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COMMENTARY
Ol' Swamp King lost his crown
South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier and Florida quarterback Tim Tebow No. 15 shake hands after the game.
Rich Glickstein/rglickstein@thestate.com
Written by MIKE BIANCHI
The Orlando Sentinel
Posted on 11.16.08
CommentsGAINESVILLE
HOW CAN YOU not feel a little sorry for Steve Spurrier after mean ol’ Urban Meyer swamped him worse than he’d ever been swamped before — and in a stadium Spurrier himself nicknamed The Swamp?
Meyer’s National Championship Express 56, Spurrier’s cock-a-doodle-don’ts 6.
Sad.
Seeing Spurrier coming back to The Swamp and getting clobbered was like watching an aging Sinatra returning to the Sands and forgetting the words to “My Way.”
We must cease and desist from making a big deal about Spurrier coaching against his former team. These days, it’s more exciting when Houston Nutt comes to Gainesville than Steve Spurrier.
Meyer’s first words in his postgame news conference after handing Spurrier the worst loss of his coaching career: “Can you believe Jimmy Buffett’s in our locker room?”
That’s right, Meyer seemed more excited about his favorite singer being in the locker room afterward than he was with beating Spurrier’s Gamecocks.
An appropriate tune for how Spurrier must have felt Saturday might be “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.” In that song, a nostalgic Buffett twangs: “Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure makes me want to go back again.”
Those good times for Spurrier must seem a million miles away now. For Florida fans and media members who witnessed Spurrier’s greatness at UF, it’s shocking to see just how pedestrian his offense has become.
Spurrier used to be so cocky and sure of himself — a proud perfectionist who only talked about winning championships. After Saturday’s dismantling, he sounded so unfamiliar. He uttered unSpurrier-like phrases such as: “We were just trying to keep the score respectable.” Or: “We’re having a good season. We’re 7-4 with a chance to go 8-4.”
Spurrier may have once been the king of The Swamp, but on Saturday the deposed king returned and the Urbanator guillotined him.
In 309 games as a head coach in college and pro football, Spurrier never has been beaten this badly — not even when at Duke. At least he’s not alone. Urbanator’s Gators are dismantling anybody and everybody who gets in their way. They became the first team in SEC history Saturday to win six consecutive conference games by 28 points or more.
A dozen years after Spurrier won his first and only national championship at Florida, Meyer is potentially on his way to a second national title by dominating SEC opponents much like Spurrier did back in the day. In the middle of Spurrier’s 1996 national championship season, the Gators went on the most dominating stretch in school and SEC history — a six-game SEC winning streak where Florida won by an average score of 49-11.
Meyer’s Gators are on a six-game SEC streak, winning by an average score of 50-11.
Said Spurrier: “We have to recruit us some athletes like Urban’s recruiting.”
Urban Meyer came to Florida and wanted to be like Steve Spurrier.
Now Steve Spurrier’s at South Carolina and wants to be like Urban Meyer.
Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes.
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