“My answer has always been the same”, he told reporters on Tuesday. “But if it starts going south, starts going bad, then I need to get out”.
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“If something is inevitable, let’s do it right now”, Spurrier said, noting that he made up his mind on Sunday, but started feeling like the time was coming after the UCF game in Week 4. Mentions consultant possibility. Notes from interim head coach Shawn Elliott:- Thanks coach Spurrier for all he’s done. The Gamecocks next play SEC rival Vanderbilt. I have a reliable source, but I don’t think Spurrier would quit on us like this. “That’s simply it, right there”. I have been here a long, long time.
Spurrier was in the midst of his 11th season coaching the Gamecocks, and had led the team to an 86-49 record. He was honored as the SEC Coach of the Year by the Associated Press after leading the Gamecocks to a school-record five consecutive SEC victories.
“Coach Spurrier has impacted and influenced more of us in this business than he will ever know”, tweeted Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze. I think the team needs to hear a new message, a new voice, from another coach.
So what’s next for Spurrier? In fact Spurrier led the Devils to their most recent ACC Championhip in football in 1989. – Spurrier on why now: The players don’t buy in if they know the coach won’t be there. I might be a consultant or something. Grier apologized over and over, tearing up until first-year coach Jim McElwain came over to hug him. “He’s always been a player who’s won and a coach who’s won”.
Not many could have expected what came next on one of college football’s most stunning – and unbelievable – days off the field.
So now he leaves the stage and college football will be the poorer for it. He brought the Fun and Gun to fruition and later adapted to the grinding style of the current SEC.
Spurrier left Florida after the 2001 season to become the new head coach of the NFL’s Washington Redskins.
Leota was supposed to be in attendance at Saturday’s LSU-South Carolina game, but it was moved to Baton Rouge (La.) due to flooding. He is the Gamecocks’ all-time winningest coach.
Elliott is in his sixth season with University of South Carolina, joining the team as the running game coordinator for 2010 and 2011. “We’re going to give everything we got these last six games”.
From 1996 Heisman Trophy victor Danny Wuerffel, who played for Spurrier at Florida: “Spurrier to me once after an interception: “Danny, it’s not your fault …”
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Spurrier stayed in the conference when he took the South Carolina job in 2005.
