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All-In [26552]
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This guy gets it ...
Aug 10, 2009, 7:46 AM
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I smell a Pulitzer!
http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/08/06/time-to-hang-the-visor-up/
Remember when a youthful Steve Spurrier made news for running up the score and drumming up controversy with his rivals via witty and debilitating quips? And how he always seemed to have receivers running in the open field? With every nervous and jittery tic of his body as he called a play, you expected a touchdown to ensue. On every snap you held your breath, shook with fear, and hoped that your pregame beer wasn't about to trickle down your leg. As the ball was snapped, you had but one thought: what horrible doom was impending for your team?
It got to the point in the '90s when you were happy if Spurrier's team only completed a pass for 20 yards. Even if the Gators were your rivals, you respected Spurrier's puckish wit, the way his eyes, nestled up under a visor, lit up when he saw a play that appealed to him on his play card. Love him or hate him, Spurrier left no doubt that he adored what he was doing.
All that's changed.
Now, Spurrier seems weary, At long last, the fun in the fun-and-gun offense, is gone. Now all that's left is a gun. And sometimes, you get the feeling Spurrier would rather be hunting in the woods with that gun than standing on the sideline in Columbia, S.C.
There was a time when every fan in the SEC wanted Steve Spurrier to be their coach. After a scorching defeat at the hands of the Gators, fans would crack open cold beers and stare off into the distance. "That Spurrier," they'd whisper, "I wish he was ours."
It wasn't just that Spurrier dominated, it was that he was a genius-- l'enfant terrible--Van Gogh in a visor. The football field was his canvas. Where other coaches in the SEC fought tooth and nail to gain three yards, Spurrier tossed 30-yard passes to receivers who would appear, as if by magic, all alone on the field. Millions of times fans threw their hands up in the air, "How," we'd all curse, "is it possible for one receiver to be that wide open."
And the visor, my God the visor. Spurrier coached football like he was out for a leisurely game of golf. Football equations that baffled the rest of us his competitors, he figured out while waging war against par at Augusta. Remember John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind"? Spurrier was like that, the X's and the O's swam around his head and spoke to him in a football language no one else could translate. Football was easy.
In 12 seasons at Florida, Spurrier went 122-27-1, including 87-14 in the SEC. The game couldn't catch up to him, so he left.
The rest of us were all secretly a little glad when Spurrier left for the NFL's Washington Redskins. "Let the NFL deal with him," we thought.
Only the NFL did.
And Stephen Orr Spurrier returned chastened, the genius who realized he wasn't as much of a genius as he thought. Spurrier went 12-20 with the Redskins and returned to the SEC after a year spent in coaching sabbatical. South Carolina fans welcomed him with open arms, ready to forget the NFL failure. "God smiled on the '#####," said fans, as they raced to the store to buy Spurrier-inspired Carolina visors.
Only God hasn't actually smiled on the '#####.
In four years at South Carolina Spurrier has gone 28-22, just five fewer losses than he had in 12 years at Florida. Worst of all, he's just 15-17 in the SEC. Yep, Spurrier, lord of the SEC manor, has already lost more games at South Carolina in four years than he lost in his entire tenure at Florida. Steve Spurrier, the man who brought offensive pyrotechnics to to the Southland, was suddenly behind the curve.
He's never done better than 8-5 on a season at South Carolina. Worse, he's won a single bowl game, the Liberty Bowl in 2006. Hardly the stuff of South Carolina fans' dreams. If things go perfectly for Spurrier, the defense can make them the champions of Memphis.
Watch Spurrier now, he's come to South Carolina, the place where coaches go to give up the ghost, and he seems like a beaten man. The joie de vivre, the zest for football, it seems to have leaked out of him slowly. Now Spurrier is the embittered old coach standing with his arms crossed and his jaw agape. Self-doubt seems to stalk every play call. Stephen Garcia is his quarterback now, Garcia who is the yin to Danny Wuerffel's yang, kicking dirt into the face of the man who was once the ultimate dirt-kicker.
