Those who remember when winning an SEC championship was a dazzling accomplishment that still took your breath away — one that seemingly only belonged to the privileged few like Alabama or Tennessee or Mississippi or Georgia –cannot feel anything but gratitude for the man.
Until that day that he forsook his home state of Tennessee in favor of playing at Florida Field before it was known as anything else, Gator football was one quart shy of abysmal. That one decision by the kid from Johnson City would forevermore change the culture of Florida’s program -– although it would take a while. Until then, winning trophies was a pipe dream.
Steve Spurrier was dashing, daring, determined — clever, cryptic, confident, cunning. He was also fun-loving and passionate. Over the 12 years at Florida, the pressure of trying every season to better himself gradually eroded some of those qualities. And when he finally bade goodbye in favor of the NFL, he seemed a little tired, if not bored. Since then, football just hasn’t seemed to have provided him with the juice he needs.
Since 2001, life has never been the same for the guy his pals call “Orr” and the media refers to as “The Ol’ Ball Coach.” He is still appreciated by that same media for his candor, revered by many Gators for his legacy and respected for his offensive acumen, but the truth is that Steve Spurrier appears to have lost his way – and I’m afraid he’s not going to find his way back.
Above all else, one thing I never thought I’d say was that Spurrier would someday meet a comeback he couldn’t make. I’m afraid that’s true, however. After a lofty 5-1 start, Spurrier’s Gamecocks have lost three of their last four games, and at 6-4 with the Gators and Clemson Tigers remaining on their schedule, aren’t likely to crack .500. They are looking more like dying swans than cocky roosters.
The South Carolina talk shows, bloggers and sports columnists haven’t exactly been enamored with Spurrier in recent weeks and some of the national “media boys,” as he likes to call them, are suggesting that he should go back to calling the plays.
These are trying times for the onetime Golden Boy.
This year had already started off with one embarrassment for Spurrier when the name of Tim Tebow was inadvertently left off his ballot as a preseason All-SEC choice, temporarily denying the Florida quarterback a unanimous status. A staff member had left Tebow off, but Spurrier was able to appeal to the league and have it changed. That was the same day in Birmingham that he semi-apologized for that incident and even admitted he hadn’t earned the right to be brash these days.
However, this will not be a pity party for Steve Spurrier, because there isn’t a Gator fan, coach or player willing to acknowledge that he’s not capable of being a viper Saturday afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium and stinging their national championship hopes. It could happen.
Urban Meyer still remembers that nightmare in Columbia five years ago when South Carolina ambushed his Gators, 30-22 – the first Carolina win over Florida since 1939. It was the fifth straight SEC victory and assured the Gamecocks of no worse than a second-place East Division finish in Spurrier’s first year. That night he got doused with ice and carried off the field by his players, who he later said, “don’t know any better.”
I later asked him if he thought this South Carolina-Florida series might become a rivalry, to which he answered: “I don’t know – I’m not sure one win in sixty-nine years constitutes a rivalry.”
And he was right. That was his only win over the Gators and it proved to be a cathartic loss for Florida. When the team plane arrived back in Gainesville later that night, Meyer kept his players on it for a while and challenged them: Those who didn’t want to be on the team should leave now. None did.
“That seems like 20 years ago now,” Meyer recalled on Monday.
The next season when Jarvis Moss blocked what would have been the winning field goal of Ryan Succop to preserve the Florida a victory, it was the last obstacle in the way of the Gators’ championship run.
Even though they have already clinched the SEC East, it is now Spurrier who stands in the way of perfection and a 20-game winning streak – not to mention a possible trip to Pasadena. His quarterback, Stephen Garcia, has shown flashes of brilliance, mixed in with ineptitude. There are some good young receives on board. The defense can be good, but is inconsistent. The Gamecocks are not as talented as Florida, but this is the SEC and things can happen.
Right now, South Carolina football reminds me of a graveyard building where restaurants go to die. No matter what kind of restaurant goes in that building it continues to fail. It is a program that after more than a century of playing football still has more losses than wins. And no matter who steps behind the wheel, it seems incapable of turning the corner in the second half of the season.
No many programs can avoid the death spiral brought on by the scheduling of Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida and Clemson.
“I’ve been caught in that web,” admitted Lou Holtz, Spurrier’s predecessor, “and I know how tough it is to get out of it.”
Now it is Spurrier’s biggest challenge, one of toughest of his career, because pulling off an upset here could make his season. Otherwise he will be left to his devices of trying to beat rival Clemson, get to a bowl game and live to fight again another season. If, indeed, he’s still got the fight left to attempt yet another comeback.