Spurrier Interview

[Neo]

All About Steve

The University of South Carolina’s football team made national news the weekend of Nov. 20 when it was involved in a nasty and rather lengthy brawl during the fourth quarter of its game with its in-state rival, the Clemson Tigers. The fallout included the Gamecocks forfeiting their eligibility to play in a post-season bowl game, as well as the suspension of six players from the first game of the 2005 season. (The total would have been nine, but three of the players were seniors and therefore already ineligible to return to the team.)

The fight was still fresh in the minds of both fans and sports commentators on Nov. 22 when, after six years, head football coach Lou Holtz announced his retirement from the Gamecocks. USC had not yet declined its bowl eligibility (that came later on the same day), nor had the Southeastern Conference handed down its suspensions. Speaking of his team at his retirement press conference, Holtz said, “Good or bad, they’re still your players. You still love them. You still try to work with them. It’s like your children.”

The national media turned its eyes to Columbia once again on Nov. 23 when Steve Spurrier was announced as the Gamecocks’ new head football coach. Even for a team that had just been led by Holtz — the only college coach ever to take four different teams into the Top 20 — Spurrier represented a coup. During his 12 seasons with the University of Florida (1990-2001), Spurrier led the Gators to 122 wins, six SEC championships and one national title. In the history of the SEC, a conference largely touted for its dominance in football, Spurrier has the highest percentage of wins at .861. Among active NCAA coaches at the Division I level, Spurrier is the second most successful, with a winning percentage of .777.

Even with his stellar record, however, Spurrier faces numerous obstacles in trying to get the Gamecocks on a winning path: a program with a persistently mediocre track record; a shortened recruiting period because of Spurrier’s late arrival to the team; repeated discipline problems; and a run-oriented team unaccustomed to Spurrier’s pass-oriented offense. And with Spurrier coming off an unsuccessful stint in the National Football League, there’s also the question of whether his college magic can strike again.

After his highly successful run with the Gators, Spurrier left in 2001 to try his hand at the next level — coaching the NFL’s Washington Redskins for two seasons. He resigned in December 2003 after going 12-20.

What went wrong?

“Many people attributed Spurrier’s lack of success to the learning curve that goes along with being a new head coach,” wrote ESPN analyst (and former NFL running back) Merril Hoge. “He didn’t learn anything. Spurrier tried to do things his way — the college way. Well, the college way doesn’t fly in the NFL.” Hoge continued, “Spurrier never learned how to prepare in this league. He didn’t even have a playbook, which is the staple of any organization. Spurrier never established direction, and therefore his players never knew where they were going.”


St. Petersburg Times (Tampa Bay) columnist Gary Shelton added, “Look, there are pro coaches and college coaches. Maybe Spurrier was meant for college ball.”

As Spurrier sets out to improve USC’s football program, there’s an unprecedented amount of attention on him and the program, even with the first official game still two months away. About 2,500 fans attended the team’s first spring practice, and more than 38,000 filed into Williams-Brice stadium to watch the annual Garnet and Black Spring Game, which is essentially an organized scrimmage. The “game” was also nationally televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU. Furthermore, the Gamecocks’ first three games in 2005 will be nationally televised, with ESPN bringing its SportsCenter program to Columbia for the first time for the season opener on Sept. 1. Perhaps even more remarkable is the announcement that a radio station in Gainesville, home to the University of Florida, will broadcast USC’s football games this year.

Even for a publication that historically hasn’t devoted much space to sports, the phenomenon surrounding Spurrier’s presence in Columbia is impossible to ignore. And just as this is a novel story for Free Times, speaking with Spurrier was also a new and interesting experience.

This reporter made a formal request for a one-on-one interview in early May and was told to be at the ready, because Spurrier has a reputation for not giving reporters much lead time. True to form, we were told on the evening of June 6 that Spurrier would meet with us and two additional reporters at his office on June 8. The three of us could take turns asking him questions. This was an entirely unfamiliar format.

Spurrier’s office is on the third floor of the Floyd Building, located at the North End Zone of Williams-Brice Stadium. Stepping into his office, the smell draws immediate attention. It’s not an offensive smell. Rather, it has that “laundry that has been dried on the line” smell — a bit of sun and a bit of grass. Then there is Spurrier’s enormous Heisman Trophy, which was awarded to him in 1966 as quarterback for the Florida Gators. And finally, a glance out his window affords an awesome view of the stadium.

Five of us gathered at Spurrier’s desk. Behind him was a wall of books featuring titles from famous football coaches like Paul “Bear” Bryant, Mike Ditka, Bill Walsh and former USC basketball coach Frank McGuire. To the left were Dexter Hudson and Glenn Snyder of Spurs and Feathers, the fan publication for the Gamecock Club. Assistant athletic director Michelle Schmitt was seated to the right and asked questions on behalf of Ron Aiken of the fan publication Gamecock Illustrated. All answers provided by Spurrier were given during this interview but are not necessarily to questions asked exclusively by Free Times.


