Fla Today:Analyst still has faith in Spurrier

[TK]

http://www.floridatoday.com/!NEWSROOM/columnstoryS1109KERASOTIS.htm

Analyst still has faith in Spurrier

"There are times," Cris Collinsworth said, "when you almost feel dirty about what you're doing."

A statement like that could conjure up all sorts of unsavory images.

But for Cris Collinsworth, feeling dirty is the feeling he gets when, as Fox's lead NFL color analyst, he has to criticize somebody. Especially somebody he likes. Somebody like, say, Steve Spurrier.

Collinsworth and Spurrier go back a quarter of a century, to Collinsworth's sophomore season with the Florida Gators, shortly after he emerged from Astronaut High School as a multi-sport athlete with even more going for him between the ears than between the lines.

Collinsworth, believe it or not, was a quarterback coming out of high school. And Spurrier, back in 1978, was UF's quarterback coach. The two were together only one year before Charley Pell came in as head coach and cleaned house, firing Spurrier.

"But I'll tell you," Collinsworth said, "that was the biggest year I ever had in football. I never had so much fun."

Yes, the two go way back. In fact, when Collinsworth became a star wide receiver with the Cincinnati Bengals he came real close to playing for Spurrier again, almost hopping from the NFL to the fledgling USFL, specifically the Tampa Bay Bandits, who were coached by one Steve Spurrier.

Later, as a broadcaster and analyst, Collinsworth admired and appreciated what Spurrier did when he returned to Florida and led their alma mater to 12 years of unprecedented success.

So it wasn't easy for Collinsworth to sit in a broadcast booth last Sunday and lambaste Spurrier's coaching effort with the Washington Redskins in an ugly loss to the Dallas Cowboys. And it wasn't just Collinsworth who was critical. It was also his color cohort Troy Aikman -- "I've never heard Troy Aikman be that critical of anybody, anywhere, at anytime than he was that day," Collinsworth said -- as well as a few shots from play-by-play man Joe Buck.

Spurrier was hit hard and often. In fact, the only person hit harder and more often that day was Redskins quarterback Patrick Ramsey, who came out of the game looking like he'd been mugged, the victim of four sacks as well as various and sundry other body blows for good measure. Then again, this has been the modus operandi for the Redskins, the NFL's most sacked -- and most penalized -- team. Individually, Ramsey has been sacked 26 times, second only to the 28 that Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb has endured.

"It was painful," Collinsworth said of the necessary criticism that needed to be levied during that game against the Cowboys. "But, then again, that game was painful to watch, too. Painful to watch and painful to broadcast."

If you separate any emotional feelings you have for Spurrier -- which is hard to do, given his polarizing nature -- it is stunning strictly from a football standpoint that he seems so lost now, two months into his second season coaching the Redskins. Washington is 3-5 with four straight losses . . . and counting. If they're in any gear, it seems to be in reverse.

When he jumped to the NFL before last season, Spurrier was the NFL story, coast to coast. But, my, how times and fortunes have changed. Spurrier, the offensive mastermind, has gone from headlines to punchlines, and the fall has been swift and startling.

"Yeah, I'm a little bit stunned, like a lot of people," Collinsworth said, stammering a bit, searching for the right words to describe what seems so indescribable.

"I don't know how to explain it," he continued. "I really thought that against the Cowboys, with a bye week before that game, that at the very least they would've had their protection packages pretty much in place. You know, there's a lot of things you can do to protect your quarterback in the NFL. You can throw the ball out quickly with those hot reads, like Mike Martz does in St. Louis, where the defense gets so frustrated they quit blitzing. Or you can use bunch formations, where teams are afraid to play man coverage. When they bring four to the strong side, rather than trying to block it, you just release people and try to catch them quickly . . ."

His voice tailed off.

"Look, every team in the NFL has issues. Whether it's protecting the quarterback, the defense, the receivers, the line, every team has an issue. Ultimately, it's the coach's job to put deodorant on those issues."

Spurrier hasn't.

Translation: He is stinking up the joint.

So where does he go from here? Back to the drawing board? Back to college, perhaps?

Rumors are rampant.

So are opinions.

Here's Collinsworth's: "The major frustration for me from that broadcast last Sunday is that I have so much confidence in Steve's ability to adapt and change, that I thought I'd see a real different looking team, a team that had figured out some of their protection problems. And yet it just looked the same. But if you ask me today if I think Steve will get it figured out, I still think he will. I still really believe in him. The guy is smart enough and clever enough that he'll come up with a plan. Maybe I'm as stubborn as he is, but I think he'll get it done. I really do."

