Posts tagged SteveSpurrier at FanHouse

Jim Zorn has a tough act to follow in Washington.

Sure, the Joe Gibbs second stint as head coach didn't bring in the Super Bowls like the first one did, but this is a team that is coming off a playoff appearance in two of the last three seasons. It has been a long time since a new Skins' head coach has been given the keys to this kind of opportunity.

In 2004, Gibbs took over the Redskins again and led the team to an uneventful 6-10 season. It was a one-game improvement over the prior season, but nothing to write home about. It is par for the course that a Redskins head coach would get off to a bad start.

In 2002, the Steve Spurrier Era got off to a 7-9 start (which, looking back, is amazing good since Spurrier was in over his head). That was a step back from the one season of Marty Schottenheimer's 8-8 campaign ... which equaled Norv Turner's final season.

All of that is cream cheese when you see Turner's first Redskins' season ... a 3-13 laugher in 1994. He followed the 4-12 mark put up in Richie Petitbon's only season (1993). Petitbon followed the wildly successful Gibbs first stint.

Good news for South Carolina: your 'Cocks are getting Smelley:

After an outstanding performance in relief last week, [Chris] Smelley will get the start Thursday night in the No. 24 Gamecocks' SEC opener at Vanderbilt, which defeated Smelley and South Carolina last year.

[Steve] Spurrier decided to go with Smelley for the SEC opener after [Tommy] Beecher couldn't practice Monday because he couldn't lift his non-throwing shoulder.

As the Good Doctor pointed out, Smelley's resume is as skid-marked, if not moreso, than Tommy Beecher's; Smelley took liberties with the proverbial pooch in the aforementioned Vandy loss last year, which blocked the 'Cocks' conference title aspirations.

But to be fair, this is a new year, and in this new year the Gamecock offense grundled ground to a halt for three quarters before Smelley roasted the place like a Dutch Oven. Directing three consecutive touchdown drives, Smelley turned a 13-0 stinker into a 34-0 steamer.

Steve Spurrier definitely knew the writing was smeared on the wall. Remember, this is the The Old Ball Coach, which means if there's one thing this coach knows, it's balls. Hopefully, TOBC can wash the taint of bad 'Cock play from this season before his gang gets banged up too hard.

And that's why Chris Smelley is your top Cock.

Prop Bets for the College Football Junkie is a weekly post that cares not for you're silly point spreads. If you have the money and the gumption, we'll lay down a weekly gauntlet of propositions that'll take you from the penthouse to the outhouse faster than you can guess the number of times Lee Corso will say, "not so fast my friend." As always, this is for entertainment purposes only.

-Being a West Virginia fan, one of the things I am sure is going to be mentioned over and over on every broadcast of Mountaineer games this year is that Rich Rodriguez is coaching at Michigan now. Likewise for Michigan games I expect a healthy mention of his time at West Virginia. And as the quality of the announcing crew goes down, the chances of each being mentioned goes up. Since the West Virginia game is on the Ocho (ESPN 8), and the Michigan game is on ABC I'll throw out these over/under numbers: West Virginia game +/- 30, Michigan game +/- 20. The nice thing about this prop bet is that it also lends itself well to a drinking game. Not that I'm encouraging that.

-North Carolina State is expected to finish near the bottom of the ACC this year, and Steve Spurrier knows this. Since Spurrier handed over play calling duties to his son this year it will be interesting to see the amount of frustration he shows toward junior if things don't go well against the Wolfpack Thursday night. Because in Spurrier's world, when things don't go well, a sun visor gets slammed to the ground. We'll put the over/under at five for this game. But if Spurrier takes the field sans visor, +/- 10 on lip smacking exhales. So fill out your cards accordingly.

We're halfway through the preseason and head coach Ken Whisenhunt has pretty much kept to the story he was pushing this spring: Matt Leinart's the starter but Kurt Warner would get a legit shot at the job.

