One last good call
Steve Spurrier knew stepping down better than sticking around, Dan Wolken writes,
COLUMBIA, S. C. The applause built, and Stephen Orr Spurrier tried his best to talk over it, as though it would have been inappropriate for one of the greatest coaches in college football history to genuflect on an occasion that called for nothing more than the solemn, matter-of-fact reality of a coach who can’t stand to lose conceding his ultimate defeat.
“Somehow or another, we’ve slipped,” he said. “It’s my fault. I’m the head coach. It’s time for me to get out of the way.”
Over and over, as Spurrier crept closer to a 70th birthday that would ultimately serve as the threshold for his effectiveness at South Carolina, he kept repeating this promise: The moment things started going bad, he would simply walk away. When any coach starts losing, Spurrier would say, everybody knows you have to let someone else give it a try.
And damned if he didn’t live up to it.
Criticize Spurrier if you wish for abandoning the Gamecocks in the middle of a going-nowhere season, leaving his players and assistants to lose more games while he plays golf and bathes on Crescent Beach in Florida.
But say this for Spurrier: It’s better than the alternative that so many feared.
Spurrier, unlike too many of his contemporaries, didn’t need to be told when it was time to go. He didn’t need to be cajoled into retirement or bargained with or placated with some phony exit strategy to keep the veneer of power. There was no need to assemble boosters behind him and wage internal warfare against an administration that recognized the need for change.
Spurrier knew, and then he walked, saving his dignity and a world of drama for athletics director Ray Tanner to manage.
“Yesterday, I was sort of a recruiting liability,” Spurrier said. “I was the best coach for this job 11 years ago, but I’m not today.”
In the end, it really wasn’t that complicated, and leave it to college football’s ultimate straight shooter to get right to the point. When South Carolina lost to Kentucky and then badly at Georgia, Spurrier saw the signs that it was coming to an end. When the Gamecocks struggled to beat Central Florida on Sept. 26, he realized he would not make it through the season.
And, no, Spurrier didn’t want the losses nor the questions that would come with hanging on for games against Tennessee, Florida and Clemson. If that’s shirking responsibility, so be it.
But Spurrier had already played his final card before the season at the Southeastern Conference’s media days when he talked about his longevity and his belief that South Carolina, coming off a 7-6 season, was close to contending in the division again. Then, when more questions came about how long he wanted to coach and whether he almost called it quits in 2014, he came back and angrily delivered the message that he would be coaching at South Carolina for years to come.
“Now that we’re 7-6, some of our enemies want to make you think Spurrier’s getting old, can’t do it anymore,” he said at an impromptu news conference in late July. “Some people are going to try to convince you that our 7-6 isn’t as good as some other schools’ 7-6.”
As it turned out, Spurrier can’t do it anymore, and it was becoming more obvious every week. No matter how many doctors’ reports he could trot out about his good health, a 70-year-old Spurrier wasn’t going to convince toplevel players and their families he would be there for four or five more years.
Though that isn’t guaranteed for anyone in this notoriously unstable business, there comes a point where it is impossible to overcome. That moment came for Spurrier last season when South Carolina didn’t live up to expectations and recruits, fearful that he would retire, began to bail.
There were no more Jadeveon Clowneys or Marcus Lattimores on whom to bank for the future, and a coach who had chastised others, such as Bobby Bowden, for hanging around too long wasn’t going to let the same thing happen to him.
“When something is inevitable, I believe you do it right then,” Spurrier said.
Of course it was temping to hold on to those visions of going out on top, of leading South Carolina to that elusive SEC title and being carried out in the Georgia Dome on the shoulder pads of his players. But Spurrier’s entire life has been a storybook, from the Heisman Trophy to the Atlantic Coast Conference title at Duke to the dominant run at Florida to the seemingly perfect marriage to the improbable second act at South Carolina. It’s OK for the final chapter to end so abruptly and imperfectly.
“Nothing goes on forever,” he said. “I’ve gone on a lot longer than most people.”
And then he was done, finished with questions and reflections and ready to get in another workout or go hit golf balls or whatever the now Former Head Ball Coach, as he rebranded himself Tuesday, wanted to do.
“Let’s get moving,” he said. “I’ve had enough here.”
Enough, indeed.
“Somehow or another, we’ve slipped. It’s my fault. I’m the head coach. It’s time for me to get out of the way.” Steve Spurrier, former South Carolina football coach