Why Kenny Sally went to South Carolina, not OU
You learn the most amazing things from readers. I got an email today from a reader who read my recruiting column Sunday. I wrote about the 1985 recruiting trip I took with Scott Hill, in which we visited players coast to coast. One of the stops was in Morristown, N.J., where Parade all-American safety Kenny Sally had committed to OU but changed his mind and went to South Carolina.
Sally’s high school football coach, John Chirrona, told us that February day in 1985 that Sally would go to South Carolina, because he knew Joe Morrison, then the Gamecocks’ coach, would take care of Sally. Hill was bewildered and upset, but even after he found Sally, Hill couldn’t get Sally to change his mind.
I never really heard anything about Sally thereafter — he apparently didn’t make it big at South Carolina — and Hill said he never talked to Sally after that recruiting experience.
But I received that email today, and it explained how Sally got to South Carolina. It seems that Joe Morrison hired a Morristown assistant coach to join the South Carolina staff. Nothing illegal or even unethical about that. Happened all the time in college recruiting and still does.
That Morristown assistant coach grew up in New Jersey, went to Notre Dame but did not play football, graduated with a speech and drama degree, began coaching in New Jersey then was hired at Morristown by Chironna in 1980. Coached five years with Chironna.
That assistant coach’s name? Charlie Weis.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Paul Harvey would have been proud of you!