Hey, the great positive of yesterday's bizarreness in Columbia is that someone still reads the daily newspaper.
Steve Spurrier might be doing everything he can to combat the idea that he's old at age 70, but there's no doubt he's old-fashioned. If you want to get his attention, you'd be advised not to write something on a web site, say it on Twitter, or even say it on TV.
The best way to get under his skin, clearly, is to put something he doesn't like into the newspaper that lands in his driveway every morning. That's what happened four years ago, when Ron Morris provoked this tantrum.
And now, even after Spurrier successfully chased Morris into retirement, after The State has gutted its sports staff in cost-cutting measures that are common in the dying industry, Spurrier has found something to rant about.
The State doesn't even have a columnist anymore, but their decision -- their audacity -- to consult the opinion of another columnist irked Spurrier so much that he called an impromptu presser to rail on Mark Bradley of the AJC for the following words that appeared in The State:
“I think they are a program on the descent, and I think it’s going to be interesting to see how long the coach stays. There are some guys you think, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be coaching when he’s 70.’ Steve Spurrier was never one of those guys for me, and it’s hard for me to envision him coaching much beyond this if he doesn’t think he has a chance to win, and I’m not sure he’s going to have a chance to win the next few years the way he’s had it the last few years.”
Crazy thing is, Bradley didn't say anything that about 500 other media voices haven't said in the past two weeks as they wonder if this is it for Spurrier. Heck, Spurrier himself invited the questions and the skepticism back in December when he reportedly had to be talked out of retirement following the smackdown at the hands of Clemson.
But Bradley is "the enemy" because his words appeared in newsprint that Spurrier actually reads.
What makes this really kooky is that opposing recruiters spent the entire month of December hammering Spurrier and his program to prospects. Commitments were jumping ship left and right. And beyond a halfhearted "well, I guess I'm supposed to say this" statement of long-term commitment from Spurrier, there was very little said or done to combat the negativity.
At the time, Gamecock fans wanted the guy to stand on a table and boldly proclaim he was there for the long haul. They wanted him to do what most coaches would do -- as in, everything in their power to spin things in a positive direction.
But apparently none of the above got his attention enough to rile him up. Apparently it takes criticism in newsprint for him to get truly steamed.
So while it's hard to score this as a victory for Spurrier, it has to be considered a win for newspapers.
A few Thursday links:
-- Chris Low of ESPN.com reached Spurrier on his (rotary?) phone after his press conference.
"I didn't come out strong enough for our fans," Spurrier said Wednesday. "It was the same way when I got to Florida. Some of the writers in Georgia said I'd never last and flame out, and then we started kicking Georgia's butt every year. They quit writing that crap. I still remember Vince Dooley saying when they fired Galen Hall that he couldn't believe it, and he was as good a coach as they could possibly have at Florida. I said then, 'I hope a Georgia coach never says that about me.'"
Spurrier acknowledged to ESPN.com that he was "in the dumps" over the way the Gamecocks lost so many close games in the fourth quarter last season. He said the thought of stepping away entered his mind.
"When you coach as long as I have, you're always going to have those kind of thoughts when things don't go the way you want them to, but I never said I was leaving," Spurrier said. "It was just something to write about.
"I'm smart enough to know when it's time to let somebody else come in and do this, but I'm also smart enough to know that we've beaten Georgia four of the last five years, beaten Florida four of the last five years and beaten Clemson five of the last six years. We're only 3-2 against Tennessee the last five years, and they won a couple of close ones against us, but they've lost 10 in a row to Florida. So I'd say we've done OK and have a lot more we're going to do."
-- The enemy, from his newsroom in the Atlanta Death Star, pens a response to Spurrier's rant.
So that’s what I said/wrote, and I stand by it. What I don’t get is why Spurrier would call a press conference — on a Wednesday afternoon in the dog days of July — to rant (and, having seen the video, I believe that word fits) about it. But that’s the thing with Spurrier: Even at 70 — even after working in Florida, a state overflowing with fine newspapers, and in Washington D.C., for Pete’s sake — he hasn’t grasped that the media isn’t his to control.
