South Carolina’s new offensive coordinator Mike Shula has brought an unusual – and unforgettable – motivational tool into the Gamecocks’ quarterback room: a fake pile of poop.
According to quarterback LaNorris Sellers, the plastic prop sits in Shula’s office and serves as a reminder of poor decision-making. “He has this cast of poop, and he’s like, ‘You just took a dump right on my desk,’” Sellers explained with a grin.
The system works like this: when a quarterback makes repeated mistakes during film study, Shula sends them to fetch the poop from his office and bring it back to the film room. “If we do something bad, he’s like, ‘Just go get the dump off my desk,’” Sellers said. “He makes us put it on his desk [in the film room] and is like, ‘That’s what you just did to me.’”
Sellers noted that not every mistake earns a trip to Shula’s office right away — but if the same errors pile up, so does the punishment. “There’s a buildup to it,” he said.
Head coach Shane Beamer admitted he didn’t know about the tradition until sitting in on a recent quarterbacks meeting. He was caught off guard but quickly saw how it connected with the players. “I was sitting there with them, and something came up and Mike told Cutter [Woods] to go get it,” Beamer recalled. “Then Cutter came back with the piece of you-know-what. … Whatever it takes to connect with guys and motivate them, I’m all for.”
The prop itself isn’t new to Shula — he first used it during his time with the New York Giants — but this is the first season he’s had the authority to put it into practice at South Carolina. Last year, as an offensive analyst, he didn’t have the leeway. Now, as the Gamecocks’ offensive coordinator, he’s leaned into it. “It didn’t really come out last year because he wasn’t really the OC. This year he’s kind of abused it,” Sellers joked.
As the Gamecocks prepare for their Aug. 31 season opener against Virginia Tech, Shula’s “poop system” will add a new layer of accountability to the quarterback room — one mistake at a time.
