Island Packet:Key jobs ready for Spurrier

[TK]

http://www.islandpacket.com/sports/local/story/3011433p-2755510c.html

Key jobs ready for Spurrier

BY ED STORIN, Packet columnist

Published Sunday, November 9th, 2003

It's that time of the year when the fans of winning football teams talk of playoffs, bowls and championships while fans of losers debate whether the coach should be fired.

There seems to be an extra dose of the latter this year. Perhaps it is because so many big name coaches are under fire.

Even legends like Joe Paterno and Steve Spurrier appear vulnerable.

Closer to home, we have Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Reeves (sure to go), Clemson's Tommy Bowden (most likely to be dismissed) and South Carolina's Lou Holtz (a strong candidate for a second retirement).

The Paterno situation is the most heart-tugging. Here you have a man with the second most victories (all at Penn State) in the history of big-time college football. He is beloved by Nittany Lions fans and respected throughout the game.

Now with only two victories in 10 games many Penn State alumni are wondering if Papa Joe, at age 76, has lost his skills as a recruiter and coach. Has he, like many coaching greats, stayed on too long?

Oddly enough, a few months ago they were saying the same thing about Florida State's Bobby Bowden, who just last week passed Paterno in number of all-time coaching victories. Now Bowden, 74, has his Seminoles in contention to play for another national title in January.

Spurrier's story is much different. This is a man with a tremendous ego, unlike Paterno. A man who displays his emotions continuously on the sidelines, unlike Paterno. A man who felt that winning in college was not enough and jumped to the Washington Redskins, unlike Paterno, who turned down an offer from the Dolphins before Don Shula was named coach in 1970.

It is evident now that Spurrier made a big mistake. It appears he has not been able to adapt to the NFL game. But we may never know because he signed on with Daniel Snyder, who thinks he knows more about football than any of the four coaches he's hired and fired in five years as Redskins owner.

If Spurrier is smart he'll reach a settlement on the remaining three years of his contract and head back to college football. Florida won't be an option because after a shaky start Ron Zook has the Gators in contention for the Southeastern Conference title, but he'll be much in demand for the many vacancies on the horizon.

Surely, if he wanted to take another crack at the pros, Falcons owner Arthur Blank would be interested. Spurrier and Michael Vick. Now that would be interesting.

Or better yet, how about Clemson or South Carolina?

Neither Bowden nor Holtz have delivered on promises of conference championships. Neither has been able to recruit the talent needed to compete with the big boys like Florida State, Florida, Georgia and Auburn.

Bowden was a highly-rated assistant to his father at FSU and did well in his first head coaching job at Tulane. But the bar is much higher in the Atlantic Coast Conference and will only continue to rise with the admission of Miami and Virginia Tech next year. In five years there has been little evidence that young Tommy can bring Clemson up to this level.

I've always believed that Holtz was over-rated as a coach. He won one national championship at Notre Dame, but had a habit of losing games he was supposed to win in the years leading up to his first retirement. At S.C. he has produced only one ranked team in his five seasons.

Spurrier proved at Florida that he knows how to recruit great talent and then consistently guide that talent to championships.

No reason to believe he wouldn't do the same thing at either Clemson or South Carolina.

Ed Storin is the former sports editor of the Miami Herald.

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[88Comrade2000]

If Spurrier went to Atlanta; then I want the Falcons #1 pick.

[Atlanta Skins Fan]

Originally posted by Rdskns2000

If Spurrier went to Atlanta; then I want the Falcons #1 pick.

We may be getting it already, if the rumors of Champ going to the Falcons are true. Champ is a Georgia hero, and the Falcons weakness is their secondary (once Vick is healthy). Champ could be a 2- or 3-way player for them.

But it would cost the Falcons their #1 pick and more, if the Redskins franchise Champ. That #1 pick is likely to be one of the top picks in the draft.

Only a couple slots ahead of ours, though.

Heh. :doh:

[Zen-like Todd]

If Champ's contract had been up last year, I would have agreed with you, ASF. But this year, if your team is looking for a top DB, they would be remiss not to exhaust all of the free agent possiblities available before going after a player that would require compensation, especially in the form of a high first round draft pick (for Atlanta and Detroit), no matter how "nice" it would be to bring a homegrown product back to the city.

If Atlanta wants to give up the #5 overall pick in the first round for Champ, I do it in a heartbeat if I know I can use the money I just saved to make a bigtime offer to Antoine Winfield, and then spend the #1 pick I just got on Will Smith.