I don’t mind that he seemed to refer to me as “the enemy.” (I don’t consider myself as such, but I’ve been called worse — including a barnyard epithet in a postcard written by, er, Steve Spurrier.) I have no recollection of writing that he would “flame out” at Florida. (I never for a minute thought he’d fail there; he was a splendid coach in a bountiful setting, and he did a fabulous job.) I did write that he was cocky and arrogant, but sometimes the shoe fits.
I’m not exactly a disinterested bystander, but — I say again — I don’t get it. How can a man of such accomplishment not know that a certain amount of criticism comes with his high-profile (and high-salaried) job? How can he not have learned that such criticism is best ignored? How can a guy who has spent his adult life tweaking others, from Ray Goff to Can’t-Spell-Citrus-Without-U-T to Free Shoes U. to Dabo Swinney, feel he’s above the fray?
But enough. This is the enemy, signing out.
-- Is this an example of a coaching great turning into a grumpy old man? Andy Staples says if you believe that you're ignoring the history. This is just Classic Steve.
Spurrier didn’t respond the way he did Wednesday because, at 70, he sees enemies everywhere. He responded that way because he is Stephen Orr Spurrier and he has always seen enemies waiting to attack. With, or against. This is a man who probably remains mad at Bill Curry for not retaining him at Georgia Tech in 1980. (Spurrier had just bought a house in the Atlanta suburbs when he was told to shove off.) This is a man who remembers every slight—real or perceived. A few years ago, Jamie Speronis, South Carolina’s associate athletic director for football operations, called and asked for my mailing address. He then sent me a copy of a column I had written in 2005 as the Florida beat writer for The Tampa Tribune. It was an utterly forgettable story written that November as Florida prepared to play Spurrier’s first South Carolina team. If the Gators beat the Gamecocks that Saturday afternoon and Auburn beat Georgia that Saturday night, Urban Meyer’s first Florida team would win the SEC East title. In the story, I made reference to Florida fans pulling for the Tigers. Spurrier had underlined that section. He had then read it to his team, using it as evidence that the Gators considered the win against South Carolina a given. (They actually might have, but not because of anything I wrote.) The Gamecocks won that day, and the result of the Auburn-Georgia game didn’t matter. On that Saturday, I was an enemy.
-- Dan Wolken of USA Today said Spurrier's came off as petulant and, well, old.
It would be romantic to think this was part of some grand strategy to galvanize the program and head into fall camp with a clear mission. But Spurrier is much more seat-of-his-pants than that, and if this were the tone he wanted to take, why not do it last week?
Spurrier also has had a habit recently of showing his pettiness, whether it was banishing local columnist Ron Morris or taking an unnecessary and ill-timed shot at Clemson coach Dabo Swinney during a celebration for Lattimore after his gruesome injury.
Now the latest target seems to be Journal-Constitution columnist Mark Bradley, who suggested last week that South Carolina was a program in decline.
"Last year at this time I was 69, we were 11-2 and there was no question about my age," Spurrier said. "Now that we're 7-6 we've got some enemies out there. I've got some guys that don't like me out there talking and writing."
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
Compared to his colleagues, Spurrier has been treated royally for more than two decades. As coaching has become more corporate and buttoned-down, he's remained cocky, compelling and entertaining.
It has earned him a lot of goodwill among the media, and everyone recognizes college football will be worse when he is gone.
But no matter how many workouts he does or medical reports he gives, Spurrier can't bend time or erase the obvious. One of these days, the oldest coach in SEC history is going to retire.
Spurrier is a young 70, but Wednesday, he found a way to make himself look a whole lot older.
-- And we close with an interpretation of "Wild Horses" from Old & in The Way:
LW
