Spurrier Doesn’t Give Anyone Break

In his first stint as a head coach, with the U.S. Football League’s Tampa Bay Bandits, Steve Spurrier ordered an onside kick on the opening kickoff against the Memphis Showboats.

The Bandits recovered and scored.

Spurrier then ordered another onside kick. The Bandits recovered and scored again.

“Embarrassment is part of the game to him,” Memphis coach Pepper Rodgers remarked afterward.

Spurrier won his 1990 debut at the University of Florida, 50-7, and wasn’t crazy about the 7.

He likes telling the joke about the fire at Auburn that destroyed 20 books, the tragedy being 15 of them hadn’t been colored yet.

When some Florida State players got caught with their feet in the NCAA cookie jar for taking shoes in a shopping spree, Spurrier started calling FSU “Free Shoes University.”

His game-day attire - V-cut vest sweater and white visor - might be described as early Fred Couples. As the game unfolds, the visor can expect to end up filthy and flogged.

Spurrier is 50, but looks 35. The golf get-up? When he’s not ringing up 50-point victories, he’s a scratch player.

When Spurrier gets peeved, his face turns sourpuss, the lower lip protruding like a 2-year-old who pushes away his oatmeal.

When a reporter gave Auburn’s Terry Bowden the coaching edge over Spurrier in a pregame graphic, Spurrier called the publisher to complain.

Since taking over at Florida, Spurrier’s Gators have gone 61-12-1 and won four Southeastern Conference titles, the last three in succession, a feat matched only by Bear Bryant.

Today, in the Fiesta Bowl, the 12-0 Gators seek the school’s first national championship.

So, what’s not to like about Steve Spurrier?

Until Spurrier, Florida football had captured no official SEC titles (a 1984 crown was vacated for NCAA violations).

Spurrier’s Fun ‘N Gun offense, (he prefers “Air Ball”) has sent SEC coaches screaming into the night to scour the backwoods for linebackers capable of defending Florida’s space-age speed.

Spurrier goes through quarterbacks like socks. There have been 14 since his arrival.

This relates to a theory Spurrier shares with Charles Darwin.

Terry Dean got blown out after tossing four interceptions against Auburn in 1994. He emerged from a dressing-down with Spurrier to announce that “my knees were shaking.”

Spurrier drives quarterbacks like a mule team. “He treats them like pros,” one Florida writer says. “If he’d have had a waiver wire, Terry Dean would have been put on waivers.”

If you live to tell about it, though, you can become Danny Wuerffel, the clean-cut, pearl-polished quarterback, who set an NCAA record for efficiency at 178.4.

“I would rather play for a coach who demands perfection than one who accepts mediocrity,” Wuerffel says.

If Spurrier is rougher on quarterbacks than the rest of the squad, he hasn’t noticed.

“If the right guard misses a block a lot of times, I’ll yell at him,” Spurrier says playfully. “If you’re going to yell at one, yell at them all. Keep them all happy.”

Every time an NFL job opens up, Spurrier’s name jumps to the top of the list.

Though flattered, it kills him to know SEC coaches use it against him in recruiting.

Just to be fair (wink), Spurrier last week endorsed Tennessee’s Phil Fulmer for the NFL vacancy in Tampa Bay.

So, what’s not to like about Spurrier?

He is a former Heisman Trophy winner (1966), Sugar Bowl most valuable player, first-round draft pick, 10-year NFL backup, and quite probably the best college football coach in America.

Naturally, because he has not glad-handed or apologized for any of this, there is a current of scorn that flows throughout the SEC.

“No question, there is some resentment out there,” says Norm Carlson, Florida assistant athletic director and longtime Spurrier friend. “When you’re beating everybody’s butts, by large margins, there’s going to be resentment.”

Maybe it’s human nature that some people just can’t stand someone else’s success, especially when that someone seems to bask in it.

“A lot of people don’t like what he does,” another SEC assistant coach confides. “But if I don’t like it, my job is to stop it. I don’t like people putting up 73 points. But if you don’t like it, do something about it.”

Spurrier doesn’t buy the notion that his success has bred contempt.

“I’ve got a lot of friends in the coaching world,” he says. “I like everybody. I don’t know any coach out there I don’t like, to tell you the truth, and I think they all like me.”

Carlson, Florida’s sports information director when Spurrier won his Heisman, says Spurrier gets in trouble because he’s too blunt.

“Sometimes that creates ill feelings,” Carlson says. “Steve speaks his mind. He doesn’t hide behind cliches.”

Arkansas’ Danny Ford, maybe Spurrier’s best friend among SEC coaches, has another word for the criticism.

“I think it’s jealousy,” Ford says.

No matter what anyone thinks of him personally, no one can deny Spurrier his due.

“It doesn’t matter whether you like Steve or not,” one coordinator says. “It doesn’t take away the fact he’s a good football coach. You can throw all that other stuff out. I respect what he does as a coach.”

The proof is in the poundings.

Spurrier has re-invented the SEC with his attack offense. Since landing in Gainesville in 1990, he has led Florida to its first 10-, 11-, and 12-victory seasons.

This year’s team averaged an SEC-record 534.4 yards in per-game offense, of which 360.8 were passing yards. The Gators averaged 44.5 points per game, also an SEC record.

The SEC, accustomed to grind-it-out football, has had to adjust rapidly.

“If you can’t spread it around and sling it around, you’re in trouble,” LSU defensive coordinator Carl Reese says. “It all started when he came in the league.”

So what if Spurrier’s act sticks in a few craws?

“People that describe him as confident and cocky and obnoxious are the teams that we beat routinely,” says Florida receiver Chris Doering.