For the 70th time in his illustrious coaching career Steve Spurrier walked off of Florida Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium a winner. This time, however, was different that the other 69 victories.
A confident ball coach — whom all but the Florida faithful — would call cocky, Spurrier has never felt bad for an opponent that he has just bested on the field. At Florida, Spurrier would put in the third team offense and throw the ball around the field when his teams were up 30 points, telling the other team “If you don’t like us scoring than stop us.”
He’ll never apologize for winning a football contest — he even took a jab at Clemson after beating Florida saying, “I guess the upstate team got beat today, is that correct?” — but he came close to doing just that after the Gamecocks upset the Gators 23-20 on Saturday night.
“I’m getting a little old when you start feeling sorry for the other coach. I do feel for Coach Muschamp,” Spurrier said in his post game press conference following the game. “He’s a good guy and it appeared they had that game in pretty good shape, but they didn’t make a first down and we blocked the punt and we win the game somehow.”
Unlike the two other coaches that postdated him, Spurrier has built a strong relationship with Florida’s current head football coach. The two travel together when ESPN hosts the SEC coaches for their annual “car wash” media day and the two have always been cordial.
On Monday, Muschamp was asked why he has such admiration for the coach he would face on Saturday. After joking that Spurrier has a statue in front of the stadium — which was the scene of countless Gamecock selfies on Saturday night — he got down to the core of it.
“I have great respect for Coach Spurrier and the job he has done as a coach and more than anything as a man. He’s a good guy,” said Muschamp. “He’s been great to me as long as I’ve been at the University of Florida. I really look up to him in this profession. He does things the right way.”
The show of empathy was new for the ball coach who’s been coaching for more than three decades. This is has been, most likely, Spurrier’s most frustrating season as a head coach. His Gamecocks are 5-4 on the season, 4-4 in conference play. That’s coming off of three consecutive 11-win seasons.
South Carolina has suffered some pretty devastating loses this season — much like the one they dealt out Saturday.
“I told Coach Muschamp that we were on the other end of what he’s on two weeks ago,” said Spurrier. “It looked like we had outplayed the other team and low and behold, they came back to beat us.”
Florida may have outplayed South Carolina during the middle quarters but the Achilles heel during the Muschamp era sprung up again. Once Florida secured a lead, they played not to lose.
They retreated to the running game, something familiar to Gators fans. The Gators threw the ball just 11 times on Saturday to 49 rushing attempts — 20 from quarterback Treon Harris alone. As it has in the past, the style of play created a razor thin margin of error, one that Florida could not overcome.
For a coach that can be abrasive and combative following a loss, Muschamp just looked tired, disappointed and at a loss of words in his post game press conference.
His team. The players he recruited and the players he spends so much time with have not abandoned ship.
“I love coach. He’s a great coach. He’s a great guy. He’s always there for us,” receiver Latroy Pittman said. “He’s a players coach. He genuinely cares about the players and all the guys.”
It’s the same quality that Spurrier has. Last week when former Gamecock Marcus Lattimore was forced to retire before ever playing a single snap in the NFL Spurrier said Lattimore would always have a home at the University of South Carolina.
Perhaps Spurrier sees some of himself in Muschamp. Both are fiery competitors with great passion for the game of football and the young men they coach. Perhaps, Spurrier realized that his 70th win at the stadium he dubbed “The Swamp” may be the nail in the coffin of a man he has grown to call a friend.
“It was good for our team. It was a wonderful win for our university. I still feel for that other guy a little bit. Maybe I know him too well,” Spurrier said reflecting. “We all know he’s sort of on the Hot Seat. I hope he stays. He’s got a bunch of good players. I think he’s a good coach that – man, to have a field goal and a punt blocked, that doesn’t happen often.”
It happened on Saturday and it could very well be the final stand of the Will Muschamp era at Florida.