COLUMBIA, S.C. — In his first few days as South Carolina's new tight ends coach, Erik Kimrey did not accidentally headed towards Galway Lane on his way to work.
It would be understandable if he did as he spent 17 years at Hammond School where he led the Skyhawk football program to 12 SCISA state championships.
But Kimrey does have a route that he will take occasionally as it allows him to take a brief trip down memory lane before heading into work at the Long Family Football Operations Building. Those memories include the site of his old "Fade In" podcasts and the building which once housed the offices for the South Carolina football coaches.
"I'll like to go down Shop Road because I ride by River Rat (Brewery) which I had a history with and I get to ride by Hood Construction who's a dear friend of mine," Kimrey said.
"And then I take a left on George Rogers Boulevard and I ride by my old office when I was a graduate assistant there, the old coaches' office. And of course, Williams-Brice Stadium and the fairgrounds. I've spent countless days there and countless games there. So, a lot of memories come back and it puts me in a good spiritual place before I walk into the building."
In a couple of weeks, Kimrey will be on the practice fields with the rest of the South Carolina coaches as spring practice will kick off under new head coach Shane Beamer. It will be the first on-the-field effort of the installation process as new schemes and terminology will be implemented.
"I say anytime you go into a new offense, it's kind of like trying to order dinner at a restaurant in a foreign country, you have to kind of figure out everyone's language before you can speak," Kimrey said.
"So right now, we're all in the process of doing that and thankfully, I'm one of many including our entire offense and all of our players that are learning a new system. But again, it's one that I'm really excited about and learning a lot from Coach Satterfield and I think our players show a lot of enthusiasm as well."