I can truly say that today is a sad day. This is true not only in college football, but in life in general.
Yes, Steve Spurrier hasn’t departed us on this Earth. However, we will no longer be able to see or hear what made him who he is.
Whether it was his words, actions, or the looks that he would make on the sidelines, we all had an opinion of the “Head Ball Coach.” Many hated him and many more loved him.
He was the prototypical “love ‘em if you’re with them or hate ‘em if you’re against him” type of guy.
These are just some of the things that I will always remember about him.
The Visor
Many coaches in football have chosen this hat as their headwear of choice on game day’s, but none made it iconic like Steve Spurrier. Much like Tom Landry or Bear Bryant made the fedora famous, Spurrier did the same with a hat half that size.
It wasn’t so much that Spurrier wore the visor, as to what he would do with it. On plays or calls that didn’t go his way, we would sometimes see him throw it to the ground. Other times, we might see him give the visor a huge tug down over his eyes to show his disgust.
The visor is so iconic, that they even came out with his own collection of them at South Carolina. I should know, because I bought one on my first trip to cover a game in Columbia.
We’ll see others wear one on the field. But, none will be able to “pull it off” like Spurrier did.
One-Liners
During this time of remembering the career of Steve Spurrier, you cannot look over what made him different from other coaches. In the age of “coach speak,” the HBC was a breath of fresh air.
Spurrier would seemingly always let you know how he felt about something when prompted about it in a question. This made some frustrated and made other’s laugh.
He had his way of “trolling” the rival’s. When he was at Florida- it was Georgia, Tennessee and Florida State. At South Carolina it was Georgia and Clemson.
Who can forget about his line, “you can’t spell Citrus, without U-T?” He said this in regards to Tennessee going to the Citrus Bowl three out of the four years that Peyton Manning was the quarterback for the Volunteers.
When it came to Georgia, the heavyweight champion of jabs against the Bulldogs came with this line, ”I don’t know. I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended.”
This upset Georgia fans, but it didn’t really upset their head coach Mark Richt. He even admitted during his Tuesday press conference that he’d get a laugh out of them.
“He was fun to compete against because you just never know what was going to happen or you never knew what he might say,” Richt said. “Some people got real bent out of shape with a lot of things he said. I never really did. I just figured, the thing I liked the most about Coach Spurrier, and as far as a relationship as a fellow head coach, is that he was always just honest about everything. What he was saying is what he was thinking, and he wasn’t going to pull any punches one way or another. I appreciated that about him. So I didn’t always agree with everything he said (laughing) but I never really took anything too personally if he was trying to have little fun here and there.”
Who could forget about his most famous jab at Florida State? “You know what FSU stands for, don’t you? Free Shoes University.”
Then of course, Clemson wouldn’t be left out on the fun. If you’ve ever seen the Kenny Chesney documentary about Spurrier that aired on the SEC Network, you’ll remember this scene. There was a Chesney concert in Columbia, in which Spurrier took to the microphone on stage to deliver a message.
“To all the Clemson fans out there… It’s only just beginning.”
This came after the 2006 meeting between South Carolina and Clemson, with the Gamecocks winning 31-28. Spurrier won five of the next eight games against the Tigers.
The Winning
His career record on the college level was 228-89-2. That means he won about 71 percent of the games he coached on that level.
Who can also forget about the eight SEC East titles, six SEC Championship wins, one ACC Championship at Duke and one National Championship in 1996 at Florida?
He also won Coach of the Year, SEC Player of the Year and first-team All-American honors two years in a row. He also won THE trophy, the Heisman in 1966 with the Gators.
All these factors fed into why you sometimes could not stand the guy.
We as college football fans love the tradition and the great names that made the game what it is. Spurrier is definitely a man who helped the sport reached the astounding popularity it boasts today.
I’ll always remember him for these three things. For those of us who are in our 20s, 30s, 40s, or even 50s… He is our generation’s legendary coach.
There is no doubt that Saturday’s just won’t be the same without Spurrier’s mannerisms on display. There might still be some that have the same characteristics he has, but there will never be another one like Steve Spurrier.
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