He’s not exactly pulling any punches here.
For years and years, Vanderbilt didn’t have the talent to compete — much less beat — other SEC teams. Nicknamed the Harvard of the South, the university has long prided itself on stringent academic requirements.
On Tuesday, Spurrier wondered if that had begun to change.
“I don’t know all the academic requirements they have there at Vanderbilt, but if you’re going to play in the SEC you’ve got to recruit very closely to the standards everybody else has,” Spurrier said. “I would think they’ve relaxed them a little bit, but I don’t know exactly.”
…
“They want to play,” Spurrier said. “They want to play football, and they want to be competitive, and to do that you almost have to have the requirements pretty close to the other schools. Pretty close.”
It’s interesting that Spurrier doesn’t mind giving James Franklin some obvious bulletin board material for this week’s game. At least he didn’t bring up the suspensions from the rape charges.
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He’s saying what many have been thinking. This is classic Spurrier. I never thought I would see the day where he jabs Vandy instead of UT.
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There would not be much sport in taking shots at uT would there?
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Shame on Vanderbilt for not putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage!
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A SC coach complaining about the academic standards at Vandy, now that’s funny.
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Giggle.
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Actually back in the day when South Carolina was a member of the ACC it was considered a good scholastic institution–maybe not on a par with UVa and UNC but reasonably close. That all went out the window when they left the ACC and became an independent, then later joined the SEC. I haven’t seen an improvement since SOS arrived, either. Pot meet kettle.
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It always seems like Spurrier’s jabs are a little more barbed before a home game.
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Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle.
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Now now. That’s not fair. It’s not as if South Carolina can dumb down its standards any more.
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I don’t think OBC meant that at all. A few years ago, he said the same thing to the media about South Carolina a few years ago. Basically telling USCe that if they wanted to compete competitively, then they needed to lower the standard for athletes.
Hell, I remember Loran Smith interviewing Charles Grant and thinking an NCAA investigation is coming within days.
It is kind of funny how success in athletics tends to be proportionate with off the field issues and lower academic standards.
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Perhaps they could have a spelling bee between scu and vandy to test sos’s ‘relaxing the standards’ theory. I’d bet more than few scu players couldn’t spell ‘spurrier’.
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I’d bet that more than a few South Carolina players couldn’t spell “CAT” if you spotted them the “C” and the “A.”
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No matter what Cockface says SC will kill Vandy in football Sat. night.
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I’m not so sure. The Dicks…er…Cocks might still be down about the UGA loss and we really don’t know how good Vandy is yet, ’cause we don’t know how good Ole Miss is yet.
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Here is the problem with his argument. Unless the dumbing down occurred prior to Franklin’s hire, its probably not what is driving Vandy’s improvement to date. Now certainly, it is possible dare i say likely that the as the 11, 12, and 13 classes were “dumbed down” and as they become a larger part of Vandy’s players, they will be even more competitive. only time will tell.
Sports Illustrated made a big deal about “revenge of the nerds” in the college football preview based on stanford, northwestern, and vandy. my guess is all have increased special admits to compete to win, but at the same time, i imagine that kids with good study habits probably carry that discipline to other areas of their life……
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I wouldn’t make a comment like that unless I knew what the facts were, but I guess that’s why the OBC’s reputation as an dick is well earned.
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Love how The Visor always follows his digs with ” but I don’t know exactly”. Like a high school girl throwing an insult at the jugular, and then throwing in a “JK!” Maybe we’ll see Franklin do a Grantham on Spurrier at midfield at the end of the game. Now THAT I would pay to see.
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I love the way his barbs are never actually about the upcoming game on the field. He is the master of distraction.
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I would love to see Vandy win and for Coach Franklin to take off his hat on his way to shake Spurrier’s hand. Inside the hat is a report card a la “The Program” which Franklin gives to Spurrier while laughing.
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