Steve Spurrier comments on Florida Gators

By Adam Silverstein
October 16, 2012

In his weekly press conference, South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier was asked a number of questions about his former team, the Florida Gators. A starting quarterback, Heisman Trophy winner and national championship-winning coach for the Gators, Spurrier still has love for Florida that he has never hidden since rejoining the college ranks. Below is what Spurrier said on Tuesday.

» On how special it will be to go back and play at Florida again: “Florida is always going to be my school. I love Florida and my wife and my daughters and even Steve Jr. got a graduate degree from there. Did you know that? […] So, we’re Gators, but we’re Gamecocks now. We’re Gamecocks now. And when my coaching days are over, I’ll be more of a Gator then. But I’m a Gamecock now, and this is our team. I certainly hope the Gators finish second in the [SEC] East this year. That would be a good finish for them and hopefully we finish first, certainly. But they’re having a very good year. I like Will Muschamp and obviously Jeremy Foley and the guys down there. We’re still good friends. It’s, I think, healthy competition.”

[EXPAND CLICK TO EXPAND and read the rest of this post.On the Gators winning without throwing the ball much: “There’s all kind of ways to win the game and the best one is to play outstanding defense, special teams and run the ball. There’s been a lot of champions that ran the ball.”

» On his love for all of the teams he coached, when he was specifically asked to qualify his statement of being “more of a Gator” when he retires: “Well, that’s because I went to school there. […] When I get through coaching, I’m going to be Duke, Florida and South Carolina. I’ll have feelings for all three schools and I still have feelings for Duke, a lot of feelings. I wouldn’t be coaching today if it wasn’t for Duke University. They hired me twice when I didn’t have a job and I certainly wasn’t in demand, I guess, for a job. So I owe basically my entire coaching career to Duke University and the people up there. So I always pull for those guys. But I hope when my coaching days are over to keep a condo here that I have at Carolina Walk over here. So I hope to do that in four or five years, something like that. Keep some connections up here. Certainly hope to.

» On if he has seen his statue outside of The Swamp: “Yeah, it’s been there a couple of years. […] I drove by it once, I think. Once or twice. I’ve been down there about one day a year. […] I thought the guy did a super job who did the statues.”

» On why Florida has been successful this season: “They’ve won all their close games. […] Florida has had a knack of winning close games, which you got to do to be [6-0] going into their [seventh] game. They’ve won some good close ones and won in the fourth quarter. […] They’ve played extremely well at the end. That’s how you go [6-0].”

» On his evaluation of the Gators: They’re a physical team, play solid, fundamentally sound all the way around. Their offensive coordinator is different, so they’re not getting in the shotgun and trying to throw it all over the place. The quarterback can run, obviously. He ran for 177 last week and set a school record. They’re definitely a running team, pretty much like we are, but we didn’t do it very well last game. They’re playing real smart, and that’s how you win a lot of games, playing real smart.”[/EXPAND]

3 Comments

  1. Uf_84 says:

    Nothing but love for the ol’ ball coach, but this week we need to kick his azz!!

  2. Jesse says:

    I will always love the HBC but I hope he throws his visor a whole bunch this weekend.

  3. SC_Gator says:

    Just goes to show, when you are a Gator you really are a Gator for life.

Leave a Reply to Uf_84 Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top
WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux