Six degrees of separation has long been a fun thing to see if you could do when you had a great deal of free time.

 

The game always takes on many forms. In fact, lately even movie star Kevin Bacon has placed himself in the fold with many people now thinking that Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is actually the name of the game.

 

It is said that you can tie anyone to Kevin Bacon in some way, shape or form, but can you do that with Southern Conference football coaches and the institutions within the conference.

 

We here at the SoCon office thought it could be done and struck out to make it work.

 

Below are the results:

           

Jerry Moore (Appalachian State)

Coach Moore has been around the game of football quite some time and is probably the easiest one to do in the SoCon and could be done in a myriad of ways.

 

The South Carolina connection was the one brought up first.

 

Moore replaced Sparky Woods at Appalachian State, who while as the man in charge of the Gamecocks faced off against in-state rival Clemson annually, squaring off on the sidelines against current Rice coach and former Clemson coach Ken Hatfield.

 

Hatfield was Moore’s boss as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks in 1988 and was fired by Clemson in 1993.

           

The man that took over for Hatfield at Clemson was Tommy West, who left the helm of the Chattanooga program in 1993 to take the Clemson job.

 

West eventually was let go at Clemson and was replaced by Tommy Bowden.

           

Bowden, who is still in charge of the Clemson program, was aided on his coaching staff from 1999-2002 by Rodney Allison.

           

Allison, the defensive ends coach for the Tigers, brought it all back full circle when he left Clemson three years ago to take over the Mocs program.

 

Kevin Higgins (The Citadel)

Coach Higgins is in his first year in charge of The Citadel’s program, but has put together an impressive resume over his career.

 

Higgins left a job in the NFL ranks to become the head man of the Bulldogs.

           

Higgins was the quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions at the time of his departure for Charleston.

           

With the Lions last year, Higgins was in charge of helping to mold Lions’ prodigy Joey Harrington.

           

Harrington is a former NCAA All-American at Oregon where he squared off in Pac-10 play, which mainly consists of teams on the West Coast of the United States.

           

Harrington squared off annually against Oregon State while in the Pac-10.

           

Oregon State is presently coached by Mike Riley, who was the head coach of the Beavers in 1997 and 1998, but left for the NFL as head coach of the San Diego Chargers after the 1998 season.

           

The man Riley succeeded at Oregon State was Dennis Erickson, who left the Beaver program for the NFL as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.

           

Erickson was the successor of Steve Mariucci, who left the San Francisco job to take the Detroit Lions gig.

           

Mariucci was Higgins’ boss as head coach with the Lions.

           

Mariucci was the 49ers head coach from 1997-2002 where he had the opportunity to coach one of the best receivers in the league in Terrell Owens.

           

Owens is no stranger to the SoCon, playing his intercollegiate football at Chattanooga from 1992-1995.

           

Owens played his freshman year in 1992 for former Mocs’ head coach Buddy Nix.

           

Nix is presently the Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Personnel for the Chargers.

 

Rodney Allison (Chattanooga)

Obviously, Allison has already been brought to the fold in this little game, but he can been done different ways as well. Even more ironic is the fact that it can be brought once again from the Jerry Moore angle.

 

Allison is a 1980 graduate of Texas Tech University where he quarterbacked the Red Raiders and was the MVP of the Southwest Conference the season that Tech won their first ever SWC championship in 1976.

           

Allison was a little before him, but Moore was the Texas Tech head coach from 1981-85. Allison did coach in Moore’s staff at Tech from 1981-83.

           

Before that though, Moore left a job at North Texas to take the Tech job in 1981.

           

Moore replaced his mentor Hayden Fry at North Texas in 1979.

           

Hayden Fry went on to a multitude of success at Iowa, as coach of the Hawkeyes.

 

Fry left the Iowa program in 1998, but was replaced by current coach Kirk Ferentz.

           

Ferentz has been abnormally successful as well at Iowa.

           

The Hawkeyes opened the 2005 against Mid-American opponent Ball State with a 56-0 throttling.

