The best thing about Spurrier’s “Nick, you shouldn’t work so hard” schtick isn’t the concern troll aspect. It’s the zinger at the end.
“I haven’t heard anybody say that really, but if you wanted to, you can find faults with anybody if they don’t win them all. How many SECs has (Saban) won there in eight years? He’s won two. He’s won three nationals, but he’s only won two SECs in eight years. Now, if you had the No. 1 recruiting class every year and so forth, I don’t know if he has maxed out potentially as well as he could.”
Nobody twists the knife like the OBC.
Get The Picture 
I will freely admit to despising the OBC when he was at UF and had teams that acted like they considered the WLOCP to be a bye week. But nobody verbally gigs like Steve, and I just admire the mastery of his craft.
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Spurrier, asshole to the bitter end.
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“Steve…How many SEC Championships have YOU won at South Carolina?” Just askin.’
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Well, Steve does has that SEC East title. And USCe does have that ACC crown dating back before Spurrier’s alma mater even started to play college football.
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Exactly. I have unending respect for Spurrier as a coach because the job he has done at South Carolina is nothing short of remarkable. But you don’t get to call out a guy for “only” winning a pair of SEC Championships and finishing with three crystal balls without someone pointing out that you’ve got ONE division championship in your time at South Carolina. At Florida? You won a bunch of SEC Championships during a period when Auburn, LSU, Georgia, and Alabama were wandering in the wilderness of mediocrity. You won ONE national championship when the football gods gave you a second crack at FSU.
Spurrier likes to talk about how Saban has done it at two “powers” and that he deserves more credit for turning South Carolina into a respectable force. Well, coach, Alabama and LSU were anything but powerful when Saban showed up. That they are now unstoppable forces speaks to what he built (and what Les Miles kept rolling). And it’s not like Florida has a lot of disadvantages, Coach Spurrier…
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He is right. Saban has been very good. But Bama has been far from the dominant power in the SEC that Herby & Co. have made him out to be.
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I’m a little different than most Dawgs, in that I’ve always like Spurrier. Don’t get me wrong, Stanfill beating him to death and keeping the smug SOB from winning an SEC Title as a player is one of my career highlights. And when he was sticking it to us in the early 90’s with those jabs, I was as steamed as anybody.
But then I realized one day that he was right. What he said was painful, but I found myself having to agree with him. I still want to beat him as bad as anybody, and I know he loves beating us as much as anything. But there’s more of a respect thing than competitive dislike for me now, much like it used to be with Bear Bryant .. when you play him, you just know you’re in for a ballgame, because he’s got players and he’s gonna have his team well-prepared.
But the edge for Spurrier really came off in 1997 when I ran into him, vacationing in the Carribean, in a hotel elevator. We exchanged courtesies, talked about how nice the place was, then he asked me who my team as. When I said, “Georgia”, he said, “hey, that’s great! Ya’ll gonna have anything this year?” And we both busted out laughing.
So we ended up playing a round of golf and were kind of buddies the rest of the week, the way it is when you’re on vacation, meet people, and enjoy their company, all the time knowing chances are you’ll never see them again.
Anyway, I’m already thinking about the game in Columbia. That’s gonna be a tough place to play and a tough place to win. I doubt the “experts” even give enough credit for that, and should we win, I wonder if we’ll get enough credit from the Committee. This game has replaced Florida-Tennessee as the premier early game in the East.
And it’s going to be a real test for all we’ve been talking about here, i.e, whether or not the changes we’ve made can pay off at that early date. Because Spurrier isn’t going to give us a dad-gum thing. If we fall all over ourselves and make mistakes left and right, he’ll just let us wallow in it like he did last time we were there. We’ll have to be solid to stay in this game, and THAT’s the test.
But there’s nobody more colorful than Spurrier. He’s honest, a straight-shooter, and there’s no filter. That’s what I like about him.
~~~
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Thanks for the vignette, Ivey. Puts a little humanity on him for sure.
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Ivey, I have shared several similar experiences with him and can confirm almost all you stated above. He is funny, he is competitive in all he does, he is an outstanding family man, and he does shoot straight when asked a question, regardless of whether you will like the answer or not. Has many wonderful, behind the scenes stories which he is happy to share over a beer. Steve is a man’s man, and Geri is a great lady/mom.
The only thing different I would add is why I have lost the high respect I once assigned to him. The fall-off in discipline at SC is far from the Steve I knew well, and saw at Florida and his other stops. When you add the constant whining about schedule advantages it adds up to me thinking he should get out of the game before he tarnishes his legacy even more that he has. He almost seems a bitter old man at this point, stuck in the reality that it is very unlikely he will achieve that goal of winning another SEC.
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I suspect the realities of South Carolina have worn on him, for sure, and that could have an effect on things like that, I suppose. And maybe that’s affected him in the sense that it makes him do some things he’d rather not do – like not kick some players off the team.
The thing that’s interesting to me is he hasn’t been able to land elite QB’s. Garcia doesn’t really count as elite, IMO. You know how dangerous he is with one of those.
But he’s come darn close several times to the SEC Title. He may not make it, but it’s like us when we’re at our competitive best and the NC – we haven’t won one under Richt but have come close several times. But keep knocking on that door (which we hope we’ll start doing again) and one day it will open.
I think that’s what Steve is counting on. And, as I’m sure you know, I wouldn’t put it past him.
~~~
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He is bitter, because Billy Payne is a DGD. GATA!!
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I was hoping Spurrier could come up with one of his famous lines, like “I don’t know if he has maxed out potentially as well as he could. (add zinger) I guess you can’t spell ‘underachievement’ without UA.”
Now that would be entertainment. The most painful thing about 99% of Spurrier’s little jabs is that they’re true. I will always enjoy watching his team lose, preferably as painfully as possible, but the best way to shut him up has always been just beat his ass.
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“the best way to shut him up has always been just beat his ass.”
Spurrier’s typically a gracious loser, rarely making excuses. “They were just better’n us.” But he’s an insufferable winner. Agree completely with the above, with him far more than with anyone else. Kick his butt and shut him up.
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Here’s a video of Spurrier after last year’s game in Athens. This is classic Spurrier, no pretense whatsoever, just candidly him.
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I’m UGA through and through and I love Mark Richt. BUT, I would have enjoyed seeing Steve S. HBC at UGA when he left FL a few years ago. I think he would have done a great job here!
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Read somewhere recently that we could have had him if we had called when the Goff hire was made. Never asked him about it but at that time in his career, I don’t doubt it.
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Better than that, we could’ve had Erk.
That we didn’t, remains the worst faux pas in my Georgia career, which started in our 1958. As I’m sure you know, the whole thing was totally bungled.
IDK what we would’ve won under Erk, but I’d bet we’d have at least as many NC’s as Spurrier did at FU, he’d have had to share some of those SEC Titles with us, too.
~~~
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Scotch Lover,
That was true for both the LSU job, before Mike Archer was hired, and the UGA job.
Word has it that Bill Arnsberger, Florida AD at the time, wanted to hire Mike Archer before the boosters stepped in and “encouraged” him to hire Spurrier.
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Remember this?
“Why is it that during recruiting season they sign all the great players, but when it comes time to play the game, we have all the great players? I don’t understand that. What happens to them?”
Damn, I miss that man prowling the Florida sideline
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