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Hello, Old Friend - We Meet Again

Evil Genius Time to take on Spurrier’s Gamecocks in Columbia.

As usual, the implications of losing this game terrify me. South Carolina is an average team at best in 2007 — probably more than a little below average — but don’t even dare to dream that this will be an easy game for the Gators.

The Gamecocks lost to Vandy, 17-6. Florida beat the Commodores 49-22.

It means nothing. Forget it.

In the previous two contests between Urban Meyer and Steve Spurrier, Florida is 1-1 only by the grace of Florida’s awesome punt and kick-blocking unit of 2006. And thank you, Jarvis Moss, wherever you may be lacing up your shoulder pads this Sunday.

We all know that in both 2005 and 2006, Meyer was outcoached by Spurrier. Meyer and staff displayed curious clock management and play-calling in the final moments of the ‘05 game, and were at a loss to stop Spurrier’s aerial attack in the Swamp just a year ago. THANK GOD we blocked three kicks or we’d be 0-2 against this guy.
We get the Ol’ Ball Coach’s best game of the year. We always will. He has a real fetish for beating his former team.

Spurrier apologists, with all due respect to our wonderful readership here at the Hue, need to get their heads screwed on straight. It’s quite obvious Spurrier’s goal every year is to ruin the Gators’ season. There are no two ways about it. He’s the enemy now, and all of those wonderful memories of what he did for Florida in the 90s must be buried and hidden away until the Visored One retires from coaching. Then we can think back to what a great run he gave to the University of Florida.

Am I bitter? … Yeah. I’m bitter. Sue me. Spurrier, upon his return to college football, had his choice of many top jobs in college football. But he just had to return not only to the Southeastern Conference, but to the freakin’ SEC East, guaranteeing that to enjoy any success whatsoever, he’d have to tear the hearts out of Gator Nation in the process, year in and year out.

And don’t forget the way Spurrier left UF in early 2002: high and dry. His “farewell” to the school consisted of a one paragraph press release which basically said, “Hey, I want to try the Fun ‘n Gun in the NFL! See ya!” He didn’t even show up in person to say goodbye. He did it by telephone! Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, who was just as surprised as any of us — Spurrier gave no warning, and remember, this was in January — was then forced to scramble to find a head coach. Since all of the top choices were already wrapped up, we got Zook.

Roasty toasty Ol’ Ball Coachy

Spurrier’s decision to bolt the way he did gave us three years of suffering at the hands of Zook. Florida lost 5 games in each of Zook’s three years and never finished the season with a Top 25 ranking. 2 losses to Mississippi, one to Mississippi State… it’s a long, painful list, so I’ll cut it short. I blame Spurrier.

You still love him? If you say yes, my response is to run at you full speed (which for me is about a 9.4 40) and knock you over (since I weigh about 230 lbs, yeah, that one would hurt.) And then I would laugh at you, and taunt you. Pbbbbbbbbbt.

If you harbor any love for the Ol’ Ball Coach, squelch it. If you still root for Spurrier’s Gamecocks in games against other SEC opponents, you deserve to be trout-slapped. NOTHING GOOD COMES FROM SPURRIER WINNING GAMES IN THE SEC. The only time it’s permissible to root for the Evil Genius is when the Gamecocks play out of conference. When they represent the SEC, even I want them to win.

The good news is that this is year 3 of Spurrier’s South Carolina experiment and he’s obviously no closer to achieving his goal of winning an SEC title than when he started. If the Gamecocks lose this weekend — that’s a big if, obviously — the ‘Cocks will fall to 6-5 overall and 3-5 in the conference. Even Lou Holtz was able to get the USC Jr. to 9 wins in his third year.

Spurrier’s now 7 years removed from his last championship. He failed in the NFL and has had 3 marginal seasons at South Carolina. I know the OBC hates to lose, and therefore I hope the losses piling up and the lack of progress will push him to retire sooner rather than later. Don’t forget that earlier in the year, Spurrier hopefully announced that South Carolina’s goal in 2007 was to win the SEC — an upgraded objective from his first two years, where the goal was to win more than they lost and go to a bowl game.

So much for that idea.

