South Carolina: Fire Steve Spurrier Over Urban Meyer to ND Comments!

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As a matter of fact, when Florida hired Spurrier the first time, he was one of the hottest coaching prospects in the country, having won a conference title at DUKE, and Florida was so demoralized due to its frequent scandals and underachieving that practically no one else wanted the job.

Spurrier knows how far his profile has fallen—and Florida's have risen—since then. 

So why is Spurrier trying to convince Urban Meyer of the merits of leaving Gainesville, or even trying to get Florida to question where Meyer's loyalties to the point where they will try to engineer the guy's exit at a time of their choosing—while Florida is riding high and can have their pick of successors—as opposed to Meyer's leaving them in the lurch? 

Simple: because Spurrier doesn't want Meyer to completely overwhelm his Florida legacy.

Before Meyer, Spurrier was clearly No. 1 in the hearts and minds of Gators, the best coach in the program's history by far and perhaps the second best coach in the SEC to Bear Bryant, who did most of his damage in another era which really cannot fairly be compared to Spurrier's.

Right now, even with two titles, Spurrier is still No. 1 because it is generally acknowledged that Meyer built on Spurrier's foundation, what Spurrier accomplished in making Florida the No. 3 team in the country (behind FSU and Miami) in the 1990s and was still winning SEC titles and BCS games when he left for the NFL.

Even if Meyer wins another national title and heads off into the sunset, he will still be the guy that benefitted from A) Spurrier's foundation and B) the Tim Tebow era, in addition to not having to contend with Miami and FSU teams that were particularly good and sucking up all the best talent in Florida, and Spurrier's legacy is still mostly intact.

But if Meyer keeps on winning SEC and national titles after Tebow leaves—and Spurrier knows that Meyer can do just that—then Spurrier becomes just another guy who won some SEC titles and a national title at Florida.

He becomes the appetizer to Meyer's main course. As a matter of fact, some might even start asking why Spurrier didn't accomplish more during his time at Florida, what with all that talent in Florida, and an SEC that really was just Spurrier at Florida, the much less accomplished and capable Fulmer at Tennessee, and everybody else.

There were no Mark Richts at UGA, Les Miles at LSU, Nick Sabans at Alabama (and LSU), etc. Where Spurrier's SEC was one where Jim Donnan and Gerry DiNardo looked like real up and comers for a time, Meyer's success is coming in an SEC where Tommy Tuberville and Philip Fulmer were fired in the same year. 

So what kept Spurrier from winning more than a solitary national title and never logging an undefeated season? (Terry Bowden at Auburn? Mike DuBose at Alabama?)

And what was going on with that 62-24—and could have been 80-17 had they not let up in the fourth quarter—wipeout against heavy underdog Nebraska, the SEC's only loss in a national title game since Vince Dooley and Herschel Walker went 1-2 in the early 1980s? And what on earth was going on with that 6-5 bowl record while at Florida? 

So long as Meyer walks away while his time at Florida is linked to Spurrier laying the groundwork and Tim Tebow being "the best ever", no one asks those questions.

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