Hope everyone out there is doing well today. Eventful day for everyone in the state of South Carolina. The news that Steve Spurrier is hanging it up had reverberations here at the football offices. Brent Venables sat down at his regularly-scheduled press conference and asked why we all weren't in Columbia.
I think anyone who watched Dabo Swinney's press conference will agree that he was exceedingly classy and effusive in his praise of Spurrier's legacy. One of the really cool things about high-level college athletics, and sports in general, is the respect that even the most cutthroat of competitors have for each other when they have distance from that competition. Ordinarily Swinney probably would be uncomfortable spending so much of a game-week press conference talking about a rival coach he wasn't facing that week. But the news that Spurrier is leaving did create some separation from the nasty rivalry, giving Swinney an opportunity to reflect on battles with Spurrier that go back much further than when Spurrier took over at South Carolina in late 2004.
When I spoke with Phil Fulmer and Ray Goff last November for a story on what it's like to be on the receiving end of repeated losses to Spurrier, both of them had the same take: Spurrier is just a different dude who has a weird way of needling even people that he likes. Fulmer and Goff both said it was extremely frustrating in the moment, but they also said they have an enormous amount of respect for him as a coach. Swinney's sentiments were pretty much the same today. Venables said he admired Spurrier's willingness to "say what you were thinking."
Found it interesting that Spurrier called up Swinney after South Carolina's fifth straight win in the rivalry, the game that Clemson felt like it gave away in Columbia. Spurrier told Swinney over the phone shortly thereafter that the Tigers "kicked our butts" but couldn't hang onto the football. He also called Swinney after Clemson lost last year's game at Georgia to provide him with some encouragement.
College football today is all about offensive innovation, to the point that offensive minds are getting almost all the head-coaching jobs. Once upon a time, Spurrier was the only oddball guy out there trying new and weird things on offense. Swinney reflected on that today when I asked him about it, saying back in the 1990s it was odd to see Florida go exclusively with the shotgun. He said Spurrier changed offensive football by going three- and four-wide. The constant array of receiver screens and shovel passes and other bells and whistles that you see nowadays really started with Spurrier in a lot of ways.
"There's no question he changed the way people started thinking offensively," Swinney said. "He changed the way defenses thought as well."
-- If Clemson's defense keeps this up, Venables is going to be a commodity. Before long, it's not going to matter that most ADs want to hire offensive guys to put points on the scoreboard and butts in the seats. People are going to start coming after Venables.
So it's natural to wonder what it would take for him to leave. We know he'd like to be a head coach, as almost everyone at this level does. This has been asked on the board quite a bit over the past few weeks. So after Venables wrapped up his press conference, we stopped him to get perspective from the man himself.
Bottom line: He loves it here, and it's going to take a really good job to lure him away.
Question: You want to be a head coach, right?
Venables: "Maybe. Maybe. I like what I do. I love what I do, actually. So I've got to have a here-and-now mentality. I always have. I've never put the cart before the horse. I recognize as much as anybody that it isn't always -- you can go be that guy, and then you're somewhere where your'e in a gunfight with a butter knife. And that does not appeal to me whatsoever. I'm not going to do this forever. And I love waking up every day being very confident in what we're doing, the people that I work for, the success that I know we're going to have unless we screw it up. We're recruiting great players. We're playing on a big stage at a place that's got tradition and facilities and all that.
"I've been lucky. I've been at three places, and I've had it everywhere. I've seen many guys that have left and taken jobs, and everybody feels great going in, you get the press conference and everything's great. But then you face reality. And now what? You're competitive, and you lose. I don't know. Whether that's cowardly or whatever, who cares? I've been very fortunate in this profession. So that's not at the top of my agenda whatsoever. And I think that's part of the reason why I've been fortunate enough to have success, too. Just kind of taking my role and trying to do the best job with my role, and appreciate what I have. And I'm very appreciative.
"I think sometimes you become a head coach and you put yourself in position to turn your life upside-down too. So that's something you've got to weigh as well."
