Stephen Orr Spurrier’s 10 greatest coaching moments

Our tribute to Stephen Orr Spurrier — a seminal figure in the history of college football — continues here at The Student Section.

Spurrier’s achievements go beyond the realm of the specific. He didn’t just win a number of big games and conference championships, plus Florida’s first national title in football; Spurrier’s accomplishments were also structural and cultural in nature. He shook up the SEC, and he pushed college football into a new age, with Bobby Bowden doing the same at Florida State.

However, in a career which did indeed become significant on a cultural level, it’s still impossible to avoid a number of individual moments which enabled Spurrier to become all that he became as a coach.

Here are those moments:

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10 – TAKING ALABAMA TO THE EDGE: 1992 SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

There was only one season from 1990 through 1996 in which Spurrier’s Florida team wasn’t the best in the SEC. Yet, it was still a triumph — or at least, it felt that way.

Spurrier’s undermanned Gators, playing in the hostile territory of Birmingham, took Gene Stallings’s best Alabama team to the limit in the first SEC Championship Game. The Gators frustrated Alabama all night with inspired effort and Spurrier’s signature creativity. Florida lost, but Spurrier coached the heck out of that game. It’s the kind of performance which leaves a deep imprint, nearly a quarter of a century later.

You can watch the SEC Storied documentary on that game here.

9 – WINNING THE SEC EAST AT SOUTH CAROLINA

In microcosm, you could legitimately say the accomplishment was not a big deal at all — South Carolina went 5-3 in the SEC in 2010, winning the division only because no one else was willing to grab it. You won’t get an argument on that smaller level.

However, if viewed through the lens of the macro and not the micro, this still rates as a hefty achievement. The idea that the Florida-Georgia-Tennessee alliance was breakable had remained just that — an idea. It had never been done in nearly 20 years. Spurrier broke through that barrier, checking off one very big box on his to-do list in Columbia, S.C. He didn’t win the SEC, but Spurrier put together multiple 6-2 seasons in the SEC, only for Missouri to improbably go 7-1 and leave his team outside Atlanta.

On balance, Spurrier did enough to win the SEC East at some point. It’s just that in 2010, he really shouldn’t have won. Things have a way of evening out, and so the 2010 East title carries value in a larger sense, not necessarily when viewed in isolation. The fact that the Gamecocks went 5-3 in that 2010 season is what keeps this item relatively low on the list. Had South Carolina gone 6-2 or 7-1 en route to its East flag, this achievement would rate higher.

8 – 2012: SOUTH CAROLINA 35, GEORGIA 7

Spurrier hated Georgia more than any other opponent, even Florida State.

He never forgot how his alma mater, Florida, had its nose rubbed in the dirt by Georgia’s Vince Dooley teams. When he was in the NFL in the 1970s, Spurrier — someone whose competitive personality was supremely manifested by his constant keeping of scores (it’s what enabled him to settle so many scores in his coaching career) — quietly and inwardly noted what Georgia was doing to Florida. He never lost the burning passion to beat Georgia at every opportunity, and it should be said that when Georgia hung over “half-a-hundred” on South Carolina in September of this season, Spurrier had to know it was time to call it a career. The Bulldogs gained payback for what Spurrier did in 1995, with one of his two best Florida teams.

That’s part of the point, though: At Florida, Spurrier did have the players needed to beat Georgia. His early ascendancy in Gainesville might have taken the SEC by surprise, but once he established himself (let’s say 1993, with teams that won four straight SEC titles through 1996), he was expected to have the best players in the SEC.

At South Carolina, Spurrier certainly fielded some outstanding recruiting classes, but the Gamecocks should never have better players than Georgia. That Spurrier was able to blow out one of Mark Richt’s better Georgia teams in 2012 (those Bulldogs went 12-2 and came within an eyelash of winning the SEC and playing for the national title against Notre Dame) represented, in many ways, the high point of what he achieved in South Carolina.

Broadly, winning 11 games in three straight seasons, complete with bowl victories and wins over Clemson, marked his greatest collective feat in Columbia. In terms of a moment, however, that night against Georgia in 2012 exemplified how far he took the Gamecocks.

7 – 2012: SOUTH CAROLINA 27, CLEMSON 17

In the five-game winning streak South Carolina forged against Clemson from 2009 through 2013, no victory was more impressive than this one.

