South Carolina president Harris Pastides is heading out of town for a week of business in Europe.  Eric Hyman is still the acting athletic director in Columbia through the end of July.  And Pastides has said that because of his travels and Hyman’s lengthy notice, he won’t have to rush to find and name the school’s next AD.

According to GamecockCentral.com (behind a paywall) — the Rivals’ site covering South Carolina — the school’s board of trustees “would prefer not to name an interim AD.”

What that means is that the process of scouring the earth for the next guy has begun and that there are certain to be some informal connections made in the time while Pastides is out of the country.  If all goes to plan upon his return, you should expect the Gamecocks to have a new boss in place by the end of the month or the first of August without ever having named someone to the role of temporary fill-in.

That also means that while you’re sure to hear scuttlebutt and rumors and leaks regarding people who’re thisclose to being hired, it’s not likely that anyone will actually be hired for at least a few weeks.

(Famous last words.)

We waited to post this one up in the hopes that something would become official.  That has apparently happened.  Texas A&M’s supposed push for Georgia Tech AD Dan Radakovich now looks like the mother of all smokescreens as the Aggies have hired Eric Hyman from new conference rival South Carolina.

That’s certainly be one way to ignite the two schools’ new permanent cross-divisional rivalry in football.

The Houston Chronicle — quoting an Aggie source early this morning — wrote that A&M had “tabbed” Hyman as it’s new AD, replacing the forced-out Bill Byrne.  Columbia’s The State reported that USC was making a last ditch effort to keep the man who’s helped turn around the Gamecock athletic department.

But Hyman has officially stepped down at Carolina in the past 15 minutes.  David Cloninger of GamecockCentral.com — the Rivals’ site covering the Cocks — tweeted the following, however:

Hyman was the athletic director at TCU from 1997 through 2005 before heading to Columbia and the 61-year-old still has a son and daughter who live in Fort Worth.

Since arriving at Carolina, he’s overseen facility improvements and increased donations.  His hire of Steve Spurrier as football coach took a while to ferment, but now that move is producing wine as fine as the coach’s own “Cock-n-Fire” Cabernet Sauvignon.  (Don’t know about you, but when I see the words “cock” and “fire” on a wine label, I’m not buying the bottle.)

In basketball he landed Dawn Staley — one of the biggest names in the women’s game — and then lured Frank Martin to Columbia from Kansas State just a few short months ago.

This is a big, splashy hire for A&M as they kick off their SEC era… and quite a loss for Carolina.  Changes at the athletic director post are also difficult for the coaches involved.  Kevin Sumlin and Billy Kennedy in College Station are both new to their jobs and will have to hope they’ll get along with Hyman and that he’ll like what he sees of them.

Back in Columbia, Spurrier and Martin — who has to feel a bit shocked by this — will be left to wonder who their next boss will be and whether or not he’ll be as supportive as Hyman has been.

Hyman was considered an AD candidate at both Tennessee and North Carolina last year.

CORRECTION — Hey, when we’re wrong, we admit it.  And I blew one in my rush to finish up today’s posts and head off to do a radio show.  Above you’ll see that I credited Eric Hyman with the hire of Steve Spurrier.  Spurrier’s first season in Columbia was 2005.  Hyman started at South Carolina in 2005.  Couple those facts with the fast-deteriorating memory of a 40-year-old writer who thought he remembered Hyman hiring Spurrier and you’ve got a guy who didn’t feel he had to look it up just to be sure.  Whoops.

Hyman didn’t hire Spurrier.  He supported him vocally over the years, gave him and his assistants competitive raises, and he brought in enough money to help the Ol’ Ball Coach build the program.  But he didn’t hire him.

Spurrier was actually hired in November of 2004 in one of the final acts of South Carolina’s previous athletic director, Mike McGee (with some help from outgoing coach and Spurrier buddy Lou Holtz).  Thanks to a commenter below for pointing out my error in a non-jerkish way.

This wasn’t a typo done on the fly by someone who writes a few million words a day, this was a full-on flub.  And just as we tell you when we’re proven right — it’s called advertising — I have no problem owning up to a mistake — it’s called being accountable.

Above I mentioned Spurrier’s “Cock-N-Fire” wine.  Well, to quote Gene Hackman in “Unforgiven,” when it comes to me on the Hyman-hired-Spurrier part, the word “Misfire!” applies.  My apologies.  And thanks for reading the site.

