Why the hate for Steve Spurrier?
Steve Spurrier made some non-needed headlines in the college football world this week when ESPN’s Mark Schlabach said that the South Carolina Gamecocks coach was ‘College Football’s Most Hated Coach (Of All Time)’.
Said Schlabach in his article: “Rival fans hated Spurrier not only because he beat them so often while coaching at Florida, but more so because he loved to tell them about it afterward. From Spurrier’s famous jabs like “Free Shoes U.” and “Can’t Spell Citrus Without UT,” the Old Ball Coach gave rival fans myriad reasons to dislike him.”
Also included in the list from 2-10 are:
Ohio State’s Woody Hayes, Oklahoma’s Barry Switzer, Miami’s Jimmy Johnson, Tennessee and USC’s Lane Kiffin, Bobby Petrino, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer (formerly of Florida), Pittsburgh’s Jackie Sherrill, Ohio State’s Jim Tressel, Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez (formerly of West Virginia and Michigan).
The accusations are generally around recruiting violations, running the score up on oppositions, and his team beat your team. What is so irritating about Schlabach’s list is that there aren’t enough SEC or even Southern coaches on the list. Nick Saban should be on the list, as well as should Les Miles (simply because he seems to be the luckiest coach alive). St Charlie Of The Weis wasn’t been included at Notre Dame or Florida, and where’s Mack Brown or anyone from the University of Texas on the list? And where are the legendary SMU coaches from yesteryear?
But going back to Spurrier, we’d like to make some points about Steve Spurrier, the former Science Hill High School quarterback who had quite a good career as a QB at Florida and in the pros.
1) Spurrier wasn’t just a brilliant coach, he was a brilliant quarterback. Ask the guys who have picked up his Heisman Award. How any former Heisman quarterbacks are coaches of big-time programs? His quarterbacks at Florida were brilliant during their time as Gators – although fairly ordinary as pros.
2) Spurrier might be hated because of his time at Duke/Kentucky (he beat almost everybody en route to a 122-27 record), but let’s not take out the sins of the Old Ball Coach over the Senile One now taking over in Columbia. In fact, his record is a fairly ordinary 55-35 – although SEC East fans be warned: South Carolina’s is 8-0 over the past two seasons against Florida, Georgia, Georgia, Tennessee and hated rivals Clemson. And Spurrier’s brilliant recruiting will mean that the Gamecocks will be discussed as SEC East favourites and dark horses for a National Championship run year in, year.
3) Spurrier must absolutely hate Tigers. He’s 0-7 against Auburn (0-5) and LSU (0-2) in his time as the Gamecocks’ head coach.
4) Spurrier hates players that don’t do the right thing. How do we know that? The Steve Spurrier tantrum on the sideline if his players don’t do things to perfection – complete with throwing his visor on the turf- is something to watch.
5) He doesn’t much like bad decisions from the officials, either.
But should he really be so hated? There are far worse ballcoaches out there – for example the types that wouldn’t have kicked Stephen Garcia off the team despite his stupid antics. The types that consistently cover up recruiting. The types that leave their schools at the dead of night with just a post-it note and a “I couldn’t give a crap”. Steve Spurrier booted out Garcia, he doesn’t seem to get into recruiting trouble, and he made sure he didn’t behave like a horses’s behind on his way out of any of his jobs.
And as for those people that we think should be on the list. The SECFootballBlog believe should be on the list, so we will be supplying two of their own: One for all of college football (current list) and the second is a 1-10 on all SEC coaches. Those not on the list should count themselves lucky!