By BUDDY MARTIN
@buddyshow
Buddymartinmedia.com
At a time when Jim McElwain appeared dispirited and needed somebody to stand in for him – or at least misdirect some of the bad news – there was Steve Spurrier, standing tall in the pocket and chirping away about the wonderful opportunities that could be available for the Gator players stepping into the breach.
The Ambassador was working hard, and whatever they paid him this week, he was worth twice the price.
The HBC was always good at distractions in his playing calling. This week, instead of focusing on the negativity of the beatdown by Arkansas or the obvious story line of Spurrier’s old South Carolina team visiting The Swamp, he harkened back with great passion to the celebration of the success for his first two teams at Florida. One that should have won the SEC and one that did.
THE GREAT GATORS
“We’ve got our ‘90 and ‘91 teams ready to go, so I’m really looking forward to this weekend,” said Spurrier. “The ’90 players were denied the right to be called champion. But in my opinion they were as good as any SEC Championship team we had there.”
Shane Matthews, the centerpiece of those two teams and two-time SEC Player of the Year, remembered what it was like being plucked from fifth or sixth on the depth chart to the No. 1 job. He reflected on how he was standing at his locker before the first game.
“Coach Spurrier always liked to come around and talk to guys in the locker-room while they were getting ready. He finally comes to me and asks: ‘Shane, what play do you want to start with?’
“I’d never started a college game before. A lot of people were giving him grief already for naming me the starter. So, I said: ‘Maybe a screen or a draw?’”
And Spurrier responded: “Shoot, they didn’t hire me to come down here and run the football. We’re going to throw it.”
The first play of the game, as Matthews recalls, he completed a 28-yard pass to Ernie Mills and four plays later the new Gators scored. They beat Oklahoma State 50-7.
And it was on. The first of 122 victories.
“That’s what I always loved about coach Spurrier,” said Matthews. “He always tells it like it is.”
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In the black hole that has suddenly swallowed Florida football this week, the HBC was a ray of sunshine. Instead of gloom and doom, Spurrier had out his orange and blue pom-poms, preaching the gospel of “opportunity.”
“We have a chance to have a big year,” Spurrier said enthusiastically. “Gosh, the Gators … if we can beat South Carolina … even if we lose to LSU … we can still win the East if Tennessee loses to Vandy or Kentucky. Which could easily happen. So we’ve got a LOT to play for. I’m hoping our guys can get really fired up and the crowd’s ready to go.”
Even the sound of his voice soothed the spirits of some disgruntled Gators, many of whom have been described as “any angry mob” by one columnist.
On a weekend when Spurrier’s old South Carolina team is heading to Gainesville, McElwain is searching for the tire tracks of that 18-wheeler that ran over his team in Fayetteville, Ark. The 31-10 loss was only part of the lingering pain.
It hurt everywhere around The Swamp — in, over, under and around. There are so many injured players that McElwain ought to hold triage and not practice. Aside from starting quarterback Luke Del Rio being lost for the year, there were four other starters either lost or indefinitely sidelined with injuries, including the two starting linebackers, Jarrad Davis and Alex Anzalone.
“I don’t think I ever had that many players injured,” Spurrier said sympathetically. “It seems our guys didn’t get hurt that much. Can you ever remember Danny Wuerffel getting hurt? No. Shane Matthews? No. I think guys get hurt a lot more than they used to.”
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So figure this one out: The former Florida coach who was fired and left to go to Auburn and then to South Carolina is coming back to coach on the field named after Steve Spurrier, who has a statue out front of Ben Hill Griffin while he was coaching at South Carolina, but now works as a consultant and ambassador for the Gators. Are there split loyalties?
“It’s pretty simple,” Spurrier said. “When I was coaching South Carolina, I said I pulled for Florida every game except when they play South Carolina. And now that I work for the University of Florida, I pull for South Carolina every game except one – when they play Florida.”
As for Muschamp: “He’s a good guy, a guy coach. Jim McElwain is a good and a good coach. This week, let all those coaches talk about the game. I’m a guy who used to coach at both places. I really think I need to stand in the background and watch at bit. Of course I’m pulling for the Gators.”