Kansas State coach Frank Martin’s name recently popped up in connection with South Carolina’s basketball opening.

Martin very well may end up being a candidate at South Carolina, but the two sides have yet to speak, according to Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com. Goodman wrote the following on twitter:

“According to multiple sources, there has been no contact between South Carolina and Frank Martin. Martin has been out recruiting last 2 days”

Of course, there’s still plenty of time for South Carolina to make contact with Martin. But for now, the attention appears to be pointed elsewhere.

UPDATE: It appears another popular name in the South Carolina search, Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall, has also yet to receive a call from the Gamecocks.

Mr. Goodman posted that news item on Tuesday afternoon.

“Marshall appears the obvious choice,” Goodman wrote. “However, sources told CBSSports.com that Marshall — a South Carolina native who led the Shockers to the NCAA tournament this past season — has not been contacted by South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman.”

South Carolina fans will likely understand the Martin news. After all, how interested will he truly be in leaving Kansas State for South Carolina?

But the Marshall information is tough to explain. As Mr. Goodman wrote, Marshall appears to be the obvious choice in Columbia. At least to a lot of people outside Columbia.

South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman will go outside the box in his search for a new men’s basketball coach.  Not in terms of who he’ll hire — that’s unknown — but in terms of how he’ll find the Cocks’ next coach.

Unlike so many ADs, Hyman will not be hiring an outside search firm to aid in USC’s coach hunt.  Instead, The Charleston Post & Courier reports that he will consult “basketball coaches he knows.”


“I’d rather deal with basketball people (than a search firm).  Basketball coaches have got a pretty good sense and feel for people.  They’ve got a better feel for the marketplace than maybe a search firm would.”


We continue to believe that Wichita State’s Gregg Marshall — a man who’s from the Columbia area — will be high on Hyman’s list… if not at the very top.

So much for Missouri AD Mike Alden’s assertion last week that the SEC would release its 2012 football schedule this week.  Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long and South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman have both come out this week to say that the schedule still isn’t quite complete, though it’s close and it should be released soon.

So if you were hoping to get a pre-Christmas glimpse of next year’s docket, tough break. 

Maybe by New Year’s…

Following his arrest early Tuesday morning, South Carolina quarterbacks coach GA Mangus put out a brief statement last evening:


“Last night I acted irresponsibly and I deeply regret my actions.  I take full responsibility.  I would like to publicly apologize to Coach (Steve) Spurrier, (athletic director) Eric Hyman, the entire team and everyone associated with the University of South Carolina.”


Upon suspending his QB coach, Spurrier said: “We are all disappointed in his actions and will handle it accordingly.”  But what is accordingly?

There are several possibilities here.


1.  Spurrier might know that keeping Mangus will bring bad press to the program — it will be mentioned during televised Carolina games this fall — and could impact recruiting.  For that reason, he may decide to dismiss Mangus, who he coached as a player at Florida.

2.  Spurrier might realize that now is not the time to upset the apple cart.  He has built and built and built and now has what looks to be his best-ever team in Columbia.  With Stephen Garcia still technically on suspension and likely facing a quarterback duel with Connor Shaw in August, would it be wise to nuke the team’s quarterbacks coach now?  Spurrier could, of course, jump in and handle the QBs himself, but the fact that Mangus remains employed today suggests that he will survive.

3.  And who’s to say he shouldn’t survive?  People make mistakes and Mangus’ alcohol-fueled mistake was not made behind the wheel of a car at least.  Have his coaching and recruiting abilities earned him a second chance at USC?  Does the good outweigh the bad?  That’s something only people inside the program know.  Those screaming for blood on messageboards have no clue of what Mangus has done — good or bad — behind the scenes in Columbia.

4.  This could all be moot if the decision is made above Spurrier’s head.  If Carolina president Harris Pastides or AD Hyman feel Mangus’ actions are impossible to overcome, then he’ll be jettisoned regardless of Spurrier’s feelings.  It certainly seemed this spring that Spurrier wasn’t 100% onboard with the school’s decision to suspend Garcia for a fifth time.  Come to think of it, maybe Hyman’s wife will play a role in the final decision.


A day into this, we at MrSEC.com suspect Mangus will be kept onboard but told to find other work.  He’ll be a part of the Carolina coaching staff for the remainder of 2011, but he won’t be around come spring.

But that’s just a guess.  Stay tuned…