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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS

July 25, 2008

Steve Spurrier

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA

COACH SPURRIER: I guess I'm up. I've been watching all these other coaches on television the last couple of days, so I appreciate you guys hanging around to the end.
It's always fun to be here. 16 years. I was telling Bobby Petrino, this was his first one, I said, I got you by 15. But this is always sort of the welcome or the opening part of SEC football season. I know I look forward to it. I think all the fans do, players do, that come and so forth.
But, anyway, we're getting pumped up there at South Carolina. We've got better players than we've had there. We've hopefully got better coaches. Last year was a disappointing ending. 6-6 is mediocrity at its best, and that's where we finished. A couple of heartbreaking losses at Tennessee, Clemson game that would have changed things around, but we didn't quite win 'em. Didn't make a play there at the end of the game. Huge difference between 8-4 and 6-6. But at 6-6, maybe it was good for us in a way, because as a head coach, I got to look and say, Hey, how can we get better?
Obviously you try to recruit better players all the time. We all try to do that. But when you look at what we've done statistically, you got to say, Hey, we got to do some things differently, especially on defense.
We finished bottom of the league against the run. I think we finished 11th and 9th against the run. We finished 10th, 9th and 9th in total defense. And we got to try to get in the top half, top half of the SEC, if we can.
Now, I know we haven't had a defensive lineman or a linebacker drafted since I've been there. So I'm not blaming the coaches. I'm just saying, as a head coach, I got to do something differently to try to give us a spark.
We're fortunate to get Ellis Johnson. Ellis is a South Carolina native. As you know, had been at Mississippi State last three, four years. At Alabama back in the late '90s, 2000, so forth. And Ellis is a proven defensive coordinator with a very good track record.
We feel like Ellis and better players, we're going to play better on defense. Hopefully we'll do a good job coaching there.
We got a new special team coordinator, Ray Rychleski, came over from University of Maryland. He runs all the special teams. One of the first times I guess I've had one guy do it all. First time since Ron Zook did it back in '95. We had a very good special team that year at Florida in '95.
Anyway, Ray is a guy that has his own way of doing things. We've changed our practice schedules around at South Carolina. Hopefully we're a little tougher, more disciplined because we certainly need that through the entire team.
Offensively we got a new quarterback, Tommy Beecher. Tommy has been there all three years. He was one of our first guys we signed first year I got there. Hadn't played much yet, but he's ready.
Tommy has the highest GPA on the team. He can run probably better than the other quarterbacks. He can scramble around a bit. And he can make all the throws. Really physically you haven't seen a lot of him yet, but we're hoping and believing he will develop a lot of confidence, and we believe he can be a very good SEC quarterback.
So got some new stuff there, new stuff all around. We're trying to get better. We don't like 6-6. We did qualify for a Bowl. But there was another school, Alabama, at 6-6. They had a little bit more pull than South Carolina did (smiling). But that's okay. That's the way life is, and we understood it. We need to do better than 6-6.
So we're getting pumped up for the season. Open up with NC State, a very good team. They're right there in the ACC, probably similar to a lot of schools. They haven't been quite like Virginia Tech. They've been about like us probably, sort of middle, of the ACC. We've sort of been near the middle, I guess, of the SEC.
But we open up with those guys, then go to Vandy, then Georgia, and on down the line. So NC State Thursday night, August 28th, is the game that we're preparing for.
Okay, any questions.

