Gamecock Digest

Steve Spurrier Opens Up On Why He Took and Left the Job at South Carolina

Joseph Griffin, Joseph Griffin

Head ball coach Steve Spurrier at South Carolina
Head ball coach Steve Spurrier at South Carolina /

Former South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier is without a doubt the greatest football coach in school history. In (11) seasons he managed to win a school record (86) football games. Steve Spurrier's Gamecocks won eleven games in three straight seasons, something that's not only never been done before in school history, the Gamecocks have only won ten games one other time in school history.

What Spurrier did in Columbia, South Carolina was nothing short of great. Spurrier was on the Tailgate with Dimarco and Garcia Podcast this week and he opened up about why he took the South Carolina job and what made him ultimately decide to leave and retire from coaching.

“When I first got there, people used to say, ‘Coach, just beat Clemson.’ And they said, ‘If you go 1-10 or 1-11 and we beat Clemson, we’ll be all right. I said, ‘No, we’re not. I’d rather beat these SEC guys and these good teams. We’re going to try to beat Clemson also, but that whole season is not about Clemson.'”

Spurrier felt as if he was loosing the attention and ear of his football team. A prime example of that was in his final season, he always hosted a chapel service the night before the game, a service that Spurrier says "90% of the team" woud typically come. That last season... fewer and fewer people were attending.

“I actually asked the team, I said, ‘I don’t think it’s too much to ask you guys to come in there for 40, 30 minutes, no more than that, the night before the game. We’ve done this for the 10 years I’ve been here. Never had any problem. … Well, they still did not want to come. They would not come. I said, ‘These guys don’t listen to me.’ And they didn’t. They didn’t listen to me.”

It continued to play out on the football field as well, it even got to the point where Spurrier stopped calling plays, knowing that it wasn't the team's fault, it was his fault they weren't listening any longer.

“I was gone after I could just hang out on the sideline. I made up my mind. I’m not even going to try to call plays. This bunch don’t listen to me. And that’s my fault. It’s not their fault. You’ve got to demand that they listen to you. So I just thought. I’ll get out now. If Elliott can come in and win some games, he’ll keep maybe four or five of these guys, bring in some new guys and go from there."

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Joseph Griffin
JOSEPH GRIFFIN

Joseph Griffin
JOSEPH GRIFFIN

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