Steve Spurrier recently joked that he liked playing Georgia early in the season because the Bulldogs always seem to have a number of players suspended at that point (and they will again this season, too). Considering that wisecrack, the Ol’ Ballcoach should probably expect some backlash from the weak brand of discipline he decided to display this weekend.
Less than a week after being arrested in North Carolina for speeding and driving after consuming alcohol — not a DUI — backup quarterback Tanner McEvoy is back on the Gamecock team. Talk about a whirlwind suspension.
But here’s the odd part. Coming off numerous alcohol-related incidents and suspensions and finally a university-forced dismissal of ex-quarterback Stephen Garcia, you’d think Spurrier would want to nip such behavior in the Bud(weiser) with his redshirt freshman, McEvoy. Instead, the coach was pretty flippant regarding the whole deal:
“Tanner’s back. He’s been approved to come back to the team. Do you know what he got arrested for? He told me… I think South Carolina doesn’t have that law. North Carolina has that law (about underage people not being allowed to drink any alcohol at all before driving). He got arrested for it, and he’ll pay his fine. You want him suspended for having a beer and he’s underage? How many football players would be playing if they had a beer and they were underage? Buy anyway, go talk to coach Tanner (athletic director Ray Tanner) about that, if we’re going to suspend him, OK? I’m not going to suspend him for that, all right? But I don’t if he’s going to play anyway.”
Are college kids going to drink? Yep. Should McEvoy be flogged or pilloried for his transgression? Nope. But should a coach who’s promised parents he’ll take care of their sons — that’s the typical recruiting line from all coaches — be tossing out a “boys will be boys” defense that some players could take to mean he’s all for sudsing it up? Also very much nope.
What might Garcia think of all this? He was suspended five times before being dismissed from his team and the majority of those suspensions were tied to alcohol. Now McEvoy has an alcohol-related arrest and Spurrier laughs it off. What message does that send?
Also, does Spurrier’s comment — “I think South Carolina doesn’t have that law” — mean that he’ll now only punish players based on their actions within the jurisdiction of Palmetto State law enforcement officers? That might get a little tricky at some point.
Just to make this clear — ’cause we know a few Gamecock fans will twist what we’ve written to fit their own agenda — McEvoy doesn’t deserve to be hanged and Spurrier couldn’t prevent college-age kids from drinking if he tried. But taking the nonchalant approach is not the right way to go on this thing. A one-game suspension for a kid fighting to be Connor Shaw’s backup would not be over the top in the least. And it might send the message that a Carolina football player can expect their to be some consequences to bad actions.
Until Spurrier is ready to put his money where his ever-flapping mouth is, it might be best if he pipe down about the discipline being meted out at Georgia or any other SEC schools.
(Preemptive strike to the “you hate Spurrier” buffoon brigade that will assuredly chime in on this one:
http://www.mrsec.com/2012/07/spurrier-says-carolina-will-do-more-running-pick-its-spots-to-pass/
http://mrsec.com/2012/01/carolinas-best-season-ever-was-also-spurriers-best-season-ever/)
look at Coach Spurrier's comments after the gamecocks practice on Saturday (August 11) on gogamecocks.com and he states that he can have a beer after practice and then drive home - then he thinks about it and kinda trails off - and says something to the effect of well I think I am allowed to do that and then he goes on to state if the athletic director wants to handle it more strictly than maybe they need to find them a new football coach ....
I am a Spurrier fan but was disturbed that he defended the right to drink a beer and drive if you are not legally intoxicated - not sure what the laws are in each state but most states frown on the idea of drinking and driving - irregardless of the quantity ...
Maybe Dooley and Spurrier get along well for another good reason. They have the same attitudes about their players' misdeeds. Both situations are a similar problem. The USCe QB did something against the law, got caught at it, and brought bad press down on himself and the program. Just because Tyler did not get charged, he might as well have been since it became public, he admitted doing it, and he agree to restitution. Those actions are probably what kept him from being charged. Spurrier and Dooley are reacting the same way. They blow it off as stupid and tell them to get back to practice. Don't think either one of them handled the press after the fact very well at all. But with Spurrier you have an accomplished top head coach doing it. He gets away with it. With Dooley you have what appears as a smart aleck lawyer with a poor head coaching track record saying it. If he has another lousy season it will be used against him as another excuse to say goodbye.
Thank you John for calling a spade a spade! Spurrier commonly shoots his mouth off criticizing other teams and/or poking fun at problems at other schools kind of like a cocky 8th grader who just won a kickball game. This is why fans of other schools consider him an arrogant jerk and why some media members love him as a "good quote" even if what he is saying does not reflect the truth. With regard to Dooley and Tennessee, think if you look at his record of discipline from a completely unbiased view, he has suspended or disciplined a number of players, both starters and reserves, pretty evenly in the past. His remarks about Bray's incident, however, were as stupid as Spurrier's. He just didn't jab any other teams in his remarks, so at least I am thankful for that.
