-Salley quickly translated to Furman when Kitchings arrived on campus. The South Carolina native still ranks among the Paladins’ all-time leaders in receptions and returns. His 29.3 yards per kickoff return is the second-best mark in Southern Conference history, while his four kickoff return touchdowns are the most by any Furman player.
Running for NFL scouts ahead of the 2000 draft, Lamb said Kitchings turned in a 4.32 second 40-yard dash.
“We were lucky to get him,” Lamb readily admits.
Kitchings returned to the college game after bouncing around the NFL for four years. A back injury derailed his pro career, but coaching kept him around the game.
Looking for any kind of coaching opportunity, he spoke with Lamb. Furman had an opening for a tight ends coach and special teams coordinator. Kitchings had his first gig.
Furman went 36-15 during Kitchings’ tenure. He later parlayed that into jobs at Vanderbilt, Air Force, N.C. State, South Carolina and the Falcons.
Almost 30 years later after first stumpbling upon Furman, he still holds the vivid memories of that four-day quarterback and receiver camp close.
“Kids this day and age,” Kitchings said, “I don’t know if they could make it those four days.”
Connections at Clemson and South Carolina
Whereas Kitchings represents an old guard of former Furman assistants or players who have passed through the South Carolina-Clemson rivalry, Stepp, Sorrells and Elliott will each partake in the Palmetto Bowl on Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium.
Sorrells and Lamb go back decades as the former’s father, Tim, worked with Lamb at Furman. Sorrells jokes he doesn’t remember the first time he met his former college coach — he would’ve been an infant at the time.
“Certainly (he) can command a room when he’s in it,” Sorrells said of Lamb. “(He) enjoys life and enjoys the opportunity to coach and appreciates the opportunity that he has to to coach the x’s and o’s and be a part of a program, but treats people with respect and is a really, really good guy.”
Elliott arrived at Clemson as a walk-on receiver out of California. A mechanical engineering major by trade, he left football for a time to work for Michelin after graduation. That only lasted so long.
“He decided he wanted to quit Michelin, quit making money and be a football coach,” Lamb says slyly.
Hired at Furman after a two-year spell coaching receivers at South Carolina State, Elliott joined the Paladins staff for a salary of just $36,000 per year.
Lamb could tell Elliott was sharp. The engineering background backed up his initial inclinations. Still, he challenged him.
Elliott liked to pitch new passing concepts when he could. If he was going to do so, though, Lamb asked that he scheme up the protections needed in order to run his suggested ideas.
“Working for Bobby was probably where I’d say the majority of my growth as a young coach took place because of the environment that he created,” Elliott said. “... I had to learn protections really quick.”
Both Stepp and his twin brother, Josh, came to Furman after standout careers at Pelion High School. After Josh decided to transfer to Newberry, Justin also weighed his options.
Talking to Lamb late in the summer, Justin explained the situation and his desires to be closer to his brother. Lamb processed Stepp’s words before assuring the best thing for him would be to stay at Furman.
Justin went home to think about it. He decided to stick it out.
“It was literally the best thing he’s ever done was not letting me leave and not letting me just stay in my comfort zone,” Stepp said. “He made me get out of my comfort zone and stay.”
A new opportunity at Anderson
Lamb is noticeably less busy this fall — well, maybe not less busy, but differently so.
The time of year usually reserved for game-planning, recruiting and coaching has been whittled down of late. Only the second of those tasks has occupied his time.
Spells at Mercer and Louisiana took Lamb out of state for eight years. Now he’s back in the Palmetto State to revive the football program at Anderson University — a football-starved Division II school in the Upstate. It’ll begin competition in 2024 in the South Atlantic Conference.
“Being able to do this at Mercer, and now doing it at Anderson, I may be the only guy in the country who’s done this before,” Lamb joked recently.
Guiding a program that quite literally hasn’t ever existed, it would take Lamb just a few more seasons to put as many Anderson products into the world of college coaching as he did at Furman.
Saturday, though, could be a preview of things to come.
Stepp, Sorrells and Elliott will all be on the field when South Carolina and Clemson meet for the 118th time. The man himself won’t pick sides when the Tigers and Gamecocks face off.
Those who’ve worked for Lamb will get a chance to share pleasantries pregame before the ball is kicked. After that, it’s back to their respective battle lines.
“It’ll be good to see those guys,” Stepp said in reference to Sorrells, Elliott and a handful of other former Furman players and coaches on the Clemson staff. “I’m the same way as them — I’ll root for them every game but one.”