In yesterday's Arizona Republic, Bob Young writes that Whisenhunt seems intent on keeping his word; after not taking a snap in the Cards' first preseason game, Warner started against the Chiefs finished 6 of 9 for 54 yards.

Leinart also fared well, going 7 of 11 with a touchdown (and one fumble), so unlike, say, the Ravens, Whisenhunt has a good quarterback problem. (John Harbaugh, on the other hand, is probably wondering how soon until he can name Joe Flacco the starter, and just face the consequences that come with putting a rookie under center.)

Young then goes through the trouble of making the case for both players, but I think his first point in support of Warner pretty much says it all: "Warner threw for 21 touchdowns in the final eight games last season. That's getting it done."

Worst case, Whisenhunt could go with a Steve Spurrier-inspired hybrid, but I'm not convinced Leinart has done enough (anything?) to win the job outright. By the way, if Whis was truly trying to make Arizona "Pittsburgh South," Brian St. Pierre would get his chance at the gig.

I'm sorry, was that headline needlessly confusing? Let's see if the Ol' Ball Coach himself can clarify:

This year, I know there has been a lot of talk this summer about play calling. Let me just get that straight. I will be responsible for the play calling. Steve Jr. has been coaching with me going into 11 years now and together we will get the play calling done. The plan right now is for him to sort of put it all together and we'll get it in there. I will oversee all the play calling. I'm still the offensive coordinator.

Much better. So to recap: Steve Spurrier, Jr. (the Young Ball Coach?) will put the offensive gameplan together--some would even say coordinate the game plan--and together with his dad will get the plays called; although Spurrier Sr., as offensive coordinator, will be responsible for calling plays. Nothing beats clearly defined roles. But hey, this is Steve Spurrier we're talking about, so no matter what the official plan is, the result will be somewhere between pretty darn good and wrath-of-god domination.

More succinctly, Spurrier has shrugged off the rumors that he's frustrated in Columbia, saying he knows building a champion at South Carolina will take some time and that he's in for the long haul. For fans of other SEC schools, that means several more years of worrying that this is the season the OBC gets it all put together.

Steve Spurrier is well-known for his quarterbacks and how he relates to them. In a nutshell, he can be a tad... rough. You don't go play for the OBC if you're not ready for a constant barrage of, ah, 'constructive criticism' from both near and afar.

From Chris Low's SEC blog:

"If we had to play tomorrow, Tommy Beecher would be our quarterback," Spurrier said. "Tommy Beecher actually has played a little bit better in the spring than Chris Smelley and our other quarterbacks."

But in vintage Spurrier fashion, it wasn't exactly what you would call a ringing endorsement.

"Hopefully, someday we're going to have a quarterback here we can all really hang our hat on," said Spurrier, who made no mention of suspended redshirt freshman quarterback Stephen Garcia. "Tommy Beecher is going to get that opportunity first to see if he can be the quarterback of our team. He hasn't played a lot here. He has all the physical and mental abilities to do an excellent job as our quarterback here."

Sort of a win-lose scenario for Beecher: his coach isn't expecting much, nor is anyone else for that matter, so what's to lose? Go out there and play loose, dude. On the flip side, it does sound like Spurrier's keeping the QB seat warm for the more athletic -- and ostensibly more talented -- Stephen Garcia. Despite four separate transgressions in his freshman year at South Carolina, Garcia will be almost certainly be welcomed back by Spurrier and the Gamecocks sometime this season.

Like some of his Buccaneers teammates, Earnest Graham would like some more money. He had a career year with the team, but Tampa Bay has turned away his requests for a pay raise. So Graham turned away the Bucs' request that he show up at voluntary workouts.

Apparently, Graham's old college coach doesn't like that very much.

Former Gators coach Steve Spurrier had some stern words of advice for Buc holdout running back Earnest Graham on Thursday. ...

"Hopefully Earnest Graham will get his butt back out to practice real soon,'' Spurrier said of the former Gators back. "Earnest needs to get back out here and I guess he'll be out here next week.''

