Spurrier denies making quote from ‘30-for-30’ show on Miami

Steve Spurrier stopped his pregame news conference on Friday to get something off his chest.

Spurrier was answering a question about Saturday’s game against Miami in the Duck Commander Independence Bowl when he abruptly changed the subject.

“While I’ve got your attention here, let me say something, we have all been watching this University of Miami 30-30 on ESPN. OK, they won the game, they beat us fair and square, but a Miami player on that team quoted me as saying, ‘We got our ass kicked off the field and we got our ass kicked in the game,’ and I wouldn’t say that. I wouldn’t be that stupid to ever say anything like that.”

The quote came from former Hurricanes tight end Jeremy Shockey, who played on the 2000 team that played Spurrier and his Florida Gators in the Sugar Bowl following that regular season. Members of the two teams had what Spurrier described as “a scuffle” on Bourbon Street on a night leading up to the game.

“I remember their head coach, Spurrier, coming up to me after the game saying, ‘You guys definitely deserved it. We got our ass beat off the field and on,’” Shockey said on ESPN’s “The U, Part 2,” a 30-for-30 documentary.

“Nobody got arrested. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got suspended from the game. To me, it was history,” Spurrier said Friday. “For some reason, some people, some teams or whoever, they like to glamorize fighting. Our teams don’t fight.”

Saturday’s game will be Spurrier’s second all-time against the Hurricanes. Miami won the first meeting 37-27.

“That’s not the first time in my life somebody has put a quote on me that I didn’t say,” Spurrier said. “I did say most of them, but not that one.”

This story was originally published December 26, 2014 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Spurrier denies making quote from ‘30-for-30’ show on Miami."