Horn Hired By South Carolina

Today it became official that Darrin Horn left Western Kentucky for South Carolina. His personal website, sums it up.

In a press conference -- delayed until the afternoon because the weather prevented the plane South Carolina chartered to fly in Horn and his family from leaving Columbia on time -- Horn not only said the standard things about winning the SEC, he talked about South Carolina getting nationally relevant. He also gave Clemson fans bulletin board material about recruiting.

"We are going to put a fence around the state of South Carolina, and the best players in South Carolina are going to be recruited to play at the University of South Carolina," Horn said.

Horn had a base salary of $157,000 at Western Kentucky, but the South Carolina deal starts his base at $800,000. His incentives are primarily for winning that could add another $335,000 -- $25,000 for a first round win and increasing each round up to $250,000 for a national championship.

Interestingly, the other incentive is for getting the fans to commit. The Gamecocks had 9322 season ticket holders this past season. He gets another $50,000 for every 1000 more season ticket holders. South Carolina's arena has a capacity of about 18,000.

It isn't clear whether South Carolina is paying Horn's buyout with Western Kentucky, or if Horn is responsible (like John Beilein leaving West Virginia to Michigan). The South Carolina AD, however, did acknowledge that they will likely have to honor the other term of Horn's Western Kentucky contract -- play two home-and-home games with the Hilltoppers over the next 4 years.