With his outstanding record, Spurrier could have gone to just about any university in the country. Still, he chose USC, calling it “the right place and the right time” at his first press conference.

Asked in his office on June 8 about his overwhelmingly positive reception thus far, Spurrier says, “Our coaching staff appreciates these fans. It makes all of us as players and coaches want to succeed not only for ourselves, but for our fans. The Carolina football fans have been extremely supportive over the years, and I’ve said many times that hopefully they can start collecting on the dues they’ve paid year after year after year. It may not be this year, but hopefully real soon.”

Spurrier inherits a program that is just 500-507-44 (.486) in its history. But with him on the sidelines, talk of a championship-caliber program is inevitable. Twice before coming to USC, Spurrier helped lift two lackluster programs to never-before-seen heights. The Duke Blue Devils were 4-7 in 1986 — the year before Spurrier took over — and in his three seasons, they recorded 20 wins, claimed the 1989 Atlantic Coast Conference championship and earned Spurrier ACC coach of the year honors in 1988 and ‘89. CONTINUED...

[Neo]

The Florida Gators fared a bit better before Spurrier took over, with a record of 7-5 in 1989. When Spurrier joined the program in 1990, he quickly led the team to its first nine-win season. In his 12 seasons with Florida, he led the Gators to nine seasons of 10 or more wins.

With that record, there is some basis for fans’ expectations that Spurrier can transform the Gamecocks into a national powerhouse. Then again, history has also taught the Gamecock faithful that there are no guarantees. Even Holtz, who is eighth on the all-time win list in major college football history, couldn’t post a better record than 33-37 during his six years in Columbia. Prior to his term at USC, Holtz only had five losing seasons in 27 years; he had three with the Gamecocks.

Wisely, Spurrier is setting expectations at “realistic” and “achievable” levels, admitting his goals aren’t as high as they where when he was at Florida “simply because of where we are” in relation to the rest of the SEC.

“If I thought we had a team that could win the SEC this year, I’d be out there talking it. But it would be a long shot,” he says. “I just don’t know what kind of team we’re going to have. I have no idea right now. I think we’ll be a very competitive team. I think we’ve got a chance to do some good things, but we’ve got a long, long way to go from that last day of spring practice.”


Because Spurrier signed on with USC at the end of November, the Gamecocks had only about two months before the early February signing deadline to exploit his reputation as a successful, high-scoring coach in their effort to attract the most talented high school players.

Still, it seems the Spurrier name is already having an effect. He says one booster told him that of the 27 freshmen signed, 18 of them didn’t have USC listed among their top five choices before he became head coach. In the signing day press conference on Feb. 2, Spurrier said, “As we have gone about recruiting these last couple of months, our goal is to make the University of South Carolina a fun place to be a football player. To do that, we need to graduate our players. Our players need to be solid citizens, and we have got to win some championships along the way. We have got to beat the Georgias and the Tennessees and Floridas. We can’t keep being a middle-of-the-pack school here, so that’s what we’re all about.”

Also speaking at the Feb. 2 press conference, recruiting coordinator and assistant coach Rick Stockstill confirms that Spurrier’s presence made his job easier. “It was easy to go in and sell him as your head coach. They all know what he’s done at the places he’s been and the success that he’s had, and that made it easy to get in the door. His name got us in a lot of doors that might have been previously closed.”

Complicating Spurrier’s task, however, is his propensity to use a pass-based offense at a school that favored the run under Holtz’s tenure. Therefore, Spurrier had to scramble to find players that would fit with his style of coaching. By the signing deadline, the Gamecock’s recruiting class was ranked 22nd and 19th in the country by Rivals.com and Scout.com, respectively.

Success with recruiting is essential at a time when sports fans and commentators are speculating that Spurrier could start 10 or more freshmen this year. “I don’t have a count,” Spurrier says. “These freshmen kids are excited about coming in and competing and getting on the field … Some of these older guys that have not been sharp? They need to get sharper, or the freshmen will play.”


While Spurrier only had about two months to recruit new players, he had even less time to assemble a coaching staff that can refashion USC’s football program in his image. Of his 11 assistants, eight are in their first year with the Gamecocks, two are in their second and one is in his fourth.

“We’re a wait-and-see team,” Spurrier says. “I think we could be pretty good, but I’m not going to go out and say it right now until we can prove we can play with Georgia and Tennessee and Florida and Auburn and so forth. We’re still fourth in the East until we can prove differently.”