Clemson had a pretty darn good team in 2012, one which went 11-2 and beat LSU in the Peach Bowl (corporate sponsor name intentionally ignored). South Carolina beat that team in Death Valley, and most surprisingly, it did so without an injured Connor Shaw.

Before he quarterbacked the Gamecocks in 2014, Dylan Thompson played that game at the end of the 2012 regular season. He wasn’t flawless, but his big plays exceeded his mistakes. As much as Shaw was the heartbeat of the Gamecocks from 2011 through 2013, Thompson made several crucial contributions in isolated moments which enabled South Carolina to reach its potential, never more so than on a night when he had to carry the whole load on the offensive side of the ball.

That said, Thompson would not have won this game without a strong effort from a defense which bothered and bewildered Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd all night long. Boyd completed just 11 of 24 passes with two interceptions, enabling South Carolina to dictate the tempo of — and win — the game.

South Carolina, at its height under Spurrier, was always denied the SEC East title because another team managed to go 7-1 in the division. This frustration would have been magnified by losses to Clemson, but the Gamecocks — in this three-year window — were always able to get past that bit of agony. A hallmark of Spurrier-coached teams is that they did not let up at the end of a season, with 2012 being a classic case in point.

6 – 2000: FLORIDA 41, SOUTH CAROLINA 21

The Florida and South Carolina fan bases both admire and appreciate what Steve Spurrier gave to their respective programs, even though the Head Ball Coach defeated each school when coaching for the other side. In 2010, Spurrier clinched his only SEC East title with South Carolina in The Swamp, defeating Urban Meyer’s last Florida team in its post-Tim Tebow decline. The moment was powerful and significant, but it’s hard to put on a top-10 list due to Florida’s diminished quality at the time.

The Florida-South Carolina game which stands out as a bigger moment is the 2000 game, when Spurrier was still coaching the Gators. Before Spurrier took over for Lou Holtz, he beat him in a game which is vastly overlooked in terms of its effect on Spurrier’s legacy.

Florida had failed to win the SEC in three straight seasons following its seven-year period of near-total dominance. From 1997 through 1999, the Doug Johnson years brought the Gators a few slices of humble pie. The program hardly disintegrated; it continued to win 10 games. However, it no longer 12, and that was a failure in relative terms. In the 2000 season, Florida and Spurrier needed to show themselves (not just the rest of the SEC) that they could rule over the league again. They needed to show a measure of longevity and staying power.

When South Carolina, in a November game loaded with pressure, took a 21-3 lead in the first quarter thanks to two blocked punts for touchdowns, the Gators’ SEC title hopes were going down the drain.

Was the team going to panic, or would it get off the mat and do something about the matter?

When Jesse Palmer helped orchestrate a 28-0 second-quarter tsunami against the Gamecocks, that question was authoritatively answered, and Florida won the SEC East. It then disposed of Tommy Tuberville and Auburn to win another SEC title.

The official record says Spurrier won six SEC titles, but if you account for the 1990 season in which Florida had the best record in the league — only to be stripped of the title for reasons that had nothing to do with Spurrier — the Head Ball Coach won seven, which would tie him with the iconic General Robert Neyland of Tennessee for second on the all-time list. Bear Bryant is, of course, first.

That last 2000 SEC title by Florida should not be forgotten in a larger discussion of Spurrier’s career resume.

5 – 1990: FLORIDA 17, ALABAMA 13

This was the first SEC game Steve Spurrier coached at Florida. It was the second game of Spurrier’s career at his alma mater, a road date against the defending SEC champions and the most iconic program in the league. Florida didn’t know what it had going into that game — not necessarily in terms of personnel, but heart. The Gators were uncertain of what they possessed in terms of resilience, fortitude, and perseverance, the qualities a championship team needs. Florida, as a school, had finished with the best record in the SEC only twice, in 1984 and 1985. The 1984 SEC title was vacated, and the Gators were deemed ineligible for the title in 1985. Even if you counted those two championships, a mere pair of crowns in the long history of the SEC would have represented a drop in the bucket. That’s the number of SEC titles Kentucky has won. It’s only one more than the number of SEC titles Mississippi State has captured.

Florida entered the 1990 season as an SEC outsider, a member of the lower middle class in the conference. It’s easy to look back now and say that the Gators were on their way, but they had to walk over the hot coals of pressure and uncertainty on that afternoon against Alabama.