I secretly — okay, not so secretly now — rejoice when South Carolina implodes on national TV and the network analyst says, “It almost seems as though the game is passing Steve Spurrier by.” (I believe that comment was made during the Gamecocks’ last game against Arkansas, where they gave up 650 yards — 541 on the ground — to a one-dimensional Arkansas team.)

Florida will always be Florida and South Carolina will always be South Carolina. Time to prove that on Saturday. In the process, the Gators keep their SEC East hopes alive while kicking the Ol’ Ball Coach and the South Carolina faithful in the groin.

Prediction: UF 31, USC 28

22 Comments so far
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Agreed on all fronts…

This is our fourth rivalry now…

The OBC must be held accountable for his sins against the Gator nation…

Boot to Nuts…

It’s the only way…

The people who root for Spurrier are the alumni. The students or recent grads don’t know what the big deal is.

Ever since ole click clack went to the other USC I haven’t been able to wear my Spurrier Gator throwback Jersey. It shouldn’t bother me that much, but it does.

UF 38
Cocks 10

You could always pass it off as a Ben Hanks jersey…

Or an OJ Small jersey or Jarred Fayson.

Great article. I completely agree. Let’s kill the visor on Saturday.

I think that perhaps you’re displaying quite an unhealthy bit of bitterness and/or resentment toward Mr. Spurrier. Trout-slapping? Isn’t that illegal in 18 states?
In all seriousness I have all the respect in the world for the coach but will be repressing that respect until he leaves the SEC East. Don’t forget, Ryan, that without Spurrier, UF would be, in all likelihood, just another middle-of-the-pack SEC team that only occasionally challenges for hardware (think Arkansas). The only real reason to hate on the man comes every November towards the end of the month.

That may well be true, RJSPlow, but Florida had long been regarded as a sleeping giant before Spurrier’s arrival. Don’t forget the success those teams had in the 80s despite the probation problems, or Charlie Pell’s financial foundation laid down during those years. UF had awesome facilities, fan support, and even talent. All the Gators lacked was the right coach.

No one doubts that Spurrier was a perfect fit at UF. But I do reject the notion that what came to pass would never have been possible without the Visor.

Florida was on the edge of critical mass in football. If Steve Spurrier hadn’t come to Gainesville, someone else would have sparked the keg and awakened the giant.

I do respect and appreciate all that Spurrier did at UF. He is a legendary coach, probably our equivalent of Bear Bryant (although not nearly as accomplished) but he’s moved on from the relationship and so have I. I believe Urban Meyer has already proved that Florida can win without Spurrier and compete at the highest level of college football on a consistent basis.

Am I conflicted? Yes — well, somewhat, anyway — and I don’t really try to hide it at all. There’s no conflict when the Gators are involved, however. Spurrier chose — specifically and intentionally, in my opinion — to return to college football in such a way that his success would also mean the Gators’ failure. I believe he looks forward to playing the Gators more than any other team. I want to beat him just as badly as FSU, Tennessee, and Georgia.

Don’t lose sight of what Spurrier is today. He was once our Anakin Skywalker. Now, he’s Darth Visor. Don’t forget it.

Well, I dunno, G-Pil…

I bet the OBC still would get an otherworldy joy out of spanking UGA still…

If he could…

LOL…

Another year or two of realizing that the OBC will have about as much success as he did here in Tampa should relegate him to the ESPN networks family of washed up coaches.

Maybe he’ll take Holtz’s spot on Gameday.

Without Spurrier Florida would be nothing…..

WITH Spurrier South Carolina IS nothing…

Spurrier NEVER said his goal for USC in 2007 was to win the SEC or the East. What he said was that his goal was to be competitive for the East and as of just a few short weeks back USC was in the “driver’s seat” for the East.

While our season has certainly taken a sever turn for the worst, think about just how close we came to likely winning the East. Had we not overlooked Vandy we would have easily won that game and it probably would have been the extra edge we needed to beat the Vols. Huge difference in being 3-4 in the East and being 5-2 and in the driver’s seat with wins over the Vols and the Dawgs.

The fact is that while Spurrier has been at USC he has given the teams that consider themselves elite a tough run for their money.

He is 1-2 against UGA as he got that monkey off his back this year.

He is 1-2 against Fat Phil and the Vols, but that could EASILY be 2-1.

He is 1-1 against your beloved Gators and that SHOULD have been 2-0 and have ruined your National Championship year.