If finding new players was one issue, dealing with those he inherited has been another one. This is nothing new for him, as it was widely known that he had difficulties controlling his players when he was with the Redskins. “You’ve got to be in charge of your team,” Spurrier says in reference to his time in Washington, D.C. “You’ve got to be the boss, and that’s why it’s so much fun and so much more exciting what I’m doing again right now.”

Since forfeiting its bowl eligibility in the wake of the fight with Clemson, the Gamecocks racked up 12 offseason arrests for such acts as theft, breaking and entering, assault, drug possession and driving under the influence of alcohol. In addition, USC’s leading rusher in its two previous seasons, Demetris Summers, was released from the team on March 1 for a violation of athletics department policy (the department would not reveal the nature of the violation). The suspension of running back hopeful Cory Boyd on June 23 brought the offseason total to five dismissals and four suspensions (their status is pending further investigation). Of the six initial players suspended from the 2005 season opener for the Clemson incident, two have been dismissed from the team entirely after additional violations.

Spurrier makes a point, however, to differentiate between players who were arrested for stealing team memorabilia and those who stole computer equipment, noting the latter are no longer with the team. “I was a little frustrated with all the guys getting arrested for taking the pictures from the locker room, the hallway down there. You know, remembering back when I was in college, I might’ve would’ve done something like that — you know, took my picture … to be arrested for that and to have to serve about 80 community hours, I thought that was a little bit of a stiff penalty for a college kid. We’re not all perfect at that age.”

As for the computer thefts and more serious transgressions, Spurrier calls the incidents “unfortunate,” adding that it can also be a helpful reminder to his players that they need to stay in line if they want to play for him. “We lost some players who chose that they didn’t want to play football for Carolina,” Spurrier says. “When they committed the acts they did, they basically knew they were finished.”

Throughout all that has happened with the arrests, dismissals and suspensions, Spurrier has taken responsibility for the actions conducted by players recruited under Holtz’s system. When asked about the fairness of the situation, Spurrier says, “That was a TV guy trying to get me to blame somebody else, so I just said, ‘Hey, if you’re going to blame somebody, you can blame me.’ I’m the head coach here, and it happened under my watch.” Spurrier says he’s had so much praise over the years that a little criticism won’t hurt that much.


With all the instability and uncertainty surrounding the kind of players he will have at his disposal, Spurrier is keeping standards low when talking about what it will take to consider 2005 a successful season. “Basically, we want our players to compete the entire season — every game — and if we’re good enough to have a good year, that’s fine. I think our minimum goal every year will be to have a winning record and go to a bowl game. It would be disappointing if we didn’t do that.”

As far as what he thinks expectations of Gamecock fans will be, he says USC fans are pretty much the same as everywhere else. “They want to see their team in good shape, physically. They want to see them play the entire game. They want to see them play with discipline, effort — discipline and play to win,” he says. “They don’t want to see a bunch of guys playing like crap, hot-dogging around, showing their tails and stuff like that — stupid acts, individual play. They want to see a team play together and play smart and all those kinds of things. That’s our main goal right there, and the wins and losses take care of themselves.”

It’s a positive and encouraging outlook for Gamecock fans, but the task remains a difficult one.

To get some perspective on the job he has before him, Free Times asked Spurrier about his most difficult challenge as a football coach and how this compared. “I don’t have an answer for that one,” he said.

Maybe it’s because he hasn’t been asked a question like that before. Or maybe it’s because Spurrier tries to remain a forward-looking coach.

“As a coach, I’ve never dwelled on the past,” he says. “You can learn from it, but don’t dwell on it … We’re talking about our team having a positive attitude and our team trying to simply be the best that we can be. And if we can do those things — play with discipline, play with effort, be in top physical condition — certainly our chances are a lot better.”

As Spurrier attempts to ignite USC’s football program, he will no doubt face high hopes and expectations — not to mention intense scrutiny. In considering the odds on USC making a turnaround — sudden, lasting or neither — it seems clear that Spurrier’s leadership will be as vital as his team’s performance.

http://free-times.com/archive/coverstory_05/spurrier.html

[GTmorris1970]

Excellent read. Thanks.

[scunyon]

Good read.

I have the utmost confidence in the ability of Spurrier to coach, mentor and motivate the Gamecocks, but it's really going to be about the players doing their jobs on the field that will pile up the wins this and in forthcoming years.

[Neo]

Excellent read. Thanks.


Your welcome and I agree.....

I just have a "knack" for finding these good articles. :cool: (Stroking ego)

[GTmorris1970]

Your welcome and I agree.....

I just have a "knack" for finding these good articles. :cool: (Stroking ego)

LOL....Yes you do. I cannot get enough of the Visored One. Any articles about him are always appreciated. :)

[USC66]

Thanks for finding that one Neo. Great read.