HOOVER, Ala. — Steve Spurrier has a long-deserved reputation of expecting his quarterbacks to produce through the air, to win and to follow his instructions to a T.
Spurrier, who turned 67 in April, hasn’t mellowed, but he’s finally altered his philosophy.
“We’ll primarily be a running team, which is different than I coached in the past,” Spurrier said Tuesday at SEC media days. ”Whatever it takes to win the game, that’s what we are going to do.”
This is the same Spurrier who, as the head coach at Florida, set the record for having teams score more than 500 points for four consecutive years.
The coach who squeezed every ounce of effort out of every quarterback, especially at Florida, where he won 122 games.
Not one of those quarterbacks excelled in the NFL. They made some money and spent some time there, but they were considered journeymen more than surefire starters.
Spurrier, who hasn’t taken a quarterback to media days since arriving at South Carolina in 2005, has a different kind of quarterback now.
Connor Shaw is more of a running quarterback than a passing one, but his most important attribute is that he does every single thing Spurrier asks him to do to the best of his ability.
“Connor’s dad is a head high school coach, so he’s dedicated to football and being the best quarterback he can be and to being successful,” Spurrier said.
Having a healthy Marcus Lattimore back at running back doesn’t hurt either.
In the past, Spurrier has battled openly with some of his quarterbacks, given them many chances and still ended up frustrated and unhappy. Compared with some of those, he speaks of Shaw as if he’d like to adopt him or as if he at least totally accepts him as his starting quarterback.
“He probably runs a little better than he passes right now,” Spurrier said. “Connor completed about 74 percent last year, but we only threw about 18 passes a game. We want to pass more, but if we can’t we won’t.”
Last season, the Gamecocks beat all their SEC Eastern Division opponents but lost to Auburn and Arkansas — that makes three in a row for the Razorbacks — and that sent Georgia to the SEC Championship Game.
Spurrier campaigned that divisional games should count more, and when asked Tuesday about scheduling, he was typical Spurrier.
“You think I have anything to do with the schedule? If I did, Georgia would play LSU and we’d play Ole Miss,” he said.
This year, Georgia doesn’t play Alabama or LSU, while the Gamecocks face the Tigers.
Spurrier, who admitted feeling better than he did a year ago because he had a knee replacement — “My fourth or fifth,” he said — was energetic and enthusiastic.
He mentioned how good his coaching staff is several times.
“I really don’t have a stressful job,” he said. “I know some coaches talk about how stressful it can be, but I’ve got a great staff so my job isn’t stressful.”
For the first time in a long time, the former Heisman Trophy winner (1966) was optimistic about his quarterback, and while there have been rumors of his retirement, Spurrier said part of the reason he is still coaching is the Gamecocks are recruiting better players.
“Used to be if you stuck around South Carolina four or five years, you were really a solid citizen,” he said. “I think when a sportswriter asks how much longer I’m going to coach, I should ask him how long is he going to write.”
Spurrier is a fierce competitor. When he took over at Florida in 1998, the Gators were under NCAA investigation for the second time in five years and he found a way to win. The more he won, the happier he became.
Spurrier was happy Tuesday, and that makes him even more dangerous.
Sports, Pages 19 on 07/18/2012