He also doesn't think Spurrier is on the hot seat in Washington, that his job is in imminent jeopardy, in spite of his five-year $25-million contract, or that Spurrier and owner Daniel Snyder are at each other's throats, as some reports would have us believing. Collinsworth bases that opinion on conversations he's had with both Spurrier and Snyder.

"They're both, at least with me in private conversations, very supportive of each other. Snyder told me that absolutely he is not considering any sort of change and that he wants Steve there. You have to remember that Snyder has a lot on the line, too. His reputation has taken a hit, because this was his guy, the guy he wanted to go after all along. But now he has a track record of flipping through coaches.

"Some Redskins players we talked to were saying, 'Just leave Steve alone and let him do his job. We'll work our way out of this. We want some continuity on this team. We can't keep changing coaches every two years.' "

And if the Redskins do change coaches again, and Snyder does give Spurrier something he's never gotten before as a head coach, and that would be a pink slip, would the ball coach take his offensive ideas somewhere else, perhaps back to college?

Doubtful.

Spurrier is 59 and, as many of us remember, he would occasionally say when he was at Florida that he would not coach past 60. He isn't a Bobby Bowden or a Joe Paterno, he'd often say. They won't be carrying him off a football field in a casket.

"I don't know that he would want a next job if it didn't work out with the Redskins," Collinsworth said.

But he thinks it will work out.

"I'm a believer in Steve Spurrier, and I tell people that all the time," he said. "And, really, he's the kind of guy you'd love to see do well in the pros because he's the kind of personality that is great for the NFL. I still believe he's going to get it fixed in Washington. If that opinion ultimately proves to be naive, then I'll eat my words on that one, like I've had to do on many occasions. But that's my gut feeling, that he'll get it right."

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Peter Kerasotis' column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays in Florida Today. He can be reached at (321) 242-3694 or at pkerasot@flatoday.net. Listen to him Friday mornings from 8:30 to 9 on WMEL-AM 920

[OaktonSkins/BushFan]

Originally posted by KC'Dave

There's no doubt that Steve has the ability and mind. It's just that I'm haunted by this image of Steve, with wild-ass hair, surrounded by player shaped test tubes cackling to himself that he'll "show those NFL bustards" and simply force the Fun and Gun to work in the NFL as it was originally designed at FU. (what else does FU stand for? just a thought)

Sputter could, effectively, adapt or even invent an offense capable of confounding NFL defenses. He's smart enough to do that. I just don't think he can break out of his own Fun and Gun laboratory.

It's much too early to indict SOS's "Fun and Gun" offensive system. At this point, it looks like some of the players are simply failing to execute - particularly w/ respect to pass protection. I do, however, blame Spurrier and some of his assistant coaches for poor coaching.

[Skinster]

I mean i realize that we are blocking like crap .... but is it not true we have a second year Qb at the helm!!!! How can we value whats in place if we run behind a Qb that needs time to develop! We are still not sure Ramsey is the Qb of our future!!! God i hope he is!!! Damm he's got a rocket for an arm!!!

Anyways, we pass judgement way to fast... ride the season out and then lets call some people out!! For all we know they still may breakout, and make a playoff run. Who knows they may loose all the rest.... They are a young team that needs to gel, we all new that comming into the season!

Skinster!!!

Skin 4 Life

[Potato Sack]

So it wasn't easy for Collinsworth to sit in a broadcast booth last Sunday and lambaste Spurrier's coaching effort with the Washington Redskins in an ugly loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Oh...it was easy. Collinsworth lives for lambasting. The guy can be a complete jerk sometimes.

[MichaelM]

Originally posted by KC'Dave

There's no doubt that Steve has the ability and mind. It's just that I'm haunted by this image of Steve, with wild-ass hair, surrounded by player shaped test tubes cackling to himself that he'll "show those NFL bustards" and simply force the Fun and Gun to work in the NFL as it was originally designed at FU. (what else does FU stand for? just a thought)

Sputter could, effectively, adapt or even invent an offense capable of confounding NFL defenses. He's smart enough to do that. I just don't think he can break out of his own Fun and Gun laboratory.

What else does FU stand for? I know what it does not stand for, UF. Try to dump your hatred for the University of Florida (UF) and Spurrier and use proper names. It is UF not FU and it is Spurrier not Sputter. And if you happen to wonder, not that I care if you do, but I have been a Skins fan much longer than a Gator, so Spurrier did not bring me to this team or the area where I live.