Moreover, nothing came easily for the offense that would eventually terrorize the SEC. Florida scored only 17 points that day, and needed to win a bare-knuckle brawl against the school most associated with old-style SEC football, even today under Nick Saban.

When Florida walked off the field with an inelegant and bruising victory, we gained the first glimpse of how — for all his creativity and his preference for the pretty play instead of the workmanlike play — Spurrier was able to win rugged games. His teams did not fold the tent when the offense wasn’t humming. More on this a little later.

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These first six events might not have seemed entirely obvious as Spurrier’s greatest moments, so they deserved longer explanations. The next four events are self-explanatory and widely known. The only question is why they’re ranked in the order they’ve acquired.

Let the debate begin:

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4 – 1997: “52-20”

A 32-point win over Florida State and Bobby Bowden, for his and Florida’s first national championship, is FOURTH? You have to be out of your mind.

Well, here’s the explanation: Florida really shouldn’t have been in this position, granted a rematch against Florida State. Yes, the system didn’t allow for a Florida State-Arizona State Sugar Bowl, but that’s what a better system would have been able to provide. Make no mistake: This was — in terms of prestige — the crown jewel of Spurrier’s Florida years, the goal to which he aspired. Yet, the surrounding (and preceding) circumstances knock it down to fourth. Three other single-moment accomplishments were greater:

3 – WINNING THE 1989 ACC TITLE AT DUKE

Florida State had not yet joined the ACC.

And? So?

Winning the ACC at Duke, in just his third season on the job, represents — even now — a phenomenal coaching feat. Period.

2 – 1997: FLORIDA 32, FLORIDA STATE 29

Bobby Bowden was Steve Spurrier’s nemesis. Florida State usually got the better of Florida. These two statements exist beyond dispute, and Doak Campbell Stadium became Spurrier’s personal house of horrors, a place where he never, ever won.

Yet, Spurrier did score a few memorable triumphs over Bowden. “52-20” in the 1997 Sugar Bowl was the most significant game the Head Ball Coach ever won against Saint Bobby, but this was the greatest.

Juggling Doug Johnson and Noah Brindise — coaching them play to play and weaving them in and out of the game — Spurrier showed how having two less-than-great quarterbacks can still work for a coach, an offense, and a team. This game is a permanent refutation of the claim that a team must have only one starting quarterback.

That this game knocked Florida State out of the (Bowl Alliance) national championship game against Nebraska only added to the size of Spurrier’s feat. It’s the best single game he ever coached.

1 – 1994 SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: FLORIDA 24, ALABAMA 23

This is, in many ways, the full encapsulation of everything that was great about Steve Spurrier — specifically his tenure at Florida, but truly the whole of his SEC coaching career.

At South Carolina, Spurrier won with a running game and a different structure of offense. He loved his “ball plays,” but he was willing to win if it meant doing things differently or winning a defensive scrap, such as that all-important 17-13 win over Alabama in 1990.

One other thing mentioned above is that Spurrier-coached teams did not let up at the end of a season. This was never more apparent than in all the SEC title games Florida won, one week after suffering a gut punch against Florida State. The Gators had to endure wrenching losses in 1993 and 1996, and they came back to beat Gene Stallings-coached Alabama teams for SEC crowns. However, in those years, Alabama was clearly inferior to Florida.

In 1994, the Tide — remember this — were 11-0 and in contention for the national title. Florida did not lose to Florida State, but the Gators might as well have lost. Their 31-31 tie (calling to mind the 29-29 tie between Harvard and Yale in 1968) felt like a defeat. Florida led, 31-3, and squandered that lead in the fourth quarter. Lesser teams with inferior leaders would have folded in the face of Alabama’s toughness, but Florida gutted out a one-point win to maintain SEC hegemony.

Yet, this rugged and difficult win was made possible by a number of gadget plays by Spurrier, the last one being a lateral to receiver Chris Doering, who flipped a 20-yard pass to Aubrey Hill to the Alabama 2, setting up a go-ahead touchdown inside the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

The signature virtue of Florida’s teams from 1990 through 1996 is that they almost always won with flair… but showed remarkable resilience in SEC games of consequence, usually after absorbing rough outcomes against Florida State. Spurrier’s Florida teams regularly won in an artful manner, but could fight in a back alley when they needed to.

You can have 52-20. I’ll take the 1994 SEC Championship Game as the finest moment of Stephen Orr Spurrier’s head coaching career.

About Matt Zemek

Editor, @TrojansWire | CFB writer since 2001 |

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