At Tennessee a player can drink underage and commit felony destruction of property twice and Dooley will be even more flippant. Bray wasn't suspended for even a minute.
Agree, sort of. Only two things make this situation different. 1. Tyler Bray wasn't arrested and McEvoy was. 2. I was on vacation when Bray started throwing bottles. If not, you'd have read right here that Derek Dooley shoudn't say "we take these matters seriously" in one breath and then joke about his quarterback's throwing accuracy the next.
And Dooley has a history of looking the other way when his star players get into trouble.
John
Hardly unsubstantiated when I get it from people inside the Tennessee football complex.
Discipline is discipline in my view. Coaches who make light of discipline issues -- whether it's an arrest at Carolina or vandalism at Tennessee -- are asking for more discipline issues.
I'll support you on your point that Dooley doesn't take shots at other schools. I'm not big on coaches doing that... be it Mullen at Ole Miss or Spurrier at, well, everybody. But I mad that clear in the original post.
John
Wow John, lots of unsubstatiated rumors and hearsay there in your reply. Thought we were discussing suspended players for arrests, which I would not equate with yelling at coaches or dumb posts on Twitter (maybe you would). For the record, Janzen Jackson was suspended by Kiffin, then reportedly failed drug test in off season, was off team for several months, supposedly went home and got his life straightened out, returned and then was kicked off team by Dooley. Myles and Clear, both starters, were not suspended, but kicked off team after arrests for serious charges. Bray and Rogers not arrested or charged with a crime though both obviously did stupid things. Anyway, was just appreciating that you called Spurrier's remarks dumb and pointing out that player arrested was not suspended when an SC fan tried to shift focus to Dooley. Again, at least he doesn't publicly take shots at other schools and for that, I am thankful. Have a nice day.
No, I mean big-time starters like Janzen Jackson who got 20 chances under Dooley before finally failing so many drug tests that the University of Tennessee booted him, not Dooley.
I mean guys like Da'Rick Rogers who yelled at his coach on the sideline during a game last year -- you don't see that much in the NFL, much less in college -- skipped out on some workouts, Tweeted about transferring to Georgia State, etc.
I mean guys like Tyler Bray who've been in repeated scrapes on Knoxville's Cumberland Avenue and who the coach himself said had made "lifestyle changes" over the summer... just a week before he vandalized a car (and the witness to that event suspiciously had her own car vandalized a day later).
That's what I'm talking about. And whether you choose to believe it or not, some of the assistants that flew Dooley's coop this past offseason did so in part because they felt Dooley allowed his star inmates to run the asylum. That double-standard was also discussed by a number of last year's seniors as they exited Tennessee.
Doesn't mean Dooley can't coach or won't win. Just means there's a track record of star players getting very, very lenient treatment from the head coach... to the point that some players and some assistants had a problem with it.
John
LMAO He's had that attitude towards his players for decades now. He doesn't give a crap about those players. Ain't but one person Coach "Throws like a girl" cares about and that's Coach "Throws like a girl" Nothing is surprising about this.
So South Carolina doesn't have a law that says an underage person can't drink? What would the term 'underage' mean then? And pretty sure every state restricts drinking to 21 although I want to say Louisiana is an exception.
@AllTideUp The law is not a definition of underage drinking. The law that he violated was that he drank before driving.
@NOT a Carolina fan Under South Carolina law, DUI for someone under 21 is .02. So one beer would count in the Palmetto State as well.
@NOT a Carolina fan I'm not familiar with this particular law. I saw that John said it wasn't a DUI so that made me think the arrest was related to his being underage.
I'm still a little bit confused by this. Unless NC prohibits someone from drinking at all before they drive then I'm wondering what the basis of the arrest was. I thought all states had a legal limit even though some are smaller than others.
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@AllTideUp @NOT a Carolina fan
North Carolina has a DUI law. But the state apparently also has a law that says underage drinkers can't get behind a wheel whether they've had one beer or 20. In other words, the legal limit for underage drivers is zero-point-zero.
McEvoy had something to drink and then got behind the wheel. So his being underage did have something to do with the arrest.
John
As a Gamecock fan and alumnus I totally agree with the article. Of course college kids are going to drink. But I think Steve Spurrier would have been wiser to navigate around this question from the reporter. Something like that is better left unsaid. I am worried about the backlash.
Ian...
Exactly. This is not the end of the world, but it was not handled very well, either. The backlash may require USC's new AD or Spurrier to have to backtrack and say, "We take these type things seriously," but I doubt anything too bad will come of it.
The coach needs to be smart enough to know how to handle this after so many years in the game, though. Especially if he's going to lob discipline jokes at other schools.
Spurrier always seems to talk bigger and a little looser when he's winning. That makes for good press conferences, but it also means he'll occasionally put his foot in his mouth.
Thanks for reading,
John
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