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Sapakoff: Ray Tanner must leverage the Spurrier years in South Carolina’s coaching hire

COLUMBIA — Ray Tanner wasn’t just watching football and sampling crawfish etouffee last weekend during the South Carolina Gamecocks’ trip to Baton Rouge. The resolute athletic director sought out 77-year-old Skip Bertman for advice.

It made perfect sense. Bertman, like Tanner, was a national championship baseball coach so popular with school supporters he was elevated to athletic director.

“We talked for quite a while Saturday,” Tanner said Tuesday at Williams-Brice Stadium after Head Ball Coach Steve Spurrier officially announced his resignation and Tanner named offensive line coach Shawn Elliott as interim head coach.

Talked? About how to go about hiring a new football coach?