Steve Spurrier knows a thing or two about winning the SEC.
The former coach did it six times in a 12-year span at the University of Florida, and he also earned eight SEC Eastern Division titles (1992-1996, 1999-2000 at Florida; 2010 at the University of South Carolina).
When asked what it will take for someone other than Alabama to win the SEC, Spurrier, 72, said before his speech Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club at the Embassy Suites that it will take strong recruiting and for a team to play its best against the Crimson Tide and Coach Nick Saban.
"In the 90s, we had to beat Alabama in all those years [Florida won the SEC], except in 1995 when we had to beat Arkansas," Spurrier said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "Looking back, if we hadn't beaten Alabama, they would have won the SEC all those years between 1990 and 1996.
"Somebody's got to go beat them, and it's not going to be easy as long as they're recruiting the best players in the nation. They've got a huge advantage, talentwise, over just about anybody. But sometimes, the teams with the best players don't always win. Sometimes, it goes your way on a special day."
Is Arkansas ready to be among the SEC's elite teams? Spurrier thought the Razorbacks were close last season when they played eventual SEC East Division champion Florida, now led by Jim McElwain.
"I was out in Fayetteville when they clobbered Florida. They looked awfully good that day," said Spurrier, who saw the Razorbacks defeat the Gators 31-10 on Nov. 5 in Fayetteville.
Arkansas could not sustain the momentum after the Florida victory, as it lost three of its final four games, including blowing second-half leads to Missouri on Nov. 24 and to Virginia Tech on Dec. 29 in the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, N.C. After seeing the Razorbacks play well against his alma mater and former employer, Spurrier was surprised by Arkansas' late-season struggles.
"I don't know what happened to them late in the season, gee," Spurrier said. "They had two big leads and just went kaput at the end there. But I'm sure he's addressed it, and they feel like they have a good team ready to go."
Spurrier admitted that the landscape of the SEC is different than when he coached in the league at Florida in the 1990s. The power now lies with the SEC West, which has produced five of the past eight national champions (Alabama 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015; Auburn 2010) and has had at least one team in the title game in seven of the past eight seasons (LSU along with Alabama 2011, Auburn 2013, Alabama 2016).
"It's a tough division," Spurrier said. "The East is nowhere near as ferocious as the West right now. Having to beat LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Texas A&M and the Mississippi schools, that's not easy."
The man who is referred to as the "Head Ball Coach" -- among other nicknames -- also paid tribute to the late University of Arkansas, Fayetteville football coach and athletic director Frank Broyles on Monday.
Spurrier knew Broyles through the American Football Coaches Association, and the two would golf together at the AFCA meetings in Dallas as well as Augusta National Golf Club, home of The Masters. On Monday, Spurrier recalled a golf outing with Broyles in 1996 in Augusta.
"We both loved golf," Spurrier said. "We played a lot in the offseason. I don't think we bragged about how hard we worked. We tried to brag about how many games we won. If you play golf, you can't brag about how hard you work.
"He was a wonderful guy. He was a great guy to be around."
Spurrier won 228 games in his college coaching career at Duke, Florida and South Carolina; Broyles won 149 at Missouri and Arkansas. But the two coaches each won a national championship: Broyles winning at Arkansas in 1964 and Spurrier at Florida in 1996.
"That was enough. One was enough," Spurrier quipped.
Sports on 08/29/2017