South Carolina Gamecocks Football: Shawn Elliott to be Interim Head Coach

Contrary to reports from yesterday, South Carolina Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner will name offensive line coach Shawn Elliott the interim head coach to replace the retiring Steve Spurrier. This comes from reports from basically every news outlet that covers college football. Yesterday the word was that it would be quarterbacks coach G.A. Mangus, but that will not be the case.

Elliott is a Carolina guy through and through, hailing from Camden, South Carolina and having played and coached at Appalachian State. He was on the staff at App State for its run of three straight I-AA national championships from 2005-07.

Elliott arrived in Columbia in January of 2010, which not coincidentally is the year when things really began to come together for the Gamecocks. Spurrier hired him to install a modern, spread-based zone running game, and it gave the offense a new balance while setting the stage for the Marcus Lattimore to flourish and the full exploitation of Connor Shaw's talent.

Presumably Mangus will take over running the offense while Elliott manages the whole show. We'll have more on this story as it develops.