A Different Breed Of Coach
posted by Scott Hood, Friday, October 24, 2008
I’ve been around long enough to realize that highly successful people are a little bit eccentric. They’re not like you and I. They think differently and view the world from an opposite perspective. Heck, maybe they even put on their clothes differently. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about wealth, power or a combination of both.
Spurrier showed this week that his standards are a lot higher than you and I. Maybe it comes from winning the Heisman Trophy, implementing an offense that revolutionized college football, leading Florida to all those SEC Championships and being one of only four coaches to win 100 SEC games.
Raise your hand if you walked out of Williams-Brice Stadium or shut off you TV following the LSU game thinking that Stephen Garcia had played a pretty good game and the Gamecocks could have won except for the offensive line.
Well, Spurrier didn’t see it the same way.
His public comments this week, including his radio call-in show on Thursday night, provide overwhelming evidence that he holds himself and his quarterbacks to a much higher standard.
When Garcia or any other USC quarterback is sacked, fans and the media typically point the finger at the offensive line. Not Spurrier. He typically blames the quarterback.
Which is why a lot of USC fans felt a little bit uncomfortable this week.
In Spurrier’s world, it’s the responsibility of the quarterback to get up to the line of scrimmage, read the defense and put the Gamecocks into the proper play. In short, when the blitz is coming, Spurrier expects the quarterback to know that.
That was clearly his principal beef with Garcia last Saturday. He failed to recognize when the blitz was coming.
Also, last night on his call-in show, Spurrier said quarterbacks should almost never get sacked with the liberal rules allowing them to throw the ball away when they feel pressure. Technically, a quarterback is supposed to be outside the tackle box before he does that, but officials today are reluctant to call it.
Spurrier is also smart enough to know that defensive players are sometimes reluctant to tackle the quarterback too hard when they scramble for fear of drawing a 15-yard personal foul penalty. That’s what he likes his quarterback to run aggressively when they do tuck the ball.
Spurrier’s comments this week also show he believes Garcia is not ready to play quarterback just yet in the SEC. But with his options limited to either the redshirt freshman from Tampa or Chris Smelley, he had little choice but to put him on the field when the latter struggled.
Is Spurrier engaging in a little bit of motivational mind games with Garcia? You bet. Why else would he mention walk-on Zac Brindise as a possible starter for next week’s home game against Tennessee?
You and I both realize that’s not going to happen. Garcia will start at quarterback against the Volunteers and probably ‘go the distance’ as Spurrier likes to say. Will he play better than he did in the second half against LSU? That’s what this is all about.
There is one thing about Spurrier’s comments I can’t understand, though. He claimed Garcia and Smelley don’t perform very well when they start. But it appeared to me that Garcia had a pretty good first half against LSU, leading USC to 17 points.
Garcia and the offense began to struggle in the second half when the LSU coaches made adjustments to their scheme and USC didn’t, or couldn’t, adapt to the changes.
In the end, Spurrier is different because he’s willing to hold himself, his assistant coaches and players accountable for their actions. Many coaches will tiptoe around criticizing their staff and players for fear of affecting their morale.
Not Spurrier, which is why he’s a lot of fun to cover.
I know a whole bunch of Gamecock fans are probably getting weary hearing Spurrier say USC has to start coaching better. How many other coaches out there say that? You can probably count them on one hand.
As Spurrier often says, it is what it is.
No question, Spurrier is unique. But that’s exactly what USC needs if they want to complete the climb and be considered one of the elite teams in the SEC.
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The past six days have shown, again, that Steve Spurrier is a different breed of cat.
I’ve been around long enough to realize that highly successful people are a little bit eccentric. They’re not like you and I. They think differently and view the world from an opposite perspective. Heck, maybe they even put on their clothes differently. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about wealth, power or a combination of both.
Spurrier showed this week that his standards are a lot higher than you and I. Maybe it comes from winning the Heisman Trophy, implementing an offense that revolutionized college football, leading Florida to all those SEC Championships and being one of only four coaches to win 100 SEC games.
Raise your hand if you walked out of Williams-Brice Stadium or shut off you TV following the LSU game thinking that Stephen Garcia had played a pretty good game and the Gamecocks could have won except for the offensive line.
Well, Spurrier didn’t see it the same way.
His public comments this week, including his radio call-in show on Thursday night, provide overwhelming evidence that he holds himself and his quarterbacks to a much higher standard.
When Garcia or any other USC quarterback is sacked, fans and the media typically point the finger at the offensive line. Not Spurrier. He typically blames the quarterback.
Which is why a lot of USC fans felt a little bit uncomfortable this week.
In Spurrier’s world, it’s the responsibility of the quarterback to get up to the line of scrimmage, read the defense and put the Gamecocks into the proper play. In short, when the blitz is coming, Spurrier expects the quarterback to know that.
That was clearly his principal beef with Garcia last Saturday. He failed to recognize when the blitz was coming.
Also, last night on his call-in show, Spurrier said quarterbacks should almost never get sacked with the liberal rules allowing them to throw the ball away when they feel pressure. Technically, a quarterback is supposed to be outside the tackle box before he does that, but officials today are reluctant to call it.
Spurrier is also smart enough to know that defensive players are sometimes reluctant to tackle the quarterback too hard when they scramble for fear of drawing a 15-yard personal foul penalty. That’s what he likes his quarterback to run aggressively when they do tuck the ball.
Spurrier’s comments this week also show he believes Garcia is not ready to play quarterback just yet in the SEC. But with his options limited to either the redshirt freshman from Tampa or Chris Smelley, he had little choice but to put him on the field when the latter struggled.
Is Spurrier engaging in a little bit of motivational mind games with Garcia? You bet. Why else would he mention walk-on Zac Brindise as a possible starter for next week’s home game against Tennessee?
You and I both realize that’s not going to happen. Garcia will start at quarterback against the Volunteers and probably ‘go the distance’ as Spurrier likes to say. Will he play better than he did in the second half against LSU? That’s what this is all about.
There is one thing about Spurrier’s comments I can’t understand, though. He claimed Garcia and Smelley don’t perform very well when they start. But it appeared to me that Garcia had a pretty good first half against LSU, leading USC to 17 points.
Garcia and the offense began to struggle in the second half when the LSU coaches made adjustments to their scheme and USC didn’t, or couldn’t, adapt to the changes.
In the end, Spurrier is different because he’s willing to hold himself, his assistant coaches and players accountable for their actions. Many coaches will tiptoe around criticizing their staff and players for fear of affecting their morale.
Not Spurrier, which is why he’s a lot of fun to cover.
I know a whole bunch of Gamecock fans are probably getting weary hearing Spurrier say USC has to start coaching better. How many other coaches out there say that? You can probably count them on one hand.
As Spurrier often says, it is what it is.
No question, Spurrier is unique. But that’s exactly what USC needs if they want to complete the climb and be considered one of the elite teams in the SEC.
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Scott Hood. Since February of 2005, Scott has covered the South Carolina football, men's basketball and baseball programs for GamecockCentral. He may be reached by email at scottblog(at)gamecockcentral.com. Replace (at) with @.