Q. With the new quarterback situation, how involved will you be with the offensive play-calling this year?
COACH SPURRIER: Okay. Yeah, let me talk about that briefly. My son, Steve, Jr., is going into his 11th year coaching with me. He came down as a GA at Florida in '93. I'm sorry, '94, '95, '96 was his three GA years. We were fortunate to win the SEC all those years, and fortunate enough to win the National in '96. He went to Oklahoma with Bobby Stoops. Second year there they won the National. He's got a lot more National Championship rings than a lot of people.
But I think Steve's a good coach. It's hard for me to say it. You guys can check his background, check how his wide receivers play, how he recruits. That's sort of how you judge assistant coaches.
But he's been watching me call plays. But he's been calling 'em also. He's been up top watching, "da, da, da, send this one in." Nowadays it's a little different than the early '90s. Heck, I mean, I think at Florida the first few years, I didn't even have a play sheet over there half the time. You remember those days, coach didn't even have a play sheet. I'd signal in myself half the stuff.
But nowadays, guys are going in motion, shifts and all that, which you have to do. To get it all on paper and so forth, it takes a lot of time during the week. The guy who's the principal play-caller, I mean, he's got to be going through his mind all week long right up to game time, or else you can't find them. You can't find where the plays are.
So, anyway, I just felt like he's ready to do the principal play-caller. And then I'll still have the sheets ready to insert, Don't forget about this one, let's get this one in here, there, the other and so forth.
So it will be a team effort. Yet one guy's got to do it. He'll get 'em in there to start with. If there's a time for me next, I want this one the next play, da, da, da. If it goes bad, I did it. If it goes pretty good, he did it. That will be the way it will go.

Q. How important is it to develop a number two receiver for Kenny McKinley? Do you feel that's a role Dion Lecorn can play?
COACH SPURRIER: Dion came in and played well last year, the last half of the season. Took us about half a year to figure out he might be our next-best wide receiver. We've got some other players there that are very capable, Joe Hills and Matt Clements are two freshmen last year that we held out. They got some speed, got some quicks. We got to teach 'em how to play. That's what we need to do with those guys. They're very capable.
But we also got two tight ends, Jared Cook and Weslye Saunders, which are amongst our best five receivers catching the ball, getting open, so forth. We're a little bit of a tight-end team. You know, people used to accuse us of not throwing to tight ends, but we had a bunch of All-American wide receivers in those days that we were throwing at down at Florida.
But Jared Cook and Weslye are two big-time pass-receiving tight ends. Hopefully they'll block a little bit better. Their blocking needs a lot of work. But they can catch.

Q. Talk about your ending the season with a five-game losing streak, how tough was that? How long that makes the off-season, and does that add to your anxiousness for the start of this season?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, the two losses to Tennessee and Clemson were heartbreakers. They were games that were sort of within our grasp and we didn't put it away. Didn't work out. It's history now. So, you know, you got to put it aside. You can't mope and cry about it but for so long, then you got to get going.
But obviously when you lose your last four or five games, it does not help recruiting. It doesn't help at all. If those two games go our way, like I said, 8-4 is a huge difference than 6-6. But it didn't work out.
But, again, we're not that far away from being a pretty good team. As I've told all the other media people here for the last hour or so, when you see South Carolina run out on the field for warmups, you're going to say, Those guys look like an SEC team now. We got some 6'4", 6'6", I think Clifton Geathers is about 6'8" defensive end. Our offensive linemen are 6'3", 6'4", 6'5", so on.
So we've improved our personnel necessarily there. Again, we only had one player drafted last year, Cory Boyd. So most of our guys who did most of the playing are back. A lot of them are back for two, three more years, so forth.
Our big recruiting class was two years ago. Those 27 guys, I believe all of 'em are still with us. About half of 'em were redshirted last year. Half of 'em will be ready to go this year, so forth.
We've got ball players. We absolutely have no excuses about ball players. We need to coach better, and they got to play like good players. If we get that happening, maybe those close losses will turn into victories, 'cause to win the Conference everybody has to win their close games, as we know. It's not like the old days where you could roll up 40 or 50 to 10 on people. I don't see anybody doing that much any more. Everybody's too good.

