You Can Start Work On Spurrier’s Coaching Obituary

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Steve Spurrier’s Head Coaching Career
Stephen Orr Spurrier’s Career, The Ol’ Ballcoach.  Aged 20 seasons.  Died, Columbia, South Carolina of an illness known as Stale-itis.
Born 1987 in Durham, North Carolina.  An eight-time winner of ACC and SEC “coach of the year” awards, Spurrier’s career also spanned seven conference championships and one national title.  His career is survived by the South Carolina football program, which gained great exposure and a better recruiting base under his leadership.

Look.  No one would be happier to see Steve Spurrier smirking from the top branch of the SEC coaching tree than me. 

I think his rapier wit and sideline shenanigans are good for the SEC.  Whether you view him as a villain or hero, it’s good to have someone with a little personality in the league.  (And I’m talking about someone who’s funny with his zingers, not someone who just lobs lots of them.)

Alas, last night looked like the beginning of the end for Spurrier at South Carolina.  In fact, last night looked a lot like many previous nights from the ol’ ballcoach’s reign in Columbia:

An ugly, sputtering offense.  A defense tough enough to win a few games.  A kicking game that is once again woefully lacking.

Raise your hand if you think Carolina looks like a 6- or 7-win football team this season. 

I thought so.

And 6 or 7 wins, I don’t believe, will bring Spurrier back for 2010.  The catcalls that began last season — and grew in volume after the Outback Bowl — will be heard in Columbia again today.  Why would Spurrier put up with that?

Like Phillip Fulmer before him, Spurrier is proof that it’s a lot easier to win when you have better cards than everyone else at the table.  In the 1990s, the two men owned the SEC.  Their programs had better athletes than the rest of the league.  (That’s not a knock mind you, as they were the men who recruited that talent to their alma maters.)

But the SEC got better around them.  Fulmer saw his Tennessee program decline.  Spurrier switched schools, but he’s learning the same lesson now — without a huge talent advantage, it’s not easy to keep doing the same old things and win.

It eventually cost Fulmer his job.  It looks like it will cost Spurrier his… eventually.

Talent is more evenly distributed now than it was 15 years ago.  Don’t believe me?  Look at programs like South Florida, Rutgers, Cincinnati, TCU, Boise State and Utah which have all sprung to life in the past decade.

But Spurrier must realize, too, that he’s not getting very good results with the ace recruits he does land.  He’s improved Carolina’s recruiting, but it’s not making a difference in performance. 

And last night Carolina wasn’t matched up against a superior Florida squad.  They were matched up with a middle of the road ACC team.  At worst, USC had equal talent than the Wolfpack.  More likely, their talent was better.  Yet the Gamecocks looked themselves like a middle of the road ACC team.

Perhaps the issue is still the quarterback position.  Indeed for all the hotshot recruits in the world, the key player on any team is still the signal-caller.

Put Stephen Garcia on Ole Miss’ roster and tell me if they’d be ranked in the preseason Top 10.  Put Jevan Snead in Columbia and tell me Carolina wouldn’t be better.

But it was Spurrier who once had the reputation of being a “quarterback guru.”  Well, apparently he’s lost his magic wand. 

From Chris Smelley to Tommy Beecher to Garcia, the coach has kept right on badmouthing his guys in the press, only to see his Great Santini approach fail time and again to have the desired effect.

So now it looks like the beginning of the end for the ol’ ballcoach.  Perhaps USC’s offense will turn a corner (though after five years it looks like they’re just driving on one incredibly long block).  Perhaps their defense will be so stifling that they can win 9 or more games by scores of 7-3, 9-6 or 10-7. 

But neither you nor I believe that will happen.  Even though I’d like to see it. 

As I said above, I like having Spurrier in the league.  But I think I’d better enjoy him while I can.  After last night, it looks like I’m only going to be seeing him for a few more months.

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