Yet he sounded very much like the coach of the Gators as he shook his pom-poms.
“We need to regroup,” said the Ambassador. “That was a lousy outing. Coach Mac and his coaches are going to get ‘em going. I think we’ve got some good leadership on the team. We’ve got to have it.
“But it’s going to be a tough game. South Carolina has won three in a row and has momentum. They’ve got a freshman quarterback (Jake Bentley) and they’ve got some inspiration. We’ve got some issues. Got a new quarterback coming in (Austin Appleby). And hopefully the change is going to be good for us.”
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Maybe it’s because Spurrier was always a big fan of “next man up,” but except for the 1996 regular season loss to Florida State when both offensive tackles were out, he has no recollection of being hampered by a banged up squad.
“I remember right before the 1994 SEC Championship Game … we were out there practicing one night,” he said. “And there wasn’t a single guy on the sideline with a green or yellow jersey on that the injured guys wore. And I mentioned to some guy: ‘isn’t this amazing! We’ve played an 11-game season and we’re getting ready to play Alabama and we didn’t have a single person hurt.’
“I don’t know what’s causing it. I used to think that when guys were really into their game they didn’t get hurt that much. But I know we got some guys hurt last week (vs. Arkansas) that were really playing their butts off. Maybe it’s just an unfortunate game that has happened this year. But you move on. There are no excuses. It’s your team against their team. So you get ready to go.”
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STEVE SPURRIER BACK IN THOSE GOOD OL’ DAYS
You want to get the HBC riled up? Ask him about the NCAA penalty his ’90 team got saddled with.
One infraction was that an assistant coach drove Jarvis Williams to Palatka where somebody paid child support that was in arrears.
“It was a bunch of bull crap, the things they said Florida was guilty of,” said Spurrier.
“The only thing the University pleaded guilty of — and probably shouldn’t have – was that Galen Hall admitted a graduate assistant drove a kid to Palatka to help a kid pay a child support payment. Three hundred and sixty dollars and forty cents!”
A family friend of Jarvis Williams, he learned later, paid the money and helped him out. “The poor kid! He didn’t have any money! He couldn’t pay it. So the G.A. drove him over there – which WAS a violation. And Galen Hall said, ‘Yeah, if I’m guilty of human kindness, of allowing a G.A. to drove him over to Palatka to take care of his situation…then okay.’
“That’s the only thing they had on the University of Florida. It happened four years earlier. The university pleaded guilty. So the NCAA said, ‘you guys can’t go to a bowl game.’”
The agreement with the Sugar Bowl was that the SEC winner would have an automatic invite to New Orleans, but because the Gators couldn’t attend they could not be recognized as league champions. So in a meeting with administrators it was agreed UF should go ahead and take the penalty in 1990 and get it behind them.
“But the 1991 team did win it and they won it by beating Kentucky in The Swamp. The only one ever won in Gainesville Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on (Steve Spurrier) Florida Field – in the The Swamp.
“And they laid the foundation for all those championships. I hope everybody will give them a big ovation.”
***
Even the sound of his voice seemed to sooth the spirits of a few members of “the angry mob.”
“It was so good to hear Coach Spurrier,” said one of the Florida students. “He just makes you feel better.”
It’s good to have an Ambassador.
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BUDDY MARTIN WITH HIS GOOD BUDDY
Buddy Martin is a veteran columnist, talk show host and author. A longtime observer of college football, Martin is heard weeknights on the Buddy Martin Show in Ocala/Gainesville Fla. and on the Southern Pigskin Radio Network, where he also co-hosts The Terry Bradshaw Show. Buddy won an Emmy while he was with Terry at CBS as an associate producer. His columns also appear on Gridironnow.com and Southernpigskin.com. More of Buddy’s work can be found at BuddyMartinMedia.com where his show is streamed live. Buddy’s most recent book is Steve Spurrier’s autobiography “Head Ball Coach: My Life in Football” published by Blue Rider Press. He also wrote Urban Meyer’s authorized biography, “Urban’s Way,” and Terry Bradshaw’s autobiography “Looking Deep.” Contact him at Buddyshow@aol.com, Facebook/The Buddy Martin Show and @Buddyshow on Twitter.