Q. Last year and during the five-game losing streak you had a lot of injuries, particularly on the defensive side. Had to play a lot of young guys. Now you have the injured people coming back. Is this really the first time you've really been able to go two-deep defensively with some confidence?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, I hope so. I hope so. Yeah, Captain Munnerlyn broke his foot out at Arkansas. Jasper got hurt at the LSU game. But, you know, we had a few injuries, but everybody has injuries. Before we were hurt, Louisiana Lafayette romped up and down the field against us. It wasn't like we were stellar till the injuries, you know. We were sort of hanging on most of the games.
Hopefully our guys are a little bigger and stronger. Hopefully we can put 'em in position to do something better because I do think our athletes are better than what we've been getting out of them. I'm talking about offense, defense and special teams. I'm talking about all of it.
I'm certainly not being critical of any coaches that used to be there or anything like that 'cause we've not had a lineman drafted in the three years I've been there, offense or defense. So it's not like we're supposed to be tearing up people.
But these next two, three years, we certainly should have some NFL picks. We should have three to five guys drafted, hopefully, in the next three years or so, hopefully, which would be very unusual at South Carolina.

Q. You've had multiple quarterbacks each of the last few years. The fact that no person has been able to step forward and claim the job all season, how much does that set y'all back and how frustrating has that been?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, we have had several quarterbacks play the last three years. That's just the way it's been. Again, we're gonna give Tommy Beecher a chance to run with it. Chris Smelley has done well this summer. Chris played fairly well at times last year, not so well at other times.
Tommy Beecher, we need to give him every opportunity to see if he can take us a long way. Again, this kid, he's very smart. He can run. He can make all the throws. He just hasn't played that much yet.
But this summer I think he has accepted the fact that he's the quarterback, and I think he's done a pretty good job getting the guys organized, throw the ball around, and giving him a chance to develop as the leader of the offense.

Q. You guys have struggled a little bit in the offensive line ever since you've been there, it seems. Do you think you might finally have a pretty good line in place this year?
COACH SPURRIER: They should be better. Our center, I guess, was the only senior last year. But I tell people, when you see our guys in the weight room, Man, that guy looks like an all-NFL lineman. I say, Yeah, in the weight room he does look like one. But all of a sudden the ball is snapped and he's not quite doing it.
We got full confidence in John Hunt. I mean, he's as frustrated as any of us, just getting the guys to play their assignment. But, you know, most of the guys have played two or three years. They have. We just got to compete harder.
You know, it's pretty simple. If you got a good-looking team, they got to play harder and smarter. If we can play with a higher effort level, play our assignments a lot, lot better than what we've been doing, it gives you a chance when one or two plays determine the game. One or two plays determine the game.
I mean, we're actually putting a little tape together - I hope it helps - of the bad plays that cost us games. Some of those games, I mean, I got about 10 plays -- you know, you lose in overtime, there's about 10 plays that could have changed the game our way, either a little better effort, a little better smarts, something like that.

Q. How is your patience holding up? The program has gotten better, but so has the whole division. Are you starting to feel urgency?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, like I said, the next three, four years we should do some good. We should do some good.
A little different now. When I went to Florida in 1990, the team was already there, a little bit like Urban. When he got there, the second year they won it all. At Florida in '90, the defense was third in the nation and returned eight starters from '89. That's why I came to this meeting and said we had a chance. A lot of these writers thought Florida didn't have a chance. But we had ball players there.
It wasn't quite like that at South Carolina. Talent wasn't that bad, but it wasn't anything like we had at Florida those first two years, '90, '91.
So again, we haven't had a lineman drafted yet. So when we get some D linemen and O linemen drafted by the NFL, you know, they'll say, whoa, they got some pretty good ball players up there.
Anyway, we've improved our talent level. But, again, the frustrating part for us is the effort level. Our guys are not conscious of playing their assignment as perfectly as they can. I know everybody has that problem.
But at South Carolina, I haven't changed them yet. Let's put it that way. Our coaching staff has not changed our guys to the level of play to really be good. Haven't done it yet. We're still trying. Got some new coaches. Got some different players. Gonna try again this year to see if we can get the effort and the commitment to play your assignment as perfectly as possible.
So that's where we are. That's where we are. Again, the big recruiting class. We're looking forward to seeing what happens the next three, four years.

Q. Is it too late for Stephen Garcia to salvage his career?
COACH SPURRIER: Stephen could be back. The university is handling his situation. He had a bunch of requirements to do this summer. From what I understand, he's done just about all they've asked, or everything. I'm not exactly sure. But the university, the Dean of Students, the provost or whoever, somebody will tell him when to come, if he's fulfilled those requirements.

