As usual, Spurrier is the story for Florida

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Posted 3:55PM on Wednesday, January 2, 2002

MIAMI - A dull week at the Orange Bowl? A season-ending game with no meaning? Not with Steve Spurrier around. The Florida coach who has brandished a reputation as one of the most outspoken, sometimes outrageous, sports figures in the country struck again this week. He turned Florida's placid stay in Miami upside down with his announcement that quarterback Brock Berlin would start Wednesday night's game against Maryland, and Heisman Trophy runner-up Rex Grossman would sit because he missed curfew. Thus added another twist to a tumultuous season in which the 12th-year Gators coach once again showed his penchant for grabbing the headlines, enthralling his own fans and enraging most of the others. "Call me arrogant, cocky, crybaby whiner or whatever names you like," Spurrier said in an interview with The Miami Herald. "At least they're not calling us losers anymore. If people like you too much, it's probably because they're beating you." From that perspective -- the perspective of wins and losses -- there is no arguing with Spurrier. From the time football began at Florida all the way through the 1980s, the Gators were little more than sleeping giants, as Alabama coach Bear Bryant once called them -- a program with amazing potential, but without the leadership to capitalize. Enter Spurrier in 1990, and things changed quickly. A program that had never won 10 games won at least 10 in eight of the next 11 seasons. The Gators won six Southeastern Conference titles after winning none in their previous 83 seasons. A program that struggled to break even financially became a prolific revenue producer that boosted the entire athletic program. So, yeah, Spurrier ruffles feathers, but nobody in the Florida family complains. "I have no issues with Steve Spurrier," athletic director Jeremy Foley said. "He's a great football coach. He loves the University of Florida. He's done more for this program than anyone can imagine. And if he's in the news more than anyone, so be it." Of course, even Foley cringed this year when Spurrier refused to let go of the accusation that Florida State's Darnell Dockett intentionally injured his tailback, Earnest Graham. Spurrier claims Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden teaches his players to play dirty, and he refuses to back down. Florida State athletic director Dave Hart snapped back, suggesting Spurrier should be "spanked and sent to his room." Naturally, that didn't bother the man that enemies derisively refer to as "Coach Superior." "I'd be a lousy coward of a coach if I didn't support my player," Spurrier said. "FSU condones that type of play. They try to hurt people. That's the way they do business over there." When Spurrier made his decision to bench Grossman for missing curfew, he took what most viewed as a subtle jab at Bowden, who let kicker Sebastian Janikowski play in the Sugar Bowl two years ago even though he missed curfew. "Some coaches may not think it's a big deal," Spurrier said of missing curfew. "I think it is sort of a big deal." Being a high-profile coach with a tell-it-like-it-is personality has its perks and consequences. It casts Spurrier as a genius when he succeeds, a laughingstock when he fails. "If you aren't a Gator and we're scoring a lot and I'm calling the plays, you aren't going to like me," he said. "Winners admire other winners, and losers resent winners." That's the way Spurrier's world works -- it's a world defined by black and white, wins and losses, right and wrong. He wouldn't want it any other way.