Coming from a guy who bailed on his team mid-season, this is hardly surprising:
Steve Spurrier was already enjoying retirement but said he’s enjoying it even more after seeing some of the new NCAA rules, particularly the early signing period and players taking official visits in April, May and June. “I sort of liked an offseason. There is no offseason now,” Spurrier told ESPN. “It’s year around, and guys go, go, go, but a lot of guys like that. They don’t go to the beach. They don’t play golf. They don’t travel. They don’t do other things in life. I think it helped me last 30 years as a head coach because I did have an offseason.”
Serious question: of all the great head coaches in college football history, was Spurrier the least hard-working? If the answer is yes, that’s kind of a compliment, if you think about it.
Get The Picture 
I’m sorry, one thing that will never come out of my mouth is a Spurrier compliment……even left handed.
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I hate Steve Spurrier.
Steve Spurrier is awesome.
I don’t know.
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A true Georgia fan paradox.
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This.
He needled us so badly and really once was the definition of a poor winner for so long.
But I totally agree with him: I have friends who are careerists and I just don’t get it. I work to live, not the other way around. I’m lucky that I’ve been lucky enough to find work I like most of the time and that others have decided to pay me to do, so I’m coming from some privilege there. But people who work a lot and push the boundaries,,, Hike your hike, I guess, but I’m not into that.
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I agree with you, Stoop. I love my job (I mean, I really love it), but I also love my life and my family. Work will always be here in the morning. I’ve watched too many new hires come in, get ground up by the long hours, and burn out in 2-3 years. I don’t know football coaches (and others like that) do it. I would absolutely hate life if that was me. But different strokes for different folks.
I can respect Spurrier’s view on this. And I suspect the time has passed where people with his work ethic will be successful in college sports, despite whatever talent/genius they may have.
BTW, screw Spurrier. I hate him. But I still wish he as on ESPN for college football.
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Shit, I still wish Spurrier had been hired to be the UGA HC instead of Ray Goof. If offered I guarantee he would have taken the job, too. Probably would have coached in Athens longer than VD. But to hire an experienced HC with a track record of winning isn’t the Georgia Way.
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Quincy of Accounting, That’s a great statement of a dilemma.
The more that time passes, the easier it is to appreciate SOS. Even his hatred of UGA, and all of his abuses, can be viewed as a left handed compliment. Still, I’m glad he’s gone, and enjoyed the awkward way he went out. I enjoyed the final beat-down that CMR put on him..but by any measure he would be one of the top college coaches of all time. A true gritty, snarky, driven asshole of a champion.
Remember the episode when Elmer finally “killed the wabbit”?
SOS is the wabbit.
BTW..I agree with him on the down-time remarks. Gotta stop and smell the roses sometimes.
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Elmer did not kill Bugs. Bambi’s Mom is still alive. Cartoon characters should not have guns. #keepchildhoodmemoriessafe
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Gee, I don’t know. I watched it it didn’t seem to bother me and my memories are fine. I did have coloring books…there is that.
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With lines?
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No lines..Montessori School.
I didn’t get to enjoy lines until my father who was in Sac transferred to the Orient. Captain Ho replaced Miss Brown as my instructor. There was no coloring Outside the Lines. Any line.
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For me – it’s that I like Spurrier so much more that Urban Meyer.
Like if Steve Spurrier moved in next door and invited me to a cookout, I would be excited about it because A) even if he was giving you shit which I am sure he would, it would be witty and everyone would probably have a good time and B) guaranteed he does a cannonball in the pool to embarass his kids or wife or whoever.
I would dread going to a cookout at the Meyers. Like I would look for excuses not to go. Because you know it’s just going to be me having to yell at my kids to get off the furniture because it’s all too nice and why did I even bring my kids to this, and stop asking me questions about work Urban, you don’t care, who wears a sport coat to a cookout anyway? I should have stayed home and mowed my grass. Or hung out at Mike Leach’s house.
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Almost certainly. Although Les Miles has a well know reputation for banker’s hours as well.
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I always wondered what he could have done at Bama….could he do as well if not better than Saban has?? Debatable I know, but have always though that he could. Like him or not, one of the best that has ever coached the game, kinda like the Muhammad Ali of college football. As far as your question goes (least hard-working)….. I would say no, I would say that he just worked smart and was a natural at what he did….an innate gift. Got to admit though, I am glad he is no longer in the SEC.
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If he’d gotten it say when they hired DeBose? Yeah. He’d killed it.
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Bama would have hated his focus on offense and complained the defense wasn’t dominant. How many DCs did he have in his career?
Yes he needled UGA and often the HC and B-M deserved it, then he backed it up. SEC media days were better with him. I’d love to have a beer with him when I vacation in his area of the Florida coast. I pass his house every year on the way to the beach.
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Every single coach Bama has hired since the 1930’s has won at least 10 games once. Spurrier was completely right when he said it’s not hard to win there. It was never the kind of job that would interest him.
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52-20. Nothing else matters.
