Spurrier leaves ‘em laughing
July 25, 2008
South Carolina head ball coach Steve Spurrier looked a bit surprised. There were still many writers in the room.
Spurrier was the last man at the podium, closing out the three-day SEC Football Media Days in Hoover.
“I’ve been waching all these other coaches on television the last couple of days, so I appreciate you guys hanging around to the end,“ the coach said.
C’mon. You’d be nuts to miss a chance to see Spurrier in action.
The coach said he’s got better players than he’s had at South Carolina. “We’ve hopefully got better coaches,“ Spurrier said.
He called last season’s 6-6 season “mediocrity at its best.“ Amazingly, the Gamecocks were 6-1 and ranked No. 6 in the country before collapsing and losing their last five games.
“A couple of heartbreaking losses, at Tennessee, Clemson game, that would have changed things around, but we didn’t quite win ‘em,“ the coach said. “Huge difference between 8-4 and 6-6.“
Being bowl eligible wasn’t good enough.
“We don’t like 6-6. We did qualify for a bowl,“ he noted.
He mentioned Alabama’s Independence Bowl trip came at South Carolina’s expense.
“They had a little bit more pull than South Carolina did,“ he said with a smile. “But that’s OK. That’s the way life is, and we understood it. We need to do better than 6-6.“
