Spurrier will land; question is where?
It’s time to play Where’s Stevie? Ever since his alma mater, Florida, snubbed him, Steve Spurrier – you might know him as college football’s most available coach – has been linked to numerous jobs. The fact is this: Spurrier wants to coach in a warm-weather climate.
The rumored front-runner: South Carolina. Even though Gamecocks coach Lou Holtz is campaigning for Spurrier should Holtz retire, it’s not a lock. Spurrier likely will wait to see how things shake out before making a decision. The NFL will be a factor, but only because coaches such as LSU’s Nick Saban and Georgia Tech’s Chan Gailey could move back into the league – and both of those jobs are more attractive than South Carolina’s. So is the Clemson job, which looks like a possibility with the Tigers’ unthinkable loss to Duke. One more intriguing possibility: Alabama. Don’t think the Tide wouldn’t jettison Mike Shula for Spurrier.
Get Big East out of BCS
It’s time to take away the Big East’s automatic bid to the BCS. Boston College, which is putting together an impressive season in its last year in the Big East, rolled league-favorite West Virginia last week and all but locked up its first BCS bid. One problem: B.C. would be middle of the road – at best – in its new league, the ACC. Adding Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida to the Big East isn’t going to make it better. Giving the league’s automatic BCS bid to the highest-ranked team among the Big East and non-BCS schools is the next logical step. … If it hadn’t been for some truly pathetic and unimaginative play-calling on a series that started with a first-and-goal at the 1, Indiana would’ve beaten Penn State, and coach Joe Paterno would’ve been figuring a way to bail out gracefully in Happy Valley. That one victory – because of ineptitude from Indiana – likely gave Paterno another year to straighten out the mess. … Kansas coach Mark Mangino likely will receive a hefty fine from the Big 12 for his critical comments about officiating in a 27-23 loss to Texas.