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Spurrier is one of the best ever. He single-handedly turn Florida into the monster it became. Some here would probably say he underachieved because he only had 1 national championship with all that talent he had and wanted to spend time on the golf course or at the beach.
I’ll give Darth Visor his due. At his peak he could beat yours with his and turn around and beat his with yours.
This may be controversial, but I’ll take mid-90s Spurrier over Saban or Corch any day of the week.
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I think Saban is a better coach but SOS is more fun to watch, and I actually kinda find Saban amusing.
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I don’t think mid-90’s Spurrier would have existed if he had to deal with the recruiting efforts of peak Urban and Saban.
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That may be true, but Spurrier built his teams from Florida and South Georgia primarily. He was typically recruiting on friendly turf and had surrounded himself with assistants who were good at it. He would have gotten enough players to go head to head with those guys, and as an in-game coach, he won however he needed to.
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Spurrier on UGA recruiting.
“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?”
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Ray Goff and Jim Donnan are pretty damn far from Nick Saban and Urban Meyer.
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Champ Bailey, Hines Ward, Robert Edwards, Richard Seymour, Marcus Stroud, Randy McMichael, Terrence Edwards….
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“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?” ~Spurrier
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Is there a reason you posted the same quote that I posted earlier?
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I will take mid 90’s Spurrier over Saban and Corch. They won and won big. At least he is/was entertaining. Do not forget that UGA was not the only one he needled. Still think Free Shoes U is one of the best sports comments ever.
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The guy was insatiably competitive. To the point of spitefulness. That’s basically the only thing that drove his work ethic.
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I agree, Charles…Steve wanted to beat you at football or at a game of checkers…if you beat him, he would usually slink off and not say much but, if he beat you, he sure could be a prick…
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Respectfully disagree. Post the 97 game when Donnan beat him he made a comment that we were just better than them a lot better. I have that on a t-shirt. The Year Richt beat LSU and South Carolina at home between the hedges . Spurrier said “we just couldn’t stop them they just whipped our tails”
After his last game between the hedges….
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I like the voicemail he left Dabo Swinney
http://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/watch-dabo-swinney-shares-a-touching-voicemail-from-steve-spurrier/
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“Got to be the going not the getting there that’s good.” Greyhound/Chapin
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I think the image of not working hard was part of his Schtick. Not saying he was the hardest working coach, but Spurrier liked to look like a slacker/genius. I have read that he was often in the building by 5am, but specifically asked people not to tell anyone, lest it ruin his image.
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its just like I tell my kids; I don’t care how long or hard the other kids work, it pays to be smarter.
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I think that was his downfall as an NFL coach. I seem to remember an interview where someone asked him about the NFL workload, that other NFL coaches were working in to the wee hours of the morning 7 days a week, and Spurrier dismissed that as needless extra work.
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Honestly I think ol Steve gets too much credit. He came into the league at a time not too much unlike right now. Some really good coaches gone, some new unproven ones at some pretty important posts and one real competitor. He was a very good coach, but I just think elite or great is a bit of a stretch given the competition he was up against at the time.
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He won ACC titles at Duke. Duke.
He was the first Florida coach to win an SEC championship and the first to win a national championship.
He dragged SEC offensive philosophy out of the Stone Age by showing that you could use a passing game to win big.
Not sure what your point about coaches is, as Fulmer, Stallings, Bowden, among others, were nothing to sneer at.
If he’s not elite, you must have a very small group who qualify.
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And… who pre’ tel was he coaching against at Duke again? The accomplishment isn’t to be belittled, but he wasn’t competing against coaches who were of even skillsets. He was a man among boys in the ACC. No, he’s not elite but he is very damn good. Mind to mind… he was no better than Mark Richt. I could care less what happened prior to his arrival at Florida, for one he inherited a team full of players who were ill gotten. Even he joked in the 90s that if you’re going to take a team over, take one where the coach was fired for recruiting violations, cause the players are still there. The prior failures were those coaches failures, not a further illumination of his brilliance. If Richt had inherited Florida in teh 90s he’d have had as good a record if not better. Yes, he did change the league offensively. No doubt. Unless you subscribe to the Saban theory, which is a reverse of course back to ball control and defense but I digress. The simple point is he wasn’t competing against greatness when you consider the coaches he competed against at the time. You mentioned Stallings and Bowden, Bowden was 7-4 against Spurrier and Stallings had his number as well, i didn’t look it up but I believe they split with Stallings also winning an SEC and Natty. So to your point, the two good coaches he faced in that era he lost to… regularly. Yes… the list of elite really is pretty small, and Spurrier is absolutely not even close to being on it.
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I think we’re done here.
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lol, you concede too easily
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No, he just realizes jousting with a lost cause, is just that, a lost cause.
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His only NC came when he got a do over against FSU. He did dominate the East, but who was he beating? Fulmer? Not exactly Saban, right? And the West was a plug ugly mess back then. It may be wrong, but it isn’t as wrong as you think.