I believe you think way too much of your Gators. If you sincerely believe that Steve Spurrier sits around and has the sole goal of beating the Gators every year any more than beating any other team then you are wrong. The fact is, the Gators just weren’t that much better the past 2 years than the program you choose to belittle by calling “below average.”

If you believe that the SEC is the best conference (and it seems that you do), then how could even a .500 team be “average” on the grand scheme of things? Wouldn’t an average SEC team be a danged good team Nationally? Seems to me that an average SEC team is usually ranked, so your belittling USC only puts the entire conference down since our overall record is usually above .500 and our conference record is right around .500.

And as for the other comment about how great Florida was before Spurrier…. please. Florida is and always will be Florida and South Carolina is and always will be South Carolina as you put it. The FACT is that before Spurrier Florida was nothing and are just now returning to where they were under him.

But please continue to put such silly mess on the internet for al to read. I generally need a good laugh and hearing Gator fans talk like their crap doesn’t stink always gets the job done.

BTW, USC will lose this game by a bunch….

Florida……….. 49
South Carolina…. 17

Steven (TaySC)
www.gamecocksportsforum.com

Well, Steven, you’re flatly wrong about the conference championship goal. I watched Spurrier’s press conference as he said it. He said, “We think we’ve got a team that’s good enough to win it, so that’s our goal this year, to win the SEC.” Don’t know why you think otherwise, but I can assure you, he said it.

Spurrier has come close in some games and won a few he had no business winning, but let’s face it, this year’s Cock squad isn’t much better than his first one.

As for average or sub-average… 650 yards. That’s all that needs to be said. No team, no matter what the conference, can consider itself average or above when they give up that many yards in one game.

If Florida’s on its way back to being “nothing” in this conference, it’s rather odd that we’re sitting on a national championship only 2 years into Meyer’s reign as head coach.

You don’t make much sense, you silly Cock, you.

I don’t agree with your score prediction, either. It’ll be one of those 1-3 point spreads. I’m terrified of my Gators losing to the Visor. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Source: www.SECSports.com

COACH SPURRIER:
“Nice to be here again. My 15th year. I know a bunch of you sportswriters still got me by a lot of years, but good to be here again. Looking forward to the coming season.

At South Carolina, first couple of years we felt like, with our team, our goal was to win more than we lose, and to win the Bowl game would be a pretty good year for us. We did that last year. We finished with three wins and won the Bowl game.

First year we lost the Bowl game, so we felt like, you know, that was a pretty decent year.

WE’VE RAISED OUR GOALS THIS YEAR. WE’RE GOING TO TRY TO WIN THE CONFERENCE. We felt like we’ve really increased our talent level at South Carolina. We’ve added a lot of players that we think are at a pretty close level with Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

Obviously you need to be at their level to win the conference. We lost some close games last year, didn’t play our best maybe or didn’t coach our best. But we feel like our talent level is good enough now we should say, HEY, LET’S GO TRY TO WIN OUR CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP.

I know it will be a huge assignment, but I believe our players, our team, we need to come to the ballpark feeling like we’re just as good as Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and that we can play with those guys to see what happens.

Don’t know what’s gonna happen, but that’s gonna be our mindset going into the season, to see what happens. So we’re looking forward to it. We think, again, our players, our talent level is up pretty close or maybe even even with some of those teams.”

[…] South Carolina week confuses the Gates [Orange and Blue] […]

1. You can call us average all you want, and in a way you might be right, but we’d be playing better right now if not for a number of defensive injuries that have revealed a lack of depth. Is that Spurrier’s fault? Maybe, recruiting is in the head coach’s hands. But this is still a young team. But before those injuries took hold, we were playing much better defense. The Arkansas and Tennessee games might have been different stories with those players. Spurrier’s now got the offense rolling; this weekend’s game will be highscoring, if we can get a few stops we might be able to win.

2. This article is completely narcissistic. So Spurrier is coaching at USC solely in order to have the chance to show up UF? Why can’t you take Spurrier at his word: he says he likes the challenge of winning an SEC title at a school that has never seriously challenged before. This seems reasonable.

