Steve Spurrier just can’t help himself. He can’t lay off obsessing about Georgia’s schedule.
The question was about the perceived advantage of the open date on South Carolina’s schedule before the Gamecocks’ Nov. 10 game against Arkansas. But South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier veered in a different direction with the answer.
“You think I make the schedule?” Spurrier said from the podium at SEC Media Days. “If I made the schedule, Georgia would be playing LSU, and we’d be playing Ole Miss.”
The schedule says otherwise, of course — South Carolina at LSU on Oct. 13 and Georgia vs. Ole Miss in Athens on Nov. 3.
Spurrier didn’t make more of the issue, quickly moving on by saying: “Not complaining about that other part I mentioned there.”
Yeah, sure. That would mark a change.
https://twitter.com/bradyack/status/225304670145495040
It’s real simple. The OBC ain’t coaching another twenty years. (He’s probably not coaching another five, if you want to get down to it.) He’s clearly elevated the Gamecock program from where it was before he got there. But he doesn’t have that conference championship ring he wants. And he’s watching his best players leave – Jeffery after last year, Lattimore after this year, Clowney after next year, most likely. He knows that window is closing.
That’s why the scheduling stuff is eating at him. He doesn’t have a twenty-year horizon to wait on for things to even out.
I don’t know if the schedule is going to be the deciding factor that gets Georgia back to the SECCG this year. I have my doubts it’s going to matter as much as many think it might. But if it turns out to be the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if it hurts Spurrier as much as Bill Stanfill did in 1966.
Get The Picture 
Even after all the humiliation in the 90’s, even after 3 wins in 5 years, we’re still his white whale. Kinda satisfying.
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Poor baby Steve – my heart bleeds for you. He certainly wasn’t asking for our schedules in 2008-09. If we hold on to the football and not make Melvin Ingram looks like 1980 Herschel Walker, he wouldn’t have had the most successful season in USCe history.
I still wish we would have have hung 50+ on him in 2005 when we sleepwalked through his first game in Sanford as the Head Cock.
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OK, pertaining to his question about ‘Why UGA got Ole Miss on the schedule…weren’t they part of the schedule BEFORE the change? I thought Bama/Mizzu was the only change from what would have been. So, why is he asking like someone did UGA a favor with Ole Miss?
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Because the opposite happened to SC.
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“If they can just get that Stanfill boy well, he is gonna be a heckuva player” paraphrasing Ray Graves following the game. Stanfill, it was said by Georgia had a “neck stinger” the week before the game.
Thus began the angst of the OBC.
FWIW: I am really beginning to tire of all this talk about winning anything.
The problem being that if we do not win the SEC East and challenge for a national championship the angst on this board will render it unreadable.
And Willie Martinez will not be the only name mentioned in anger.
The only thing for sure about this coming edition of the Dawgs is that they have a lot to prove at a lot of extremely important positions.
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I’ve said it several times (although still fewer than the number of times Steve’s whined about the schedule) but it really is sad to see the brash hot-shot trash-talking wonder-coach become such a whiner. I couldn’t have envisioned him carrying on in such a manner back in the 90’s.
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Back then, he couldn’t have envisioned himself as such a present-day whiner either.
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“How did Georgia get to play Ole Miss?”
Because it was our turn in the damn schedule to play them. The schedules rotate that way. I didn’t hear Coach Spurrier offering to run his first three offensive plays out of the back of his own end zone to compensate us the last time we had the big boys on our schedule and they had the Mississippi swing. And South Carolina has Arkansas as its permanent cross-division foe and we’ve got Auburn… most years, that’s going to be a lot tougher on Georgia (just ask South Carolina how tough Auburn can be!).
I usually enjoy Coach Spurrier’s antics, but this is just sad and beneath him. We didn’t trade Alabama for Ole Miss. Alabama and Ole Miss were both on our schedule for this year. We traded Alabama for Missouri. And, frankly, I wish we could trade back because I hate having the new kids in the league.
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In defense of the OBC, I think he’s got a point on this one. Georgia kept Ole Miss on the schedule and dropped Alabama. SC wasn’t allowed to keep Mississippi State on the schedule and wound up having LSU added. That’s not exactly consistent.
