South Carolina Football: Ranking the worst coaches in Gamecock history
By Kevin Miller
South Carolina Football’s No. 4 Worst Coach of All-Time:
Brad Scott
Brad Scott (1994-1998) was hired at the University of South Carolina after a very successful run as Bobby Bowden’s offensive coordinator at Florida State. After winning the national title in 1993 with the Seminoles, South Carolina football fans believed that Scott would take the Gamecocks to heights the program had never seen.
In a sense, those fans were correct. In Scott’s first year on the job, the ’94 Gamecocks went 6-5 in the regular season, including a blowout win over a hapless Clemson squad. That propelled the Gamecocks to the Carquest Bowl for a date with West Virginia. An all-time classic ensued, and, in the end, Brad Scott was the coach of record for the first-ever bowl game victory for USC.
Despite returning quarterback Steve Taneyhill and a number of other talented players, the Gamecocks regressed in 1995, going 4-6-1, and ’96 saw another non-bowl season despite Carolina winning 6 games. Carolina won just 5 games in 1997, and the wheels completely came off for Scott’s Gamecocks in ’98.
After beating Ball State in the 1998 season opener, Carolina lost 10 straight games, including 6 by at least two scores. The Gamecocks were broken and would go on to lose 21 straight games before Lou Holtz revitalized the program in the 2000 season.
If this was a list of the most-despised coaches in Carolina history, Scott would be number-1. After his dismissal at the end of the 1998 campaign, Scott immediately went to work for the Clemson Tigers where he (allegedly) shared Gamecock program secrets and did not have many good things to say about his previous stop.
Brad Scott brought the first-ever bowl game victory to South Carolina, but he was also responsible for one of the most embarrassing stretches in college football history, helped renew the Gamecocks’ in-state rival, and starred in one of the most cringe-worthy commercials of all-time (linked above).