No bull: Mike Shula turns to poop prop to motivate South Carolina QBs

Every coach has their own style and approach for motivating their players. Some yell. Some provide a supporting hand. Others preach the gospel.

New Gamecocks offensive coordinator Mike Shula uses poop. No, not real poop. But a realistic poop replica.

According to South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers, Shula has been using a fake pile of poo that sits on his desk to motivate his quarterbacks and reinforce good decision-making.

“He has this cast of poop, and he’s like, ‘You just took a dump right on my desk,’ ” Sellers said.

Sellers said that in film sessions, when a QB makes a mistake, Shula marches the offender to his office to retrieve the poop prop before returning to the film room with it.

“If we do something bad he’s like, ‘Just go get the dump off my desk,’ ” Sellers said. “He makes us put it on his desk [in the film room] and is like, ‘That’s what you just did to me.’ ”

There’s a buildup to a player being sent to retrieve the poop, Sellers said. Small mistakes may not prompt a poop mission right away, but repeated mistakes will find a player at Shula’s desk face-to-face with the replica.

USC head coach Shane Beamer wasn’t aware of the prop or its origins from Shula’s time with the New York Giants until sitting in on a quarterbacks meeting last week. But he trusts his OC’s methods.

“I was sitting there with them, and something came up and Mike told Cutter [Woods] to go get it,” Beamer said. “Then Cutter came back with the piece of you know what. ... Whatever it takes to connect with guys and motivate them, I’m all for.”

Shula isn’t new to the program. But the poop is. As an offensive analyst last season, the former Alabama signal caller didn’t have the authority to pull such a stunt. But after taking over for now-Appalachian State head coach Dowell Loggains as OC, Shula has implemented his new coaching style right away.

“It didn’t really come out last year because he wasn’t really the OC. This year he’s kind of abused it,” Sellers said with a laugh.

South Carolina takes on Virginia Tech on Aug. 31 to kick off the 2025 football season, where Shula can start a tally of who needs to make a trip to his desk the following week.

This story was originally published August 19, 2025 at 1:57 PM.