Although if I were a Gamecock fan, I’d be bitching about the SEC not going to a nine-game conference schedule, rather than Georgia, for the inconsistency this season.
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The difference was the team (on rotation) they decided to replace with Mizzou. Mizzou replaced Bama on UGA’s schedule and MST on SC’s. LSU was up next on rotateion for SC this year anyway. I’m sure the OBC wanted Mizzou to replace LSU not MST…and maybe even wanted Mizzou to replace Ole Miss at UGA not Bama.
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It still comes down to Georgia being allowed to complete a home-and-home with Ole Miss and SC not being allowed to do the same with MSU.
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Senator is spot on here. It’s simply not the case that the schedule this year followed the normal course of rotations, as I’ve heard many Georgia fans say. If that was true, I don’t think you’d be hearing as much complaining from Spurrier or Gamecocks fans. Georgia got a break in getting to drop ‘Bama and keep Ole Miss, while Carolina had to drop its home game against Miss St. and keep LSU. Now, whether this was done intentionally by the league to pave Georgia’s road to Atlanta is another question. Plus, you could argue that Carolina caught a break by getting Mizzou at home, while Georgia has to travel to Mizzou for the Tigers first SEC game.
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I hope I live long enough to see somebody punch the OBC right in that big mouth of his.
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“More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.” This should be tattoo’d on Bobo and Richt’s forehead.
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The combined area of the Marks’ foreheads, albeit expansive in radius and diameter, may not be humongous enough to contain those awesome inspirational words. The limited area suggests they may have to go with a “Mom”, a “Death Before Dishonor” or fouled anchors instead
http://photontorpedotube.blogspot.com/2007/08/georgia-way-crush-your-enemies.html
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‘Fouled Anchors’……….so appropriate at times.
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Ultimate karma for the OBC … In his last season the Chickens match up agaisnt Ole Miss and we match up agaisnt Bama. He loses. We win and take the East.
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Even if SC had made the SECCG last year against LSU, SOS’s team would have been hammered. He does keep the conf. fun.
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The moment was just as joyous in 1966 as it reads now.
Bill had a “crick” in his neck and we all know how painful that is. His “miraculous cure” before gametime came along with a little shot of material in the muscle area that was described back then, but not mentioned so much now. He went out and sacked Steve 3 times if my memory serves me correctly. Talk about Jarvis Jones!
Steve’s hatred began in that game and hasn’t been assuaged through the years. Spurrier running up the score on UGA? That upset us because when we ran the score up on them, it was our duty to put the upstart putzes in their place. The turnabout by Coach Spurrier was never in the books in our minds. They were then to us what GT is now. Treat them as dangerous and then kick their ass.
Ah, for the good old days. We enjoyed those victories throughout the night and witnessed many sunrises afterwards. Many wonderful times were enjoyed in those days of great pride of school and a representative team. Still, there were those who criticized Dooley openly for having graduated from Auburn. “Good, Old Fashioned Hate” wasn’t just a watchword in those days. In between those wonderful weekends was endless study. One course that I took required an end to the revelry Sat afternoon after the game and study ensued until after a weekly Monday morning quiz. Ah, for the good old days.
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You left out the Ray Graves quote….see above.
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It’s not fair. Ole Miss and Auburn get to play Georgia and while we have to play South Carolina.
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If LSU takes care of business they’ll get a chance for an SECCG rematch with Georgia. And no the schedule ain’t fair, USC plays a good Georgia team wheras Georgia plays USC, a team that hasn’t won its conference since it was in the ACC.
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Gamepenises, you are 16-46-2 all time against UGA.
You have never won 3 in a row. Ever.
Shut. The. F. Up.
No one, but no one, cares what you have to say about anything.
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As far as 3 in a row the same could’ve been said about georgia going into the 2002 UT game. (Georgia’s streak against UT obviously). Breaking that streak was a precursor of things to come in that rivalry. Let’s hope we end the streak of losing to the inferior program in Columbia SC at 2 this year.
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I’m really rather hoping that we stomp a six foot deep mudpie in their chickenholes as opposed to merely hoping we don’t lose. Gah. It’s so weird to see the OBC acting like a Tech nerd.
