Carolina Gamecocks fans haven’t had much to cheer about since Steve Spurrier left.
But I was among them cheering for former Gamecock kicker Ryan Succop in the Super Bowl.
Ryan kicked for 7 points – 4 points-after-touchdowns and a final field goal – to ice the game for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 31-9.
He scored more points than the Kansas City Chiefs vaunted quarterback Patrick Mahomes who failed to run or throw for a single TD.
Ryan also scored almost as many points as the entire Chiefs’ team’s 3 field goals for a total 9 points.  
Kicking early
In high school in Hickory, NC, he was 4-time all-conference and 2-time all-state and 3 times conference special teams Player of the Year. 
He also played soccer, where he was 3-time all-state and scored 104 goals. 
At Carolina, he earned SEC 1st-team honors as a placekicker was a Lou Groza Award candidate twice, made the Ray Guy Award watch list and SEC Special Teams Player of the Week.
 As a senior, he played in all 13 games, converted all 30 extra point attempts and was 20-of-30 on field goals
.It was good enough to get him into the NFL draft.
Buccaneers bound
Chronicle subscriber Tom Plowden sent us a great story about Ryan and how he came to the Buccaneers by Rhoda Gayle who writes for the God Today newsletter. 
Ryan told Rhoda he brought his family to Tampa and the Buccaneers after the Lord showed him a rainbow.
Rainbows have had great spiritual significance since God showed Noah a rainbow aftet the Great Flood.
Ryan has played professionally since he joined the National Football League. 
Ironically, it was the Kansas City Chiefs that picked him as the final pick of the 2009 NFL draft. 
Although kickers win lots of NFL games in the closing seconds with 50+ yard field goals, they don’t get a lot of demand – or respect – from NFL draft pickers.
After 4 years with the Chiefs, Ryan kicked for the Tennessee Titans another 5 years before he was injured in a 2019 game.
That injury left him without a job most of 2020 in the middle of the pandemic.
Show me a sign
“Last year was a difficult year, coming off an injury, trying to play and I really struggled when I played,” he told Sports Spectrum.
“It was  frustrating. When you go through something like that, I think it’s human nature to doubt yourself.”
Last August, Ryan met with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Before his workout, he prayed, “Lord, if You want this for me and my family, I’ll trust You to take care of it. You’ll show me if You want us to be here.” 
God answered his prayer in a marvelous way, he said.
God showed him a rainbow that evening. It looked like it went directly into Raymond James Stadium where the Buccaneers play their home games.
“It was, like, ‘Oh my gosh, the Lord is showing me that He wants me to be here.’
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