The Old Ball Coach - South Carolina

This is probably the toughest game on the Schedule to deal with.

After the 2001 season, Steve Spurrier...resigned as head coach of the Florida Gators to peruse a coaching job in the National Football League. Spurrier wasn't just any coach. He had been a quarterback at Florida and until 1996, the only Gator to win the Hiesman Trophy. He was hired on the last day of 1989 to coach his alma mater and spent the next 11 years revolutionizing the SEC and turning Florida into a force of nature. He is the Greatest Gator of Them All.

Florida had never won an SEC Title when Spurrier took over*...he won six in 11 years. In 1996 he lead the team to it's first ever National Championship. They've never looked. Bear Bryant referred to Florida as a sleeping giant...it was Spurrier that woke Em up.

He was a phenomenon...people loved him and loved to hate him.



Darth Visor, Steve Superior and wryly The Ole Ball..."I'm just an ole ball coach." He wasn't the lovable grandfatherly figure that eats ice cream with fans, who's touted for doing things "the right way," while enabling child molesters...but, he ran a clean program and he was a winner.

"They can call us sore winners...call me arrogant, a crybaby. Whatever...they're not callin' us losers any more."

The day he left was devastating...but nobody had a cross word to say about him. When he took over the Washington Redskins...we all became Redskin fans. It didn't help though. His tenure in Washington was a failure.

When he left the Skins there was hope that he would back as coach of the Gators. His replacement was fired that same year. Probably for the best, it didn't happen. Florida hired Urban Meyer and Spurrier, with a promise of membership at Augusta National, took over at South Carolina.

Now every year he coaches against the team that he still calls his own. Half the time when he asked about the Gators he refers to them as "we" and "us." Not today. Today he's the opposing coach...he's gotta be beaten but, it's not easy to watch or root for.

*At least officially...though Daddy still keeps a Pepsi-cola bottle on his shelf that say's otherwise.

Florida 3 - South Carolina 7

Florida 3 - South Carolina 14

South Carolina had never won anything before Steve Spurrier. Last year they won the East and played in the SEC Championship game...they were favored this year to win the East again. It's not lookin' good for the Gators.



For our, newest reader'....Spurrier's finest moment in The Swamp. The year before, 1996, the Gator's beatened the Seminoles in the National Championship's game. In 1997 the Seminoles came to Gainesville undefeated. All they had to do was beat the underdog's Gators...and they were headed to the National Championship's game again.



It was my last night in Germany and I broke danced on my buddy's floor.

Florida 6 - South Carolina 14

Gators are moving the ball.

Florida 12 (they scored a touchdown...failed on the two point conversion) - South Carolina 17 (field goal)

Y'all are gonna be on your own for the rest of the game...I gotta get goin'.

Hold on. There's only a minute forty seconds to go. I can wait for that. South Carolina's got the ball at mid field and they just picked up a first down. Florida's got to somehow get the ball back.

48 seconds left...SC is punting.

SACK...ball game.

Florida 12 - South Carolina 17

He should have left Brisset in.

If Georgia loses to Auburn tonight...South Carolina goes to Atlanta.