Q. As a former Heisman winner, what do you think the challenges will be for a guy like Tim Tebow to try to repeat his Heisman?
COACH SPURRIER: Oh, I don't know. I don't know. None of 'em have ever repeated. I saw that the other day. Matt Leinart, those guys that won as juniors, of course, he's the first to win as a sophomore.
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Certainly could, I guess, yeah. If he runs for about five touchdowns a game like he did against us, he'll do it (smiling).
But it may be hard. It may be hard just because voters think, well, he's already won one, let's give it to the other guy. But maybe they won't. I don't know. That's up to you guys. I vote, too. But y'all do the voting, too, yeah.

Q. Last year you came here and said you thought your team was ready to contend. Is this year's team ready to contend?
COACH SPURRIER: Well, actually the team this year is probably much better prepared than last year. Obviously we were dead wrong in thinking that our team was capable last year. Of course, we did beat Georgia, the No. 2 team in the country.
Of course, Kentucky beat LSU, the No. 1 team. So that happens sometimes in the SEC.
We beat Georgia. They didn't have a very good night. Our field goal guy was perfect. We scored one touchdown. But that was a game that certainly they could have won. They could look back and see a play or two here or there that they could have won it also.
But we were never that strong during that 6-1 record. We were sort of squeaking by some teams and this, that and the other. Then, you know, the close losses at the end turned it.
But we only had one guy drafted, Cory Boyd whose down there with the Buccaneers, Tampa Bay. But it wasn't like this team's loaded. But I've always been a coach, most of you guys know. At Duke University first thing I had to do was tell those guys they were just at good as NC State or Clemson or whoever, and hope like heck they believed me. Fortunately they did. And they played like it. You know, you try to tell your players, You're good players, you're capable, now play like it. But we didn't quite play like we were very good players.
Didn't work out. I didn't say we were gonna win. I thought if we got in position, maybe it wouldn't scare us to say, Oh, gosh, we could win our division for the first time ever.
But it is interesting, I was noticing the other day on our side, the Eastern Division, there's only been three teams to ever win the division. Did y'all know that? So us, Vandy and Kentucky, we're still looking for the first one.
Whereas, on the other side, I think Ole Miss is the only one. Of course, they had that 7-1 year, lost that heartbreaker to LSU. So their side's a little bit probably more balanced than our side has been.
Obviously we're trying to crack that top three. Like I said, we beat 'em all once. We lost a heartbreaker to all of 'em once. So we're 1-2 against all of 'em. Got to get a little bit better.

Q. I guess you're one of five coaches in the league that's won a national title. There's eight or nine that have won BCS Bowl games. Talk about the coaching in this league.
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, the coaching is obviously very good. The talent's very good in the SEC. When you look at how many SEC players are invited to the NFL Combine every year, we lead all the conferences. Drafted players, we lead all the conferences.
So as coaches, you know, it's important at our universities, at our schools, our fans, big state universities, everybody wants to win. So it is important, there's no question about it.
I tell you, a lot of times as coaches, though, we don't particularly worry about who the other coach is. We're trying to get the best game plan for our players to go play and go from there. I think it's only natural that we got the biggest stadiums in the South, so the coaches make more in the South than they do the other places, I guess.
I used to be in that group, but I'm not in this group anymore. But that's okay. That's okay.

Q. As someone who left the NFL to come back to college, are you surprised Petrino is back? Also, why did you feel the need a couple of weeks ago to tell people, Hey, I'm committed to South Carolina, I plan on being here?
COACH SPURRIER: I don't know. Did I make a point to say that? I think somebody asked me about, how long are you going to be there, this, that and the other.
Yeah, Bobby, I told Bobby when he took the job, I said, I was going to give you two years. I told some people, I'll give you two years and you'll come back to college.
Obviously some things happened that he didn't foresee, or they didn't. And it just turned into sort of a situation, and he had a chance to go to Arkansas. And I think his life-style, I guess, is a lot like mine in that he enjoys a little bit of an off-season.
I've always enjoyed it, to try to recharge your batteries getting ready for August, the real season. Whereas, the NFL guys, they pretty much like to grind, oh, 11 months a year.
But they enjoy that. That's good for them. Personally, the lifestyle in college is a lot better suited for me, I know. I think maybe Bobby felt the same way.