           

The Muncie, IN, institution was once a conference rival while they were in the MAC of current Conference USA member Marshall.

           

Marshall was also once a member of the Southern Conference, winning the national championship in football in 1992 and 1996 while in the SoCon.

 

Paul Hamilton (Elon)

Paul Hamilton is strongly rooted in the Southern Conference.

 

Hamilton, who is from Charleston, SC, played at Appalachian State in the latter part of the 1970’s into the 1980’s.

           

While at Appalachian State, Hamilton played for coach Fisher DeBerry.

           

After graduating from Appalachian in 1981, Hamilton got his second coaching gig as an assistant at The Citadel.

           

Hamilton was only at the military college of South Carolina for a year, leaving to assist at East Tennessee State in 1983.

           

Hamilton was a colleague of Mike Ayers at East Tennessee State.

           

Hamilton eventually left the Bucs to become Ayers’ offensive coordinator at Wofford in 1988.

           

After two years at Wofford, Hamilton left Wofford to become the quarterbacks coach at Air Force in 1990.

           

DeBerry is a graduate of Wofford College.

           

After six years on DeBerry’s staff at Air Force, Hamilton garnered his first head coaching job as the man in charge of the now defunct East Tennessee State program.

           

Hamilton coached the program up until its final days in 2003.

           

Shortly after that, Hamilton was introduced as the new Elon head football coach on December 23, 2003.

 

Paul Hamilton is not the only Hamilton male to coach in the SoCon, as his father Rusty Hamilton was an assistant coach at The Citadel from 1970-76.

 

Earlier, Rusty Hamilton was a graduate assistant coach at Furman during the 1968 season.

           

Hamilton’s grandson and Paul's son, Kye, is the quarterback of the Phoenix bringing everything full circle in the Southern Conference.

           

Bobby Lamb (Furman)

Bobby Lamb is another Southern Conference head coach who has spent most of his football days in the league.

           

Lamb is a former SoCon Player of the Year after quarterbacking the Dick Sheridan Paladins from 1982-85.

           

He has spent most of his time with the Paladins, assisting the program in various capacities until his ascension to the head job in 2002.

           

So with all the SoCon ties one would assume that it would be easy to go six degrees.

           

It most certainly was not due to the fact that he has only been one place in essence.

           

Here it goes though:

           

Lamb played for Sheridan.

           

Sheridan left the Paladins program to coach NC State. Ironically, Lamb and Sheridan defeated the Wolfpack two years straight.

           

Sheridan was one of the original “Baker Boys.”

           

The distinction is placed upon the coaches that assisted former Furman football coach Art Baker during his time as head coach of the Furman program in the 1970’s.

Baker replaced Bob King as coach of the Paladins.

           

On a sidenote, current Furman president David Shi was a first-team All-SoCon selection at defensive end for King’s team in 1971.

           

When Baker took over Furman was a pretty good program, but after he left he had laid the groundwork for the successes that Furman has enjoyed on the gridiron.

           

That groundwork was brought to the fold by Baker’s hiring of three critical assistants ? Sheridan, Jimmy Satterfield and Bobby Johnson.

           

As mentioned Sheridan left in 1985 to take over NC State. When he left another longtime assistant in Satterfield was named head coach.

           

Satterfield in 1988 led the team to their one and only I-AA National Championship.

           

Satterfield left the program in 1993.

           

He returned to the coaching ranks in 1996 as head coach and athletics director at Lexington (SC) High School.

           

Satterfield has coached many NCAA bound players, but one of his better players was Demetrius Summers.

           

Summers, a running back, signed with the South Carolina Gamecocks out of high school.

           

While at South Carolina, Summers was a teammate of Noah Whiteside.

           

Whiteside, a wide receiver, was a high school teammate at Greenville (SC) High School of Jordan Sorrells.

           

Sorrells is currently a freshman football player at Furman.

 

Taken even further, Sorrells is also the son of current Furman offensive coordinator Tim Sorrells, who was an All-SoCon selection as quarterback on Furman’s SoCon championship teams in 1980 and 1981.