3. Gator fans are fond of saying that Spurrier reserves his best game for Florida, but I would disagree there, too. I thought Spurrier’s best game last year was against Auburn. This was at a point in the year when Auburn was ranked second and playing much better than they ended up playing at the end of the year. Their defense was considered to be the best in the country, and we scored at will against them and could have taken the game to overtime if not for a dropped pass.
The idea that Spurrier has it in for Florida is sheer self-obsession.

4. Your love for Urban Meyer seems a little premature. He won a national title with Ron Zook’s players, and I’m not so sure that Zook himself wouldn’t have won if he had been given the chance. You people love to blast Zook, but he inherited a program that didn’t have the talent to win the SEC, which was partly Spurrier’s fault. When he finally built the program, they fired him and let Meyer come in and win a title with his players. Don’t get me wrong; I think Meyer is a good coach. But he’s made some gaffs this year that make me wonder if he’s all he’s built up to be. He’s completely neglected to develop a solid tailback, and that cost him against Georgia while Tebow was hurt. I’m sure the Urban Evangelists will say it was bad luck; I say that the blame for the loss falls squarely upon Meyer. We’ll see if Urban is really an elite coach next year, when his talented team will be expected to win the national title.

5. These things all have a lot to do with each other. I think UF fans are really eager to malign Spurrier and to praise Urban because they know that Florida would have never risen to the level they did without Spurrier, and that’s a troubling thought to them. You say Florida was a sleeping giant, and certainly they sit on a hot recruiting area, but I don’t buy that anyone could have come in and taken UF all the way; if that were the case, someone would have done it before Spurrier. Furthermore, maligning Spurrier’s work with the Gamecocks, which I would say has been very good but not spectacular, makes Florida fans feel that maybe it was the greatness in UF all along, and Spurrier was just the guy lucky enough to be around when it happened.

In the end, all I think I’m saying is that there’s no reason for Florida fans to hate Spurrier. Articles like this read like complicated psychological diseases, and there’s no need to feel an inferiority about this stuff. Florida has proven they can win without Spurrier, although it remains to be seen whether or not Urban is all he’s cracked up to be. As far as Spurrier goes, I think you guys should just let him do his thing. At the very least, South Carolina is competitive now, and that’s a good thing for the SEC. If you want an easy road, maybe you should join the Big East. You Gator fans don’t seem to like the idea that another SEC team can rise from the depths like you did. It could happen, and it’s exciting to watch. Get over it. Saying that Carolina has won games that they shouldn’t have under Spurrier betrays your dislike for rising programs; I think what you really mean here is that it’s just not right for Carolina to be competing with the SEC East triumverate of UF, UGA, and UT. There was a time when Florida couldn’t hang either, but most Gator fans choose to think that football wasn’t played before 1990.

Narcissism and an Oedipal complex; all in a day’s work for one of the most arrogant fanbase in college football.

Gamecock Man On: thanks for stopping by, it’s always great to have die-hard fans coming over here for a chat. I enjoyed your post for the most part, and I think you raise some legitimate points…but please, stop with the amateur psychoanalysis.

I don’t mind people pointing out facts but what I can’t understand is why you feel qualified in pretending to know what a Gator fan thinks. Your entire post is peppered with your perception of what we’re thinking. Unlike you, I won’t pretend to speak for an entire fan base.

Instead, I’ll try to explain where our confusing like/dislike of Spurrier comes from: Spurrier is our Bryant, our Neyland, our Rockne, our Bowden and our Woody Hayes. Except, none of those other legends coached against their teams after they left their respective schools. It’s unique. All of those coaches forever changed the fan’s (and the country’s) perception of their program and someone from outside of the program just wouldn’t understand. You wouldn’t understand, nor would any of your Gamecork brethren. I say this without an ounce of pretension. I’m saying this simply to explain where our confusion comes from. You can believe what I’m saying, or you can sit in a different state as a fan of a different school and continue to believe whatever you want. I don’t care. All I care about is enjoying the game and I’m sorry I can’t be up in Columbia to party with a fan base I greatly respect and always have a fantastic time with when Florida plays USC. Good luck ‘Cocks~

The amateur psychoanalysis is mainly intended to be humorous. But while I don’t know how the entire fanbase feels, I do know that there are a lot of Gator fans like GP who think that Spurrier’s goal in life is to make life hell for the Gators, and that just doesn’t seem to be the case. And don’t forget that rumor has it that Spurrier would have been interested in retaking the Florida job, but wasn’t wanted. If there is any reason that Spurrier might want to show up the Gators, that might be the only one: to show that he really is a better coach than Meyer, who the University of Florida may have chosen over him. And he’s done that the past two years; when you consider the difference in talent level at the two schools, you guys should have beaten us the last two years by 30.