Once the king of the comedic quip, Spurrier only makes news for his mistatements off the field. Urban Meyer to Notre Dame? It's not an insult, it comes off as a fevered Spurrier dream, the hoped for departure of his heir, the man who has made Gators forget who named The Swamp. There was a time when Spurrier walked into SEC media days and the adoring throngs swarmed. Now? Now, they grill him about errors on his first-team ballot, force him to utter mea culpa after mea culpa. It used to be that Spurrier made quips about his rivals that made the rivals wish he'd never been born. Now the rivals just wish he would be quiet so he doesn't embarrass himself.
In the end, Spurrier, the man who was once loved or hated like no one in the history of the SEC, the man that every single fan had an opinion about, isn't even worthy of an opinion any more. And he knows it, look at him, the football thrill is gone.
He's Bobby Fischer and South Carolina is his Iceland.
Anger over losses is never the cruelest fate for a football coach, indifference is. And right now every SEC fan is indifferent to Steve Spurrier.
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All-TigerNet [11170]
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I wish I had more than one point to give***
Aug 10, 2009, 7:52 AM
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Heisman Winner [105574]
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I'm surprised you had 1, normally you are pointless
Aug 10, 2009, 7:54 AM
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All-TigerNet [11170]
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I'm well rested from vacation....I'm on my game***
Aug 10, 2009, 7:56 AM
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Heisman Winner [105574]
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How did you get Crump to approve your vacation? Wait...
Aug 10, 2009, 8:00 AM
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by vacation do you mean a "check into a clinic under the name Ron Mexico" type of vacation?
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All-TigerNet [11170]
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the crabs had gotten outta control, Crump has a good
Aug 10, 2009, 8:03 AM
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healthcare plan
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Heisman Winner [105574]
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Not for long***
Aug 10, 2009, 8:05 AM
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Orange Blooded [2034]
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All-TigerNet [11170]
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I can imagine....poppa didn't get himself deleted i hope***
Aug 10, 2009, 8:13 AM
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Orange Blooded [2034]
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Nope, but I think he's being watched closely.***
Aug 10, 2009, 8:16 AM
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Heisman Winner [105574]
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Rock Defender [54]
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Well the poor old thing. Bless his heart.***
Aug 10, 2009, 8:14 AM
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110%er [6057]
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That pretty much sums it up. Great find.***
Aug 10, 2009, 8:36 AM
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CU Medallion [64621]
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Spurrier antics remind me of $CU's 84 team....
Aug 10, 2009, 9:18 AM
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who won a school-record 10 games. Jones Andrews, back-up to Ryan Bethea on $CU's 84 team said it best when he said, "Joe (Joe Morrison) didn't care if guys went to jail, so long as they played on Saturday. A star player could get away with anything." Sound familiar?
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110%er [5630]
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That sort of rings hollow right after the weekend
Aug 10, 2009, 9:27 AM
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announcement that Ben Axon will not be allowed into USC.
Your reply is... Steve Spurrier had no control over that. he would have taken him if the school had let him.
And my reply is... BUT WAIT... I thought Spurrier called all trhe shots... force dthe administration to do what he wanted or else he would leave. Which is it?? Does Spurrier drag the admin around by it's nose or not??
Your reply... he would have fought for Axon if he was any good.
My reply... He was a 4 star RB from Florida, rated 13 in the nation by rivals. Are you saying we are stocked enough a RB to just let the guy go? Which is it??? Do we already have enough talent at RB??
There... i just thought I would help us skip past the initial spin you guys like to hit on so we can get to the good stuff.
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CU Medallion [64621]
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Oh please !!!!!
Aug 10, 2009, 9:35 AM
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Axon can't get in because he is academically inelligible. All the character issues aside, now we'll get to hear another one of Spurrier's rants about how unfair it is that the school won't admit ALL of the kids he has offered. You and I both know if Spurrier can find a way to get Axon enrolled he will welcome him on to the team with open arms.
As a side note, my comment was referring to players already on the team.
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110%er [5630]
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Hmmm... well...