Q. Based on your comments, do you feel your team lacks confidence right now?
COACH SPURRIER: Yeah, we lack a little bit of confidence. But we haven't done enough to gain a whole bunch of confidence. We haven't quite done enough yet. I've always been a big believer, you've got to expect some big things to happen before you can go achieve it.
I think we're still in the back of our minds -- we still want to win an SEC. I don't think we need to talk about it this year. Probably don't talk about it any year really. But if we're lucky enough to get in position, don't be afraid to think we're not as good as the other guy.
So that's sort of maybe where we are. If we get in position, let's believe we can play with any team in our conference.

Q. You touched on Ellis Johnson. How were you able to get him? I know he was at Arkansas. Just go through the process of getting him to South Carolina.
COACH SPURRIER: Well, Ellis is from South Carolina, Winnsboro, South Carolina, and his wife, Caroline, is actually from Columbia. He had a chance to come on back and coach in his home state.
To be honest, I probably should have hired him two or three years ago, if I could have. I didn't know Ellis very well at that time. Just the opportunity came up when VanGorder went back to the Falcons. Shane Beamer is on our staff. He was at Mississippi State two years ago. He's been with us going into his second year.
So Shane had his number. I said, You think he still might be interested? He said, Call him, coach, I think he might be interested.
So I called him up. We did the deal. When VanGorder left, two hours later I had a ball coach. That's how quick.

Q. You talked a lot about the quality of your players. A lot of coaches have height and weight parameters when they're looking for players at certain positions. How much do you stick with that?
COACH SPURRIER: Again, we all try to get the biggest, best athletes we can, that are solid citizens, good students, all that. But sometimes at South Carolina we don't beat Georgia out for too many guys. We don't beat Florida out for too many guys. That's just the way it is right now.
That's why we need to have a big year here in the next two or three years.
Our facilities are being upgraded tremendously. Eric Hyman, our new athletic director, he's been there all three years I've been there, has done an outstanding job of collecting. Our boosters have given more than they ever have in the history of our school.
We have a brand-new academic learning center called the "Dodie." Groundbreaking, I believe, is this Monday, about a $13 million building for all the academic needs for all the athletes there at South Carolina.
We're renovating our training room down there, locker room area. We got a brand-new weight room, meeting rooms.
So we have made progress. We have made progress. What we need to do now is compete on the field with Florida, Tennessee and Georgia. I mean, it's been those three, then it's been the other three.
You know, we've beaten them, and we've lost a heartbreaker. Hopefully we can beat those schools to get into that next level where we can maybe beat those guys on a bunch of kids. It's hard to beat those schools.

Q. When you send out your coaches looking for certain height and weight parameters, how strict are you now with those when you're looking for players?
COACH SPURRIER: We're not completely real strict. I know we've got two or three linebackers committed right now. I think all of 'em are about six foot or 6'1". We sent a memo, No more six-foot linebackers, let's go for 6'2" or 6'3", if we can (laughter).
We all try to get the best we can, but at times, you know, well, he's not quite as tall as we hoped, but we think he's a good player. We got to go with who you can. Sort of like going after girls, I guess. Got to get the best you can, right (smiling)? Some of these guys actually have good-looking wives, which is unusual.