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Thank you lol… @senator and @alamosa… you should realize yours is an opinion no different than mine or anyone else. Just because you think it doesn’t make it fact… this entire conversation is subjective. But to 81dog’s and my point, the east was a dumpster fire in the 90’s; that isn’t debatable. The west was also in flux, couple good teams from Auburn, couple decent years from Bama including the NC team but no one with sustained success. The point is very simply had the league looked like it did from 2000-2012 Spurrier’s record would be DRAMATICALLY different and we would remember him very differently. He would have been 9-3 or 10-2 a lot more often. He would have won a few SEC CGs but not 6. Then the 10-2 average and say 3 SEC titles… sounds a lot like Richt.
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Spurrier demoted Ron Zook. Richt compiled a losing record against Zook. But, “Mind to mind… he was no better than Mark Richt.”
Yeah, I think my opinion is better than yours on that one.
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You’re missing the point and becoming a dick along the way to a pretty loyal reader… Mark screwed up and was far too loyal at times and it cost him his job. But you cannot say that he wasn’t a damn good coach at a period in time. Again, had the league looked like it did from 2000-2012 Spurrier’s record would be DRAMATICALLY different and we would remember him very differently. He would have been 9-3 or 10-2 a lot more often. He would have won a few SEC CGs but not 6. Then the 10-2 average and say 3 SEC titles… sounds a lot like Richt.
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You are arguing that your alternative history trumps reality. I can’t debate that.
As far as your latter day story goes, though, “Spurrier similarly brought the South Carolina program to unprecedented levels of success, leading the Gamecocks to three of the four 10-win seasons in program history, as well as the school’s only 11-win seasons, top-10 poll finishes, and its only SEC Championship Game appearance.” Considering the locale, that doesn’t sound like much of a drop off to me.
Further, “Spurrier retired as the winningest coach in both Florida and South Carolina history, and has the second most coaching wins in the history of the SEC behind only Bear Bryant.” That doesn’t sound a lot like Mark Richt to me.
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It’s not alternative history… it’s a conversation or perhaps a debate. One best had between friends over beer but none-the-less. If you don’t want the debate then don’t propose the question.
If Mark had spent 23 years in the league he’d have likely been the winningest coach in UGA history and right there with Spurrier all time in the league. You can’t compare a resume lacking 8 years. Look at the 208 wins in 23 SEC seasons and Spurrier had a 9.05 per year total… kinds like the guy that had a slightly higher SEC winning percentage. Richt’s .740 is higher than Spurrier’s .730.
Again I’m not saying Richt is elite… I’m saying Spurrier isn’t as good as he’s remembered as being. If Spurrier had had to match wits with the likes of Saban, Miles, Richt et al all during the nineties his record wouldn’t be as good as it is. And even if it was just one or two losses a year here or there Spurrier would be remembered very differently. If you can argue that…
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I didn’t ask the question if Richt was Spurrier’s coaching equal. That’s a question I would never think to ask.
If you’re playing the “if” game — which you appear to be doing again here — then that indeed is a variation from actual history. (And while we’re at it, what do you think having to rebuild the SC program after Holtz left it in a shambles would have done for Richt’s record if he’d been the one to take that job?)
Look, if you want to argue Spurrier wasn’t an elite coach based on his record, that’s an argument. I wouldn’t agree, but as far as it goes, you’re certainly entitled to make it. It’s the insistence that Richt and Spurrier stand on equal footing that, honestly, I can’t find defensible based on their actual bodies of work. I doubt you’d find many people who would.
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If I were choosing/voting for a Final 4 playoff of best CFB coaches ever, I would select Steve Spurrier to be in that elite group. As an in-game play caller and strategist, I would just give him the title out right with no playoff needed.
I have spent a lot of personal time with him over the years as both a Florida HC, the Redskins HC, and a SC HC. Based on that I can confirm that he is as competitive, and witty as rumored, at everything he does. I feel most would be surprised about how ethical he is, and how much he is involved with family. My only disappointing view of him was how he backed off of discipline in Columbia. In my opinion, his obsession and focus with beating UGA was real, primarily driven by his playing experience at FU. That last loss really got him and stood squarely in the way of his competitive goals, both team and personal. I really think he actually hates TN more than UGA though.
Also, he did marry exceedingly well, Gerri is a gem of a wife that has probably put her head under the covers at times with situations ans controversies he gets embroiled in. Those who feel it would be fun to be around him in social situations out of the arena are spot on. He is articulate and alert on many subjects and more interested in hearing from you than talking about his accomplishments. As with interviews you see with him, he doesn’t dodge any questions you ask, he is brutally honest and genuine in comments he makes, the guy doesn’t have a filter. That wouldn’t serve him well in many positions but it always makes for an interesting day or evening.
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Oh, and he is no slacker. He is consumed with winning and works as hard as it takes to give him an edge. Now you can balance that with the comment about family, I have no doubt he puts in fewer hours than many, but he isn’t ever really off duty in preparing, and he does feel assistants should carry the primary load, and travel work in recruiting.
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