Can Spurrier be 'ole ball coach' again?

Steve Spurrier’s swagger is gone, but that’s old news.

The question is whether he’ll ever get it back.

Now in his fifth season as head coach at South Carolina, the supremely confident and outspoken Spurrier has been rendered nearly quiet and unassuming by four years of modest success with the Gamecocks.

His four-plus year record at South Carolina is 29-22, and while that matches the best four-year stint of any previous coach at the school, it’s more indictment of the Gamecocks’ tradition than endorsement of Spurrier’s success.

“We haven’t quite played as well as I’d hoped,” said Spurrier, whose Gamecocks play at Georgia on Saturday. “We don’t have any excuses other than we just haven’t put it together yet.”

The man who once referred to Florida State as “Free Shoes University” and gave former Georgia coach Ray Goff the nickname Ray “Goof” also isn’t as verbally combative as when he dominated the Southeastern Conference during a 12-year run as head coach at Florida that produced one National Championship and six league titles.

By his own admission, he’s “a 7-6 ball coach,” and there’s not a lot to brag about.

Joe Biddle, a sports columnist for the Nashville Tennessean, has been a friend of Spurrier’s most of his life. The two have known each other since the Spurrier family moved to Johnson City, Tenn., when Spurrier was in the sixth grade.

Biddle says the kinder, gentler Spurrier emerged after Spurrier’s ill-fated two-year stint with the Washington Redskins, where he was dismissed after going 12-20.

“The job with the Redskins was the start of getting some humble pie,” Biddle said. “A lot of fans would agree that he was overdue for some. I think the South Carolina job has added to it. I think he’s frustrated that he hasn’t been able to do better in this job because he’s back in the SEC, it’s college football. His system didn’t work in the NFL, but I think it will still work in college if you’ve got the right people.”

Getting the right people at South Carolina has never been easy, although Spurrier seems to have the Gamecocks headed in the right direction.

South Carolina’s most recent recruiting class was ranked 12th- best in the nation by Rivals. The 2008 class was ranked 22nd, while the 2007 class was sixth and the 2006 class was ranked 24th.

That adds up to solid recruiting almost anywhere, but not necessarily in the Southeastern Conference.

During the same four-year period, Florida and Georgia, the top teams in the SEC East, have been dominant in recruiting.

Since 2006, Georgia has had classes ranked fourth, ninth, seventh and sixth. Florida’s classes over the same period have been ranked second, first, third and 11th.

South Carolina’s most significant obstacle in recruiting has been finding a quarterback who can run Spurrier’s offense successfully.

The Gamecocks’ quarterbacks led the nation in interceptions last season with 27.

Assistant coach G.A. Mangus was hired in the offseason to help the quarterbacks lower that statistic.

Mangus played as a walk-on quarterback under Spurrier at Florida and later served as an assistant coach on the Gators’ staff.

From a coaching standpoint, he sees little difference in the “Florida” Spurrier and the “South Carolina” Spurrier.

“That was one of the first things I noticed when I got here,” Mangus said. “Sitting in that first staff meeting, I realized it had been the spring of 1995 the last time I’d been in a staff room with him, and it was like déjà vu. I thought, ‘Wow, it’s like I never left.’ And then to see him out on the field, he still has that competitive fire. He’s still ultra competitive. To me, 20 years haven’t changed a whole bunch.”

In South Carolina’s 7-3 season-opening victory over North Carolina State, Spurrier lamented a lack of big plays.

Big plays were never a problem at Florida.

During Spurrier’s tenure as head coach, the Gators scored 50 or more points 31 times.

South Carolina has yet to score more than 45 points in a game in Spurrier’s four-plus years.

Spurrier has a lot of work to do to make the Gamecocks a factor in the SEC East, but if he works his magic and the Gamecocks begin to win big, will the old swagger return?

Spurrier says no.