HOOVER, Ala. – Gradually, almost in an inch-by-inch progression, he has transformed the football program at the University of South Carolina, an accomplishment many thought was out of reach for any coach.
What do you expect from Steve Spurrier now?
"Oh, you know those expectations," the 67-year old Gamecocks coach said Tuesday at Southeastern Conference media days. "You can go find any school in the country and no matter what happened last year - or didn't happen, in some cases - there will always be expectations. That's just part of the deal."
The difference with Spurrier — and there always has been a difference — is that he's often the one setting the bar.
"We had 11 wins last year," he said. "That was the best in school history, but this year we might could do a little better. … You never know how it will all play out.
"We haven't won the SEC yet. That was one of our goals when we got here, to do things that hadn't been done before, and winning the SEC is one of those."
See why news reporters tend to like the guy? He sets his own bar for unlikely expectations.
What's different these days is the stuff we know about Carolina football that we tend to accept without stepping back to see the difference from how it used to be.
It occurred to Spurrier when he was talking to the three players they brought to media days — quarterback Connor Shaw, receiver Ace Sanders and safety D.J. Swearinger — that none of them had been redshirted.
"That's right," Spurrier said. "I told those guys back when we recruited them everybody had to play right now. Things have changed a little bit. Now we can redshirt about half (the recruits each year)."
Bowl games are now routine; fans actually expect the Gamecocks to compete for the division championship and a spot in the conference championship game, and the wins keep rolling in.
Last year's 11 wins were the most in school history, which tells you something about progress, but Spurrier lobbed out another point that added heft to the record.
"Every game we won last year we were favored in," Spurrier said. "Think about that."
Surely, that's a note that says even more about the upward progress of the Carolina football program - the oddsmakers who set the betting lines each week endorsed the Gamecocks last season 12 different times, and they made money on them 11 times.
Think about it, as the coach says. That's a significant swing of the pendulum, but nothing says change more than sweeping through with victories against Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Clemson.
"That never happened before," Spurrier said. "Probably not a lot of you guys thought you could say something like that ever happened at South Carolina."
True enough, and after pulling in the top player in the state for the fourth year in a row in February's recruiting class, Spurrier recognized the impact of the progress being made.
"I think those guys are now seeing an opportunity at South Carolina they maybe hadn't seen before," he said. "They look and see South Carolina winning some football games, beating some people they didn't always beat and I think they just want to be a part of changing that whole impression people had of the school."
On paper, 2012 might look like the biggest challenge yet for Spurrier after having six players drafted by NFL teams, having the uncertainty of how running back Marcus Lattimore comes back after knee surgery and looking ahead to a schedule that includes consecutive games against Georgia, then at LSU and Florida.
The defense should be very good again, but Shaw might make a vital difference offensively -- a coach's son with a knack for running his way out of trouble.
Shaw isn't in the mold of former Spurrier quarterbacks because of that running ability, but at the end of 2011, he looked like one of the old flingers that had time-traveled from the past.
In his last four games, including the bowl victory against Nebraska, Shaw completed 45 of 65 passes for 738 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions. On the passing efficiency scale, that figured out to 199.06, well above the 191.78 mark that Wisconsin's Russell Wilson recorded to lead the nation.
Sure, it was four games — a sliver of a season, not a season — but it was also the lasting memory Shaw has as a quarterback, which should only strengthen his confidence heading into the new season, the first in which he'll be the undisputed No. 1 quarterback for Spurrier.
"That (last four games), was just a matter of me being more confident in what I was doing," Shaw said. "There wasn't a single moment or anything. It was just a matter of me realizing I had to adapt to this game.
"The more I played, the more I was able to absorb what was being asked of me," he said. "I don't want to take my legs away from my game, but I definitely want to be more of a passing quarterback and I think I can be that."
It might be all the Gamecocks need to unravel the expectations that the wider world has for them, once again.
link: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sec/story/2012-07-17/steve-spurrier-south-carolina-sec/56285910/1?csp=obinsite
What do you expect from Steve Spurrier now?