Q. When you left the NFL, you said you wanted to come to the SEC because of all the passion in the game. People are saying the SEC this year might be the best league in the history of college football. If that's true, is it harder than you thought it was going to be to win in the SEC?
COACH SPURRIER: Like I told you, buddy, we've beaten Florida, Tennessee and Georgia once. We've lost a heartbreaker. I guess I've said that about four times.
For what we've done at South Carolina, our record is probably not too bad, to finish near the bottom of the league, a lot of offensive and defensive statistics. To be 21-16, I guess, is not as terrible as you might think.
No, I knew it would be difficult. If it was easy, it wouldn't be that much fun to try to do it. If it was easy, all them other coaches would have been winning at South Carolina. So we know it's not easy.
But it is a challenge. It's one of the ultimate challenges. But what's sort of neat now is that our facilities are pretty close to the other schools, and we need to have one or two big years. We need to win the division somewhere along the way.
That's the next step we need to take, or else, if that doesn't happen in about five years, then probably somebody else needs to try to do it because we got a lot of good players. That's what coaching's all about. If one guy doesn't get it done in seven, eight years, something like that, give that next guy a chance.
But South Carolina can win. I really believe that. They can win. And they can beat the other schools. So we just haven't done it consistently yet.
But one good thing about the SEC is even though you lose one or two games, LSU can win the National Championship, win the conference, with two losses. That's possible. So it's not the end of the world if you lose one. We all know that - or two.

Q. Now there are four coaches in the league like yourself who used to coach at one school in the conference and now coach at another. Do you think that adds just an element of intrigue and interest in the conference? What's that first year like for that coach going back?
COACH SPURRIER: Oh, it adds a little bit. Really when the game starts, the players and the fans, you know, it's your team against the other team really. It gets down to that.
Yeah, Houston said he hadn't thought about it that much. To tell you the truth, I didn't think about it that much when I was coaching the first year against Florida. You're just trying to coach your team against that team. And I really sort of believe coaching is sort of a profession that after, oh, 10 or 12 years, maybe somebody else needs to do it. You know, move around a little bit.
Most of you know, my dad was a preacher. He never lasted 10, 12 years anywhere. It's time for you to move on. So every three or four years, we were moving. They'd already heard all of his sermons, this, that and the other, and there was another place to go.
Some people think coaching, after 10 or 11 years or so, maybe you ought to go do it somewhere else.
That's sort of the way I felt at Florida. I've done this 12 years. Let's try the NFL four, five years, retire. I think when you're in your 50s, you think when you're in your 60s, you'll be retired. All of a sudden it's there and you feel the same way you did in your 50s. So you don't retire unless you have something else you really want to do. There's nothing else I'd like to do any better at all than what I'm doing now. So that's sort of where we are, I think, yeah.

Q. David Cutcliffe said he spoke to you somewhere around the time he took the Duke job. I was wondering what advice you gave him, whether you still think it's possible to win there.
COACH SPURRIER: Win at Duke? Wake Forest won the conference two years ago. That was one of the greatest achievements in college football, maybe bigger than Appalachian State beating Michigan up there.
For Wake Forest to win that division, win the conference championship game, that was very, very good. Coach Jim Grobe, they redshirt all their players. So they play with a lot of fourth- and fifth-year guys all the time. They bring them in, redshirt them.
Their recruiting classes are very seldom ranked as good as Duke's, from what I understand. Somebody told me that Duke's recruiting classes were overall ranked higher in the last three or four years than Wake Forest. I don't know.
Dave Cutcliffe is a super coach. He's got a proven track record. He'll get 'em competitive. It's hard to beat a whole bunch of teams. But they should be very competitive soon.

Q. You mentioned Beecher's grades, leadership ability. How much of that went into your decision to name him starter coming out of the spring?
COACH SPURRIER: Oh, not that much. Chris Smelley is the second smartest guy on the team, as you know. Tommy just really hasn't had a chance yet. We just thought instead of -- we've been, you know, who's the quarterback, we're tired of that, and I'm tired of it. It's time to give one of those guys -- Chris played a whole bunch last year. So we've watched him play. But we've not seen Tommy much at all.
And Tommy has performed a little bit better in the scrimmages in the spring. So it was time to make him the starter, tell him he's the starter, tell him he's going the distance. And he doesn't have to worry about one interception, he's our guy. We're going to give him a chance. We believe he deserves a chance to run with it. Going to find out, you know, if he can take us a long way.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you.
COACH SPURRIER: Okay. See y'all during the season.

End of FastScripts

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