Graham must really appreciate having his old coach undermine his holdout in the press. Makes you wonder what sort of relationship those two had at Florida. Plus, given that Spurrier left his alma mater for a huge payday with the Washington Redskins, maybe he's not the one to suggest Graham shouldn't be holding out for a raise.

Then again, Bucs practices become mandatory next week, so Graham could be fined $8,000 a day if he doesn't show up. Maybe Spurrier's just telling Graham not to throw his money away.

Usually spring is the season of unbridled (and in many cases, unrealistic) optimism for college football fans. Not so in Columbia, South Carolina.

An unspectacular recruiting season combined with disarray at the quarterback position (redshirt frosh Stephen Garcia was cited for underage drinking last month, his fourth offense in his short tenure at South Carolina) set the stage for the Gamecocks' spring scrimmage. After Spurrier's last spring game put fans to sleep (it was a low-scoring, 14-7 affair) the Ol' Ball Coach enacted new rules for '08: no pass rushing, no blitzing, and the defense was forced to play one of three base coverages.

Sounds like a recipe for an offensive extravaganza, right? Nope: QBs Chris Smelley and Tommy Beecher combined for 8 interceptions versus the declawed 'Cock defense.

Add to this the fact that Spurrier has designated his son, Steve Spurrier Jr., as the new playcaller. And, yes, Junior was calling the plays. For both offenses.

Does Spurrier have one foot out the door already at South Carolina? If Spurrier fails to produce a competitive team in this, his fourth year in Columbia, you've just gotta wonder. The OBC is grooming his son for the head coaching job, hasn't been lighting it up on the recruiting trail, and has already been in public scrapes with the university over admissions issues. Gamecock fans are nervous about what ROI might come from their pricey head coach in his remaining time in the Palmetto State, and rightfully so.

Getting old is sad. Just ask fans of Florida State or Penn State or Queen Elizabeth. It's even sadder when the old monarch starts installing his nitwit son in places of importance and the nitwit son calls nothing but hopeful downfield jump balls or starts a war in the Falklands or something. Once the old guy starts the nepotism train, it's all over.

South Carolina fans, this is your cue to panic:

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said he will turn some of the play calling duties over to Steve Spurrier, Jr., but that he will still be the offensive coordinator.

Say it ain't so, Steve! What's next, road rage? Coke-bottle glasses? An unquenchable thirst for the brains of the living?

It's all downhill from here, except for that one year when you're inexplicably good and get to play an ACC team in the Orange Bowl. Which, if you're South Carolina, probably sounds pretty good.

The latest news out of South Carolina is that quarterback Stephen Garcia is once again in trouble with The Man, this time for... get out your College Stupidity 8-Balls, readers... Underage Drinking! (hint: it's always underage drinking). As the AP reports, Garcia was one of three football players arrested for underage drinking near a campus dormitory ("Yes, the dorms! They'll never look for alcohol here!")

Worse, Garcia's older brother Jerry* was cited for providing beer for a minor, because if there's one thing holding society back, it's 20-year-olds with beer. Hard liquor we can totally understand, mind you; there's nothing worse than some idiot sophomore reeking of Curve for Men and Captain Morgan as he apologizes for knocking your drink over. But giving beer to underage college students should be fine. They just get happy and play video games. And vomit.

This is Garcia's third run-in with the law; he was arrested once for drunkenness about a year ago, then a month later was charged with keying a professor's car. Garcia, as you can probably imagine, was indefinitely suspended by The Ol' Ball-Coach; it lasted about a month. Spurrier is expected to announce the quarterback's fate with the team soon; it's hard to imagine he'll get dismissed for a victimless crime of impatience, but it's always a fool's endeavor to pretend to know what goes on in TOBC's mind. Sort of like Jesus, but with a visor.

We officially endorse a punishment of two weeks' suspension, heavy amounts of stairs in the morning, and a hand-written apology to Garcia's brother for ratting him out on giving the players beer. The answer is always, always the following: "We found it over there." Then you point somewhere. Must we teach you everything?

*not his brother's real first name