"Oh, you know those expectations," the 67-year old Gamecocks coach said Tuesday at Southeastern Conference media days. "You can go find any school in the country and no matter what happened last year - or didn't happen, in some cases - there will always be expectations. That's just part of the deal."
The difference with Spurrier — and there always has been a difference — is that he's often the one setting the bar.
"We had 11 wins last year," he said. "That was the best in school history, but this year we might could do a little better. … You never know how it will all play out.
"We haven't won the SEC yet. That was one of our goals when we got here, to do things that hadn't been done before, and winning the SEC is one of those."
See why news reporters tend to like the guy? He sets his own bar for unlikely expectations.
What's different these days is the stuff we know about Carolina football that we tend to accept without stepping back to see the difference from how it used to be.
It occurred to Spurrier when he was talking to the three players they brought to media days — quarterback Connor Shaw, receiver Ace Sanders and safety D.J. Swearinger — that none of them had been redshirted.
"That's right," Spurrier said. "I told those guys back when we recruited them everybody had to play right now. Things have changed a little bit. Now we can redshirt about half (the recruits each year)."
Bowl games are now routine; fans actually expect the Gamecocks to compete for the division championship and a spot in the conference championship game, and the wins keep rolling in.
Last year's 11 wins were the most in school history, which tells you something about progress, but Spurrier lobbed out another point that added heft to the record.
"Every game we won last year we were favored in," Spurrier said. "Think about that."
Surely, that's a note that says even more about the upward progress of the Carolina football program - the oddsmakers who set the betting lines each week endorsed the Gamecocks last season 12 different times, and they made money on them 11 times.
Think about it, as the coach says. That's a significant swing of the pendulum, but nothing says change more than sweeping through with victories against Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Clemson.
"That never happened before," Spurrier said. "Probably not a lot of you guys thought you could say something like that ever happened at South Carolina."
True enough, and after pulling in the top player in the state for the fourth year in a row in February's recruiting class, Spurrier recognized the impact of the progress being made.
"I think those guys are now seeing an opportunity at South Carolina they maybe hadn't seen before," he said. "They look and see South Carolina winning some football games, beating some people they didn't always beat and I think they just want to be a part of changing that whole impression people had of the school."
On paper, 2012 might look like the biggest challenge yet for Spurrier after having six players drafted by NFL teams, having the uncertainty of how running back Marcus Lattimore comes back after knee surgery and looking ahead to a schedule that includes consecutive games against Georgia, then at LSU and Florida.
The defense should be very good again, but Shaw might make a vital difference offensively -- a coach's son with a knack for running his way out of trouble.
Shaw isn't in the mold of former Spurrier quarterbacks because of that running ability, but at the end of 2011, he looked like one of the old flingers that had time-traveled from the past.
In his last four games, including the bowl victory against Nebraska, Shaw completed 45 of 65 passes for 738 yards with eight touchdowns and two interceptions. On the passing efficiency scale, that figured out to 199.06, well above the 191.78 mark that Wisconsin's Russell Wilson recorded to lead the nation.
Sure, it was four games — a sliver of a season, not a season — but it was also the lasting memory Shaw has as a quarterback, which should only strengthen his confidence heading into the new season, the first in which he'll be the undisputed No. 1 quarterback for Spurrier.
"That (last four games), was just a matter of me being more confident in what I was doing," Shaw said. "There wasn't a single moment or anything. It was just a matter of me realizing I had to adapt to this game.
"The more I played, the more I was able to absorb what was being asked of me," he said. "I don't want to take my legs away from my game, but I definitely want to be more of a passing quarterback and I think I can be that."
It might be all the Gamecocks need to unravel the expectations that the wider world has for them, once again.
link: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/sec/story/2012-07-17/steve-spurrier-south-carolina-sec/56285910/1?csp=obinsite