If an offer comes around that is perfect for Venables, he's going to go. But I think Clemson fans have to feel pretty good reading that perspective from him.
I think anyone who watched Dabo Swinney's press conference will agree that he was exceedingly classy and effusive in his praise of Spurrier's legacy. One of the really cool things about high-level college athletics, and sports in general, is the respect that even the most cutthroat of competitors have for each other when they have distance from that competition. Ordinarily Swinney probably would be uncomfortable spending so much of a game-week press conference talking about a rival coach he wasn't facing that week. But the news that Spurrier is leaving did create some separation from the nasty rivalry, giving Swinney an opportunity to reflect on battles with Spurrier that go back much further than when Spurrier took over at South Carolina in late 2004.
When I spoke with Phil Fulmer and Ray Goff last November for a story on what it's like to be on the receiving end of repeated losses to Spurrier, both of them had the same take: Spurrier is just a different dude who has a weird way of needling even people that he likes. Fulmer and Goff both said it was extremely frustrating in the moment, but they also said they have an enormous amount of respect for him as a coach. Swinney's sentiments were pretty much the same today. Venables said he admired Spurrier's willingness to "say what you were thinking."
Found it interesting that Spurrier called up Swinney after South Carolina's fifth straight win in the rivalry, the game that Clemson felt like it gave away in Columbia. Spurrier told Swinney over the phone shortly thereafter that the Tigers "kicked our butts" but couldn't hang onto the football. He also called Swinney after Clemson lost last year's game at Georgia to provide him with some encouragement.
College football today is all about offensive innovation, to the point that offensive minds are getting almost all the head-coaching jobs. Once upon a time, Spurrier was the only oddball guy out there trying new and weird things on offense. Swinney reflected on that today when I asked him about it, saying back in the 1990s it was odd to see Florida go exclusively with the shotgun. He said Spurrier changed offensive football by going three- and four-wide. The constant array of receiver screens and shovel passes and other bells and whistles that you see nowadays really started with Spurrier in a lot of ways.
"There's no question he changed the way people started thinking offensively," Swinney said. "He changed the way defenses thought as well."
-- If Clemson's defense keeps this up, Venables is going to be a commodity. Before long, it's not going to matter that most ADs want to hire offensive guys to put points on the scoreboard and butts in the seats. People are going to start coming after Venables.
So it's natural to wonder what it would take for him to leave. We know he'd like to be a head coach, as almost everyone at this level does. This has been asked on the board quite a bit over the past few weeks. So after Venables wrapped up his press conference, we stopped him to get perspective from the man himself.
Bottom line: He loves it here, and it's going to take a really good job to lure him away.
Question: You want to be a head coach, right?
Venables: "Maybe. Maybe. I like what I do. I love what I do, actually. So I've got to have a here-and-now mentality. I always have. I've never put the cart before the horse. I recognize as much as anybody that it isn't always -- you can go be that guy, and then you're somewhere where your'e in a gunfight with a butter knife. And that does not appeal to me whatsoever. I'm not going to do this forever. And I love waking up every day being very confident in what we're doing, the people that I work for, the success that I know we're going to have unless we screw it up. We're recruiting great players. We're playing on a big stage at a place that's got tradition and facilities and all that.
"I've been lucky. I've been at three places, and I've had it everywhere. I've seen many guys that have left and taken jobs, and everybody feels great going in, you get the press conference and everything's great. But then you face reality. And now what? You're competitive, and you lose. I don't know. Whether that's cowardly or whatever, who cares? I've been very fortunate in this profession. So that's not at the top of my agenda whatsoever. And I think that's part of the reason why I've been fortunate enough to have success, too. Just kind of taking my role and trying to do the best job with my role, and appreciate what I have. And I'm very appreciative.
"I think sometimes you become a head coach and you put yourself in position to turn your life upside-down too. So that's something you've got to weigh as well."
If an offer comes around that is perfect for Venables, he's going to go. But I think Clemson fans have to feel pretty good reading that perspective from him.
