Former USC coach joins the Big South

CHARLOTTE -- The year was 1989. The football team stunk and the coach had just died. The players were being accused of using steroids and abusing drugs.

The program itself? An orphan, playing an independent schedule ever since abandoning the ACC.

Welcome to South Carolina, Sparky Woods.

On Feb. 20, 1989, Woods was a 35-year-old coaching phenom who had posted a 38-19-2 record in five seasons at Appalachian State. USC was a turtle with its head in its shell, reeling from the sudden death of Joe Morrison and bent on hiring a young, vital soul who could chaperone the program for years to come.

On that day when he was announced as Morrison's successor, Woods said he took the job because, "Once I visited with the president and the athletic director, I could see that their priorities were straight and they were headed in the right direction."

Years later, Woods, 54, sat at a table during Big South Conference Media Day and laughed at those perceived notions and other memories of five quirky seasons at USC.

"It was right after the steroid scandal. Joe passed away two days before Signing Day, we had three presidents and a whole bunch of basketball coaches, and I didn't know we were going into the SEC," Woods said. "Other than that, it was kind of what I thought it was."

VMI is like nothing Woods has ever seen. After 15 years of bouncing around as an assistant coach with stops at Memphis, Virginia, Mississippi State, Alabama and the New York Jets, Woods decided to take another stab at being a head coach and chose VMI.

"I'm used to guys whose future is Friday night," Woods said. "These kids know what they're going to be doing. The military commissions about half the student body. They're planning for it. They're preparing for it."

Expectations are low. The Keydets have not posted a winning record since 1981 and are 6-38 the past four seasons. They were picked to finish last in the Big South preseason poll.

"I think there's three reasons you win, and I think (VMI) violated all three," Woods said. "You have to get players, you have to develop those players and the schedule has got to be fair."

That formula is unchanged from the one he attempted to employ at USC. Unfortunately with the Gamecocks, he was unable to get past that first step.

"I was in on Garrison Hearst, but we lost him to Georgia," Woods said. "I was in on Stephen Davis, but we lost him to Auburn. We did get Steve Taneyhill, but by then, that wasn't enough."

The Gamecocks won six games in each of Woods' first two seasons, but crashed to earth with a 3-6-2 run in 1991. That wasn't the best way to prepare for entry to the SEC.

In 1992, USC lost five in a row to open its inaugural SEC campaign. With his back to the wall, Woods rallied the team to five wins in its final six games, but there wasn't enough good will left in the tank following a 4-7 mark in 1993.

As others before him and Brad Scott after him discovered, getting another head coaching gig after USC was a tough proposition. He occasionally received inquiries and almost took the Arkansas State job a few years ago.

"Had I never been a head coach, I might have jumped at it," he said.

He was an assistant on Pete Carroll's last Jets team. That year, the Jets began the season 6-5, but finished 6-10. The entire staff was fired at season's end.

While USC's 6-1 start last year devolved to a 6-6 finish, Woods figured Steve Spurrier has the right stuff to weather the storm.

"I think he's doing a good job. I had a great feeling about it when he took (the job)," Woods said. "And there's enough players out there, you just have to get them. I still believe it's a players' game. Coaches can lose games a lot easier than they can win games."

This story was originally published July 31, 2008 at 12:44 AM with the headline "Former USC coach joins the Big South."