Bear Bryant and Nick Saban won SEC championships at two different schools, which is something Steve Spurrier hasn’t done. But Spurrier is about to become the first coach to work 10 or more seasons at two SEC outposts, and what he has managed in nine seasons at South Carolina has been nearly as momentous as his glory run — six SEC titles and a national championship in 12 seasons — at Florida.
“South Carolina was really the best opportunity I could ever ask for,” Spurrier said Tuesday, referring to the time after his two failed seasons with the Washington Redskins. “You could probably describe their football tradition as mediocre. They had a losing record overall (and were) way under .500 in SEC games. Nowhere to go but up.”
For three years running, South Carolina has won 11 games and finished in the top 10. From 2011 through 2013, the Gamecocks lost six games — two more than Alabama, which won two BCS titles, and five fewer than Georgia, which won the SEC East twice. “We got a good program now,” Spurrier said, and nobody would disagree. What’s intriguing is that the Florida coach who measured success only in championships — and took glee in the corresponding failure of others – has become less stringent in his judging.
“We’ve gone 6-2 in the conference and beaten the division winner three years in a row,” Spurrier said, speaking at the SEC Media Days. “Then they go 7-1. All you can do is give Georgia (the East champ in 2011 and 2012) credit and give Missouri (last year’s winner) credit for doing it also. (But) our fans realize there’s more to life than winning the SEC championship. We’re in a state with Clemson. Clemson used to pretty much own South Carolina in football. If you ask our fans at South Carolina, I can assure you a majority would say, ‘We would rather beat Clemson than win the SEC.’”
Then: “Personally I’d rather win the SEC. I don’t mind saying that. Personally that’s the bigger trophy. But if we’re not quite good enough, if it doesn’t work out, we’re not going to hang our head and say, ‘We’re not going to win the SEC.’ There’s other things out there.”
At age 69, is Spurrier stopping to smell the roses, if not the Rose Bowl? Remember the guy who dismissed Tennessee by saying, “You can’t spell ‘Citrus’ without ‘U-T’”? His Gamecocks have played in the Capital One — the bowl formerly known as the Citrus — two of the past three seasons. And he seems OK with that.
At Florida he burned to win everything, but he was younger then. Things look different when a man’s on the cusp of 70. All things might no longer be possible. Better to focus on five consecutive victories over Clemson than to lay awake nights wondering why a program that has become consistently excellent can’t win its conference, but Auburn, which is nothing if not inconsistent, has done it twice in four years.
The cackling Spurrier who reveled in running it up against Ray Goff hasn’t completely mellowed. In an interview with Josh Kendall of The State, Spurrier dared to gig the great Saban. Noting that Alabama has won only two SEC titles in eight years, Spurrier said: “If you had the No. 1 recruiting class every year, I don’t know if he has maxed out potentially as well as he could.” But the staple Spurrier arrogance has been leavened by the later-in-life realization that nobody outsmarts everybody all the time.
What he accomplished at Florida, Spurrier conceded, had much to do with inherited resources. “When I got to Florida in 1990, the team was already there,” he said. “There was no recruiting to be done for about two years. So the first two years we finished first in SEC (and then) won it. Weren’t eligible the first year, but the team was there. They were ready to play, offense (and) defense.”
South Carolina isn’t Florida. South Carolina is a place where a great coach can move heaven and earth — and Spurrier, who remains a great coach, absolutely has — and not claim a conference title. At 69, he surely won’t have many more chances, which means the 2014 Gamecocks, whom he described as “a pretty good team,” better seize the day.
“I tell those recruits, ‘If you come here, hopefully you’ll be on the first-ever SEC championship team ever,’” Spurrier said. “That’s still our goal. We haven’t quite done it. I think we’ve been close, but not close enough.”
Coming close wouldn’t have satisfied the Spurrier who was bent on global domination. That Spurrier has been replaced by one who can be satisfied with beating Clemson. Who would have believed we would ever see a kinder, gentler Evil Genius?
About the Author