           

Mike Sewak (Georgia Southern)

Mike Sewak made a name for himself as a player on the offensive line.

           

As a player, Sewak was a three-year letterwinner at the University of Virginia.

           

Virginia is currently coached by Al Groh, who left a head coaching position with the New York Jets to take over the helm of his alma mater.

           

In his only season with the Jets in 2000, Groh was the coach of 1995 Southern Conference Freshman of the Year Chad Pennington.

           

Pennington was a teammate of current NFL standout Randy Moss while at Marshall.

           

Moss, a 1996 first-team selection as a wide receiver by both the coaches and the media, is a now a member of the Oakland Raiders.

           

When the 2005 season opened up the Raiders squared off against the New England Patriots and former Marshall standout Troy Brown.

           

Up until this season, Brown was not the only former SoCon player on the Pats roster, as former Catamount David Patten was a member of the three Super Bowl championship teams in New England.

           

Patten is now a member of the Washington Redskins where he is a teammate of another SoCon great in running back Nehemhiah Broughton, formerly of The Citadel.

           

Broughton, a seventh round selection of the Redskins in 2005, is one of three players from the class of 2004 in the Southern Conference to have their name among NFL rosters.

           

One of those three players is former Georgia Southern quarterback Chaz Williams, who is presently on the injured reserve with the Green Bay Packers.

           

Once Williams is back from his injured ankle he will square off twice a season against NFC North rival Chicago.

           

One of the players that suits up for the Bears is four-time All-SoCon selection and 1999 Walter Payton Award winner Adrian Peterson, who is a backup running back for the Bears and is a former Eagle.

 

Kent Briggs (Western Carolina)

Briggs is a 1979 graduate of Western Carolina, playing quarterback at the western North Carolina school from 1976-79.

           

Briggs has spent the majority of his adult life coaching or playing at the institution.

           

Briggs was an assistant with NC State from 1988-99.

           

While at NC State, Briggs helped to coach 16 players who signed NFL contracts in the professional ranks.

           

Although he mainly worked with the defense and was the co-defensive coordinator from 1996-99 one of those players was Tremayne Stephens, a native of Greer, SC, and a graduate of Riverside High School.

           

Tremayne Stephens is the older brother of former Citadel player Travis Stephens, who was a linebacker for The Citadel from 1998-2001.

           

Stephens played for coaches Don Powers and Ellis Johnson.

           

Johnson is now the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State.

           

While he was with The Citadel, Johnson squared off against Briggs in two different seasons with the Catamounts emerging victorious in 2002 and 2003.

           

Johnson left in 2003, leaving John Zernhelt to take his place.

           

Zernhelt was only the Bulldogs head man for a year, as he left the team after the season to pursue a job in the NFL with the New York Jets.

           

His departure from The Citadel left an opening for current coach Kevin Higgins to take the reins.

           

Western Carolina and Coach Briggs square off against Higgins for the first time on October 1.

 

Mike Ayers (Wofford)

Ayers is a 1974 graduate of Georgetown (KY) College.

His 2005 Wofford team opened the season against Georgetown, with the Terriers opening the season with a win.

 

Ayers has been around the game for quite some time, assisting at many levels and being a head coach for the last 20 years.

           

Ayers began his head coaching career at East Tennessee State.

           

While Ayers was at ETSU he coached Billy Taylor from 1985-87.

           

Taylor was the defensive coordinator at Elon before and is presently the man in charge of the defense at Chattanooga.

           

Chattanooga and Wofford tangle on its football field on October 1.

           

Wofford had a bye week coming into their game with Chattanooga.

           

Their game before the Mocs was with Georgia Southern.

           

The Terriers pulled out a win in the game against the Eagles, 21-17. The game was telecast by CSS.

           

One of the men in the booth for the game was former Citadel athletic director Walt Nadzak.

           

Nadzak was replaced at The Citadel by current athletic director Les Robinson.

           

Robinson, who left his position as the AD at NC State to become The Citadel’s director of athletics, was the men’s basketball coach at ETSU for a couple of years while Ayers was the Bucs’ head coach.