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

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But if Meyer keeps winning SEC and competing for national titles in a conference that is going to get even tougher with Houston Nutt at Ole Miss, Bobby Petrino at Arkansas (for now) and even Kentucky and Vanderbilt no longer pushovers, then some folks might even start calling "the ole ball coach" overrated.

That is, inasmuch as the person who turned a scandal—plagued program that had never done a thing into a national power, completely changed the face of college football in the south by winning with the passing game and without cheating (and in the process possibly saving an SEC—on the verge of imploding due to corruption and incompetence—from itself), and won six conference and a national title can be considered overrated. 

So driving Meyer off from Florida isn't about Spurrier getting a better job, something entirely forgivable. It is about Spurrier preserving his legacy, which isn't. A guy looking to get a better job is still someone who is looking to the future and has that competitive fire, someone who is on the cutting edge and willing to make the changes required to stay there.

Meanwhile, a guy trying to protect his legacy, his name in history, is thinking about the past, isn't doing much more than drawing a paycheck. 

This is not to say that Spurrier is stealing money. Quite the contrary, Spurrier is putting more emphasis on and effort into things that he had little time for in his early years at Florida, things which he viewed as necessary evils (and more evil than necessary) like recruiting, defense, and running the football.

That is why he is still getting more out of Florida that most coaches would, and if his head were on the present and the future, he really could build a program there, a culture and expectation of winning, an actual tradition, that the next coach can build on to make South Carolina into a legitimate SEC contender.

Spurrier would be able to look back on his career and say that he saved the SEC from the brink of disaster, turned Florida from underachiever to powerhouse, took South Carolina from being a laughingstock to being a solid program, and won a conference title at DUKE. But looking back THEN is fine.

The problem is that Spurrier is looking back NOW, and that isn't what South Carolina needs.

Right now, South Carolina needs to protect what it has and move forward. What it has is four straight non - losing seasons from Spurrier on the heels of a Lou Holtz era that has its moments. If Spurrier had his head in the right place, he could build on that.

But since he doesn't, they are perfectly capable of marketing that job to someone who can...a young hungry assistant or small college coach looking to make a name for himself and willing to take the 10-15 years to get it done at the No. 2 state school in the Palmetto State.

Believe it or not, it is possible. There is talent in South Carolina, and still more talent in areas where South Carolina should be able to recruit: north Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and especially Virginia.

All that needs is to be done is get the best South Carolina players to stay home—and not head to Clemson, which hasn't done a thing in years either by the way, no conference titles since the 1980s—and get a player or three from the FSUs, UGAs, and from the ACC's mid-Atlantic schools, which right now is Virginia Tech and everybody else.

If you can get that done—and there is no reason why a very good recruiter can't, and as a matter of fact Spurrier has done a very good job recruiting at South Carolina—all it takes is a good coach to win eight to nine games a year.

And that coach could be Spurrier...IF he were willing to abandon the fun and gun. 

But Spurrier isn't willing to abandon the fun and gun, because he is living in the past. His trying to run off Meyer before Meyer can touch his '90s legacy is proof. South Carolina needs to send Spurrier to the golf course after this season and get someone (Skip Holtz maybe?) who will take them to the future. 

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