Aug 10, 2009, 9:53 AM
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From the report in the state paper:
The State:Axon was qualified academically under NCAA standards. But sources said Axon’s borderline grades, combined with his recent arrest, were the reason USC officials turned him down.
Spurrier's quote: "“He just wasn’t admitted. And as coaches, we understand why he wasn’t admitted,” Spurrier said. “There’s a lot of players all over the country that are NCAA qualifiers, that universities don’t admit. So we understand that. I don’t want to go into all the reasons, but that happens sometimes.”
Tell me again how Spurrier is gonna ##### and moan and tell the administration what to do??
Please give that little angle a rest. In fact, please just give all the self-righteousness a rest.
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CU Medallion [64621]
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You should be happy....
Aug 10, 2009, 10:14 AM
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that someone within the $CU administration finally has brains enough to keep some of these delinquints Spurrier recruits out of the school. At the end of the day, it d@mn sure wasn't Spurrier. As I said before, if the kid could get in to school Spurrier would welcome on to the team with open arms. I know it and you know it. Spurrier is a desperate man whose coaching legacy is spiraling downward like a weak flushing toilet. He doesn't give a $#!7 about anything but his own legacy and win/loss record and he will do whatever is necessary in some desperate attempt to enhance either one of the two and that includes compromising the intergity of the University or the character of the student-athletes he recruits. Spurrier is a POS. I said the same thing when he was at Duke. I said the same thing when he was at Florida. I said the same thing whe nhe was at Washington and ad far as I am concerned nothing has changed now that he's in Columbia. He's still a POS IMO.
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110%er [5630]
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but you have stated in the past that Spurrier had
Aug 10, 2009, 10:19 AM
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control over the admissions. What gives dude??
by the way... on national signing day your coaches would have loved to ink Axon and Mackey. You are as delusional as any gamecock if you think otherwise.
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CU Medallion [64621]
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That's not what I've said.....
Aug 10, 2009, 10:30 AM
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I've said, based on Spurrier's own comments, that he is trying to control the admissions office and when he doesn't get his way, he acts like a five year old by threatening to take his ball and go home.
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110%er [5630]
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And Bowden never did that with your own admissions?
Aug 10, 2009, 11:06 AM
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You know full well what Spurrier was saying when that happened. It was exactly what Bowden was saying to the AARC. You just want to view it differently because it's Gamecock related... just like any other thing that's Gamecock related.
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CU Medallion [64621]
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You're comparing apples and oranges.....
Aug 10, 2009, 11:33 AM
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First of all, Bowden never threatened to quit if he didn't get his way.
Second, the AARC was disqualifying prospects based on some subjective criteria rather than waiting for a complete transcript and all test results. The AARC forced Clemson to back- off of a prospect that ended up signing with UNC. Clemson's admissions criteria are tough but UNC's are just as touch if not tougher. If the kid was qualified for admission to Chapel Hill he should be able to get in Clemson and that was Bowden's beef.
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Amateur [46]
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i think he hit the nail on the head***
Aug 10, 2009, 9:43 AM
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All-In [26552]
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In Spurrier's defense ... The Chicken Curse is a Bee-Yotch!
Aug 10, 2009, 9:47 AM
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though that doesn't explain the Redskins fiasco.
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Orange Blooded [2400]
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Re: In Spurrier's defense ... The Chicken Curse is a Bee-Yotch!
Aug 10, 2009, 12:12 PM
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The only explanation is that the Chicken Curse is not bounded by space-time. From the curse's persoective, it simply applied to SOS, in a Zen-like way. No "was", no "will be", only "is". If you decide not to be associated with USC, the curse will already have not applied to you. If you decide to be associated with USC, the curse has already applied to you.
Even though Cremmins went to USC, the curse did not apply while he was at GT because in the future (from our perspective) he would spurn USC at the last minute.
We are too limited in our Newtonian thought.
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Legend [15545]
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Re: This guy gets it ...
Aug 10, 2009, 9:58 AM
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Let all God's children say, "Amen!"
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