You’re right, though, at USC we don’t really have a Bear Bryant-like coach, although people often forget that we were fairly successfull in the 80s under Joe Morrison. But still it’s hard for us to understand your feelings on this, especially because both Holtz and Spurrier came to USC after experiencing great success at other schools.

Gamecock Man: Thank you for your reasonable (well, mostly) comments.

You said the Gator fanbase is the most arrogant in college football, but I don’t believe we’re more so than any other elite program. Like fans of USC, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State, etc., we expect to win every game we play… that’s really the main difference between our fans and yours. I can see how that might be construed as arrogance because you’ve never had a program that gave you that level of confidence.

At Florida, it’s not an unrealistic expectation, either. Spurrier waved the white flag at Tiger Stadium when he went for a field goal on 4th and short in the 3rd quarter against LSU. Florida had a 10 point lead against LSU in the 4th quarter and were a minute and change away from winning the game, despite the fact the most of our team is comprised of freshmen and sophomores.

You can put Florida up against any team in the country and I’ll tell you that I expect them to win it. We’re competitive at the highest level.

If arrogance is an expectation of excellence, then we’re guilty as charged. If you use the word ‘arrogant’ to describe an undue sense of entitlement that our fanbase holds, I think you’re about 5 years too late to make that observation. Ron Zook killed any shred of entitlement mentality that the Gator Nation had as result of their amazing run through the 1990s. We lived through Zook. We were rescued by Meyer. We know it takes fantastic recruiting, the best facilities, the best coaching staff and the best program prestige in the nation to be considered elite year in and year out.

As for Spurrier himself, I don’t actually “hate” the guy. This is sports. It’s entertainment. The word “fan” is short for “fanatic” and that means some of us (raising hand) get a little too wrapped up in this at times. But we all know this is a game, and while it’s important, the people involved are worthy of our respect. Spurrier has mine from that perspective.

But the old saying “Once a Gator, always a Gator” floats to mind. Spurrier can’t have a truly successful season unless he beats the Gators. He — not the University of Florida — put himself in that position. He — not the University of Florida — quit a job that would have been open to him for life had he wanted to hold on to it. He — not the University of Florida — has caused many of us who love Spurrier for what he did for the Gators to have these conflicted emotions every year.

Spurrier is now the enemy. While I don’t think he centers his entire career at USCe around beating his former team, obviously, I do think he gets special pleasure from it. I don’t want Spurrier to succeed at USCe. After he leaves, if y’all want to make a run at some SEC East titles, go for it… you’ll be just another SEC team then. But for now, this week, this moment, this second, you are the mortal enemy, captained by our former golden son.

I wish misery upon you starting at 7:45PM ET Saturday night, ending around midnight or so after we win. (I hope.)

I have little doubt that if Spurrier had stayed at Florida rather than bolting for the NFL, he would have challenged Bear Bryant for supremacy in the SEC in terms of MNCs and winning percentage.

And it appears that the door was open for a possible return when the Zooker was jettisoned. From my outsider perspective, I could never tell what the problem was. I heard the talk about Foley telling Spurrier to submit his resume, and his supposed response that it was in the trophy cabinet. I’m just curious which was the bigger impediment: Florida’s pride over the way he left, or Spurrier’s ego over them not rolling out the red carpet for him.

[…] We’ve already covered the emotional aspects of this game. Let’s talk some football. […]

Wow, talk about sour grapes. Spurrier gave the best years of his career to the Gators. Yes he wants to beat the Gators. Of course he does, he coaches another team. So what? The past is the past and the present is the present. Also hiring Zook was mistake that could have easily been avoided. If Foley was really caught by surprise that Spurrier would leave to the NFL after so many years of speculation then Foley himself should have been fired on general principle.

I not only still wear my Spurrier throwback jersey, I wore it today. Proudly. I lived through Gary Darnell. Screw that.

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