Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Bill Battle Who BY STEVE PARKER Sports Editor Dan Reeves, Mooney Player, Bill Battle, Johnny Majors, Lou Holtz all names often mentioned as strong possibilities to be the next coach of Carolina's football Gamecocks. But those five by no -meais represent the extentof'the rumors concerning the eventual successor to Paul Dietzel, USC's coach for the past nine seasons. The list ranges from little known assistants, like Lide Huggins al. Tennessee, to seemingly absurd possibilities, like Don Shula of the professional football Miami Dolphins and Bear Bryant of powerhouse Alabama. The rumors and educated speculations include the names of current head coaches. Texas Tech's Jim' Carlin, Maryland's Jerry Claiborne, Georgia's Vince Dooley, North Carolina's Bill Dooley, Virginia's Sonny Randle, Furman's Art Baker and Van derbilt's Steve Sloan have all had their names tossed about at one time or another. As lengthy as those names make the list, they by no means exhaust it. Larry Jones, late of Florida State where he went 0-11 in his final season and Jerry Stovall, the ex-professionalSt. Louis Cardinal who coached the defensive. back field at USC before moving on to his current job as an assistant at LSU, are possibilities. And, as If the consideration of ex Dallas Cowboy Dan Reeves wasn't bringing enough professionalism into the speculation, Johnny Unitas has been mentioned. Unitas was Bill Dooleyr Lou Holtz s next? even rumored to have toured the USC campus, a rumor that was widely spread, although there appears no official substantiation. The names mentioned probably do not exhaust the number that have appeared in somebody's rumor at least once. The wide range of people being considered, from successful high school coaches to successful collegiate mentors to former professional players, should in dicate the degree of work Carolina's search and selection Jim Carlin Jerry Stovall Johnny Majors Dan Reeves Larry Jones Mooney Player Bill Battle Sonny Randle Lou Holtz committee will be faced with during the upcoming weeks. The committee, which will examine possibilities, determine availability and eventually preseht its findings to the .Board of Trustees, has met once already although little serious discuAsionof names was made. But when the committee finally does arrive at a name, or list of names, its advice is expected to be heeded. The fact that two mem bers of the Board. of Trustees--T. Eston Marchant and Robert Peter's,ara also members of the committee would seem to support this expectation. The seven-man committee which includes student body president Leigh Leventis as well as officials of the administration and the athletic office, have been receiving- recommendations and even have received a few ap plications. "I don't want to mention any names," Marchant said, "but about six prospective coaches have applied so far. And probably hundreds of recommendations have been made." While the committee is not making the list of applicants public knowledge, at least two of the applicants are quite willing to. make their aspirations known. Mooney Player, the highly successful coach of Low4r Richiand high school, has rn what has been termed a "campaign" fey Johni Many menti the job. Player, who piled up a 154 24 won-loss record and seven South Carolina Coach of the Year awards while coaching at Lower Richland, denies he is running a campaign. "People have said I am running a campaign for the head coaching job at Carolina. I like to say I am working for the job of head coach," Player said. "When you have had a dreani to coach at South Carolina. and South Carolina alone-for all of your coaching career, like I have, you must go out to the public and get your feelings across to as many Searching For An Answer people as possible." Dietzel, who has no great love for Player, disagrees with this philosophy, saying that a vast majority of the time any coach who campaigns for a job is unlikely to land it. -The other announced applicant Is Reeves, former Carolina quar terback and now assistant with the Cowboys in an offensive backfield capacity. Reeves, the second highest total offense producer in Gamecock history, would like to return to USC. "ii~put mhy application In about three weeks ago," Reeves said. "If Vince Dooley ry Majors ined as next fo they (the Trustees) ask me to come coach, I can't foresee anything which would keep me from it." The ability to recruit is something which has been discussed about both Reeves and Player, .and while many doul* Player's ability, Reeves is thought to be a strong candidate to be a good recruiting coach. His ex tensive pro fame will give him prior exposure to a number of athletes. Player, on the other hand, has Lide Huggins Jerry Claiborne Vince Dooley Bill Dooley Bear Bryant Steve Sloan Art Baker Johnny Unitas' Don Shula little exposure outside of South Carolina and the question of h's rapport with black athletes has been mentioned by many. But, Player claims to have friends who could assist * him greatly in recruiting along the east coast. "In my opinion they need someone who has the interest of the University in mind. Someone that has some tie with the University," Reeves said. "I think, if I was not selected for the job or if I had to give my recommendation, I would say a good young coach, a guy that played ball with me at South Carolina, is Lide Huggins." The name of Huggins was also mentioned by Tennessee's Bill Battle, Huggin's superior in the Vol camp who has been rumored himself as a possibility. Battle denied any interest in the job, but said Huggins was quite interested. Battle, like North Carolina State's Holtz did last week, denied any interest in the position. Holts said he has no desire to leave the Wolfpack. "I plan 'on dying right here at North Carolina State, and at the rate we are going that could be in a week or two," Holtz said recently. Battle said he would listen to talk after the season but he did not want to leave Tennessee. Another wideepread rumor has Pittsburgh's Majors as a possibility. But, none of thaea ceches are 7 Mooney Player >otball coach about to discuss the subject during the regular season, especially, North Carolina State's and Pitt-. sburgh's which are fighting for post season bowl bids. And Carolina's search committee can't intei view these employed coaches until after the season or USC could be charged with tampering and wind up in the same cell-block as Oklahoma. The selection committee will probably make its choice by the end of November, Marchant said. And the new coach will be hired shortly thereafter. "We hope to have fhs new coach hired by Dec. 1. It would be to our program's benefit to hire the coach as expeditiously as possible. be number one. reason * for recruiting purposes," Mardant said. "I understand the date for beginning to sign recruits is Dec. 15 and it would be pretty hard to recruit w4hout a coach," Mar chant added. Since the search committee has set such an early date for finding and naming a coach, it would appear impossible for the com mittee to consider a coach with postseason bowl chances. But Marchant said the com mittee could seek permission from the coach's school and if this permission was granted then there would be no charge of tampering. Editor's Note: Information for this story was gathered by Gamecock staff writers Mark Leary. Billy Baker and George Morris, as well as Sports Edhtor Steve Parker anid Assistant Sports Editor James P. Hersh. Jerry Stovali