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September 3, 2005

Gamecocks report secondary violation involving Spurrier Jr. and Clausen

The South Carolina Gamecocks self-reported a secondary violation involving Steve Spurrier Jr. and high school prospect Jimmy Clausen. A Thursday piece on Outside the Lines on ESPN resulted in South Carolina filing the report. ESPN reported that the Gamecocks, along with Southern California and Michigan State, mailed letters to Clausen, brother of former Tennessee QB Casey Clausen and current Vols' QB Rick Clausen, prior to the allowed date of September 1 for teams to contact high school juniors.

Spurrier Jr. mailed the note in mid-July after thinking July 1 was the date such correspondence was allowed. The report also indicated that Clausen was the first junior he had ever recruited. Gamecock AD Eric Hyman has given Spurrier Jr. a letter of caution and stopped him from being involved in the recruitment of Claussen for 6 weeks (through October 12.)

Hyman said he doesn't expect any other complications from this violation even with the school being on 3 years of probation from the NCAA. Hyman did send an internal memo to athletic department staff last month warning them about the need to be careful during the probationary period.

Presumably the Spartans and the Trojans will be self-reporting the same violation after the ESPN story. Clausen, who made an unofficial visit to South Carolina last month, is also being recruited by Notre Dame and Tennessee.

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Comments:

  1. Fanblogs Author Derek Willis said:

    posted on September 3, 2005 3:37 PM — 199.224.98.61 — link — abuse?



    Kind of a curious final note at the end of that story: "Spurrier said a UCF equipment manager, who was at Florida while Spurrier was there, knew the Gamecocks’ audible call for a draw." Interesting, if true.

  2. Fanblogs Author Jeff Quinton said:

    posted on September 3, 2005 3:39 PM — link — abuse?



    You'd think Spurrier would have different signals or audibles than he had at Florida coming back into the SEC anyway. Of course there were conspiracy-minded SC fans alleging Clemson had a ballboy with a cellphone stealing plays on the SC sidelines during the 63-17 game in 2003.

  3. Fanblogs Author Derek Willis said:

    posted on September 3, 2005 3:54 PM — 199.224.98.61 — link — abuse?



    I suppose he may have figured that being out of the SEC for a couple years would reduce the risk that his signals would be recalled, especially by an uncommon opponent like UCF. Still, it seems a little sloppy.

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