South Carolina football: Did players not want to play for Mike Bobo?
By Jacob Elsey
South Carolina football will not play a bowl game this December.
South Carolina announced Tuesday afternoon that it will no longer be participating in the 2020 bowl season. The Gamecocks had been invited to play UAB in the Gasparilla Bowl down in Tampa, but have now had to cancel amid COVID tracing within the coaching staff.
According to one reporter, though, COVID wasn’t the only reason for the cancelation. And it’s got the Gamecocks’ interim head coach’s name trending on Twitter.
Mike Uva, an anchor for Columbia’s WACH-FOX news station, tweeted out that there were a handful of players that did not want to play the bowl game under the guidance of their interim coach, and they voiced their disdain in a players only meeting shortly before the Gamecocks decided to pull out of the bowl.
Here’s what Uva had to say about the situation in the Gamecocks’ locker room.
"Breaking: South Carolina will not play in the Gasparilla Bowl, according to team sources. I’m told COVID tracing was a concern but following a player’s only meeting today and a meeting with Ray Tanner, some players did not want to play for interim HC Mike Bobo."
Uva followed the tweet up with a bit of clarification on the coaching situation, as COVID has the entire offensive staff in quarantine, but remained firm on the idea that some players weren’t happy about playing a fourth straight game for Mike Bobo.
"To be clear: Based on where contact tracing stood as of 11 AM for the Gamecocks, I was told COVID is THE reason why South Carolina will not play. I’m still gathering how many players didn’t want to play for Mike Bobo but COVID prevented the bowl game from being played."
Just how many players is not yet known, but it does create a bad look for the Gamecocks moving forward as Bobo has been rumored to be a holdover from the previous staff. If he is on the sidelines for the Gamecocks in 2021, it will be interesting to see the response of the players.
Shortly after the bowl invite, coach Mike Bobo said that any players who didn’t want to play could opt out, but that there would be no team vote on whether or not the Gamecocks would participate in the bowl game.
"“I told the guys, ‘You chose to play for South Carolina…because you love to compete…’ I think our players got the message, and we’ll be ready to play on Saturday.”"
Apparently, not everyone was sold on that belief, and the Gamecocks’ season is now officially over.