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I think it’s fair to say Ole Miss does not appreciate Spurrier’s remarks. Perhaps a little extra motivation for the Rebels…
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I don’t necessarily disagree that the schedule probably won’t end up being the deciding factor in the SEC East, particularly considering that it turns out that there there are questions marks at Arkansas. I also don’t disagree that Spurrier only has a limited number of years left to achieve his goals, and that that’s eating away at him.
But I do take issue with a couple of things here. First, Spurrier’s complaining about the schedule. I really don’t think this has anything to do with him trying to set himself up for an easier path to Atlanta. Spurrier isn’t stupid. The Gamecocks have a tough schedule this year, but the hypothetical rules change wouldn’t go into effect until 2013, at the earliest. (Of course, it will never go through, but speaking hypothetically.) By then, there might no longer be an advantage for Carolina in not counting intradivisional games. Spurrier knows that Auburn is usually better than Arkansas and Texas A&M. He also knows that Florida, who will eventually be back to being competitive in the East, plays LSU every year. He wouldn’t have much to gain by the rules change. He’s harping on this because (1) he wants to call attention to the fact that his team got thrown under the bus by the league office when the makeshift 2012 schedule was constructed and (2) because he genuinely believes it’s more fair the way he sees it. There are lots of arguments for why he’s wrong about that, but, at the same time, it’s different than saying he’s trying to get a leg up on the competition with the rules change.
The other thing I want to call attention to is the idea that Spurrier’s window is closing because certain players will soon be leaving the program. Spurrier isn’t getting any younger, but as long as he’s here, he’s going to have the talent to compete. The idea that we’ll bottom out when Lattimore and Clowney are gone is the same old Georgia canard about how any success that Carolina enjoys is just some stroke of luck that we happened upon a couple of good players and that we’ll be back to being 0-11 as soon as those couple of players are gone. When he was updating his blog, Westerdawg used to trot this one out every September. “Well, now Sidney Rice / Kenny McKinley / Eric Norwood, etc., are gone, and the ‘Cocks are done. They don’t have any playmakers.” Newsflash: Spurrier has progressively upgraded the talent pool in Columbia since he got here. That’s why he’s winning. We had a great class last year and we have another one in the works this year. We’ll be fine when the current stars are gone. Carolina is more competitive with Georgia than it used to be because we now recruit closer to your level, not due to some stroke of demographic luck in getting a couple of special players. The idea is almost laughable considering that football simply isn’t a sport where one player can make all the difference, but Georgia fans seem to love it, probably because it allows them to deny the fact that Carolina is now legitimately closer to their level than it used to be.
Now, what happens when Spurrier retires is another story. If we have been lucky in any sense, it’s that we got Spurrier in the first place. It’s not everyday that a Hall of Fame-caliber coach takes a job like ours. Spurrier marches to a different drummer, though; instead of taking an elite job, he wanted to try his hand at winning at South Carolina. We were lucky to be able to benefit from his eccentricity. When he’s gone, it’s an open question whether Carolina has sufficient appeal and / or moolah to get a similarly talented coach. We’ll see.
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I’m not saying that South Carolina is going to revert suddenly to being a 7-5 team after those guys are gone. You’re right about Spurrier upgrading the talent base.
What I am saying is that it takes a lot of things going correctly to pull off 10/11 win seasons in the SEC. Losing kids who many describe as the best WR in the conference, the best RB in the conference and potentially the best DLman in the conference isn’t going to help keep that edge.
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Yeah, but the point is that we’ll replace those players, at least as long as we keep recruiting at our current level. (Again, open question whether that happens post-Spurrier.) For example, since you bring up Jeffery, we have Shaq Roland, an incoming freshman who was even more highly touted as a prep prospect than Jeffery. We’ve got Mike Davis coming in at running back. Both of these guys were considered among the top five at their position coming out last year. Of course, they may not pan out like their predecessors did, but you get the idea. We didn’t turn up with players like Lattimore and Clowney by accident. It’s not like the well is about to dry up. We got them because Spurrier and his staff are now recruiting at a higher level than used to be the case. They’re still doing that. We’ll have more stars as long as that’s the case.
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