Spurrier’s Standards: Don’t Clap After Losses

General NCS Football20

While the Wolfpack is off this weekend we will have a time to look around at some other items of interest.

Since NC State will be battling the USC Gamecocks in a coulple of years we thought that it would be relevant to focus on something that came out of Columbia this weekend.

As a part of this…we ask that you start by clicking here to set the stage on some of our thoughts regarding Steve Spurrier and what is developing in Columbia.

On Thursday night, the South Carolina fans applauded their Gamecocks after closely battling #2 ranked Auburn. What ensued after the applause is pretty interesting and sure to spark some debate. Click here for Sports Illustrated’s comments:

“Last night was a game where we had numerous chances to walk off the field a winner,” Spurrier said. “I mean numerous chances.”

Spurrier’s accustomed to winning such games. South Carolina fans aren’t — the Gamecocks have lost 20 in a row to opponents ranked in the top five.

Spurrier understands South Carolina lost to Auburn 48-7 a year ago and how a close loss when a big defeat was expected is enough to encourage applause.

He noticed it a season ago after South Carolina lost to Clemson 13-9 at Williams-Brice and fans cheered the Gamecocks for the effort. “They thought we were going to get clobbered. We didn’t get clobbered so that’s OK,” Spurrier said. “That’s not OK.”

Spurrier says if the Gamecocks are ever going to rise to championship level, they should expect more from themselves than simply staying close to top teams. Spurrier thinks the fans have to expect the same thing.

I’m a Realist had some thoughts on this that reminds me of some of the NC State internet arguments:

If the Evil Genius says it is okay to have expectations for your team instead of just applauding them because they showed up in the correct uniform, then I have absolute vindication. If I criticize the team’s performance, it is only because I have appropriate, championship-level expectations. It doesn’t mean that I love my team any less. I just feel disappointed, which Spurrier has told me is perfectly legitimate. So back off, pansies

General NCS Football

20 Responses to Spurrier’s Standards: Don’t Clap After Losses

  1. redfred2 09/30/2006 at 11:29 AM #

    I must have skipped the post back in 2005. Coupled with todays, two great posts!

    Steve Spurrier’s team isn’t undefeated, will not win the nat’l championship this season and may not ever, but there is undeniable improvement being made, and quickly. The Gamecock faithful are loving it, but the new Head Coach isn’t quite yet satisfied, and isn’t making any excuses about it. That is all it takes to keep everyone happy, and all that any fan would ever want to hear. It is also the way to the eliminate the word “lunatic” from the equation.

  2. ChuckChuck.us 09/30/2006 at 12:54 PM #

    love the attitude Spurrier has. Check out this attitude from Bama coach Urban Meyer on going to Florida today:

    http://ncaafootball.aolsportsblog.com/2006/09/29/meyer-issues-call-to-arms/

    Nice call to vandalism their coach!

  3. Wolfpack4ever 09/30/2006 at 12:54 PM #

    I say, Hey, if we can get Steve Spurrier, get him.

    Before we get our panties in a wad about that, Steve Spurrier and South Carolina got together in a perfect storm — Steve was available and South Carolina was looking. I don’t remember if Holtz “retired” of was fired. I have to laugh at one thing, Holtz is mentioned here as one of the all time great coaches at NCSU and a failure at USC almost in the same breath.

    It might be wise to give SS a few more years before enshrining him for winnining the SEC. Urban Meyer, Reich at GA, and a few others may have something to say about that.

    85,000 capacity stadium before they were winning? Hmm, how do we compare to that standard?

  4. Packaholic1 09/30/2006 at 1:26 PM #

    I guess Duke should be faulted for letting SS slip away.

  5. class of 74 09/30/2006 at 2:15 PM #

    Unfortunately for us, we have way too many pansies who are perfectly satisfied to go 6-6 or 7-5 yearly with a trip to Charlotte as our prize. Spurrier is a smart guy and he is so right about expectations. He would never coach here the bar has been set too low.

  6. statered 09/30/2006 at 3:02 PM #

    Lou was not a failure at USC. He probably brought them their greatest football success to date.

  7. PalmettoWolf 09/30/2006 at 3:12 PM #

    I follow the gamecocks closely and have been nothing but impressd with Spurrier. He is such a straight talker and does not sugarcoat anything. I also think he has a great football mind.

  8. WolfPup35 09/30/2006 at 4:51 PM #

    After today’s drubbing by a crappy UVa team…not only a drubbing, but a shutout and an embarrasment, DU HAS to be kicking themselves really really hard for letting Fla take him away from them. That’s what you get for ignoring one sport because you’re successful in another. Don’t blame Roof for Duke’s football failure, blame coach K! Holtz was one of the best coaches in NCAA history, but he was tied down by “who the hell wants to go to S. Carolina??”

  9. Woof Wolf 09/30/2006 at 5:25 PM #

    Spurrier is a Florida guy. He was honing his coaching skills at Duke waiting for the Florida job to come open. Steve would have left almost any job in the country to go home and make a success out of that program.

    He loves a big challenge almost as much he loves to win. The question is not if he can coach, but as you said above, can he find quality players who will live in Columbia for five years. One of the reasons they get so much fan support is that after it gets to cold to go the beach there is nothing else to do.

  10. WolfPup35 09/30/2006 at 6:33 PM #

    True, well it IS Columbia…..AND it IS South Carolina…mustard in the BBQ???

  11. ShootingGuard 09/30/2006 at 6:46 PM #

    Urban Meyer coaches Alabama??

  12. bTHEredterror 09/30/2006 at 7:43 PM #

    /\Yeah SG, the definition of poor research.

  13. Packaholic1 09/30/2006 at 7:53 PM #

    “I told these kids the first time I met with them, ‘My standards are high, and I will not compromise with your standards; you will have to elevate yourself to me,’ ” Amato said. Then he added with a laugh, “I still don’t know if they know how to take me.”

    The only people at State with low standards are some of the bandwagon fans – the ones who left the BC game after the interception and were even admonished by the announcers for God’s sake…

  14. Wolfpack4ever 09/30/2006 at 10:29 PM #

    ShootingGuard Says: Urban Meyer coaches Alabama??

    Where did this come from?

  15. SuperStuff 09/30/2006 at 10:29 PM #

    Spurrier is an ass. He’s such a great Florida guy he decided to coach in the same conference against them every year by taking the SC job. What a great guy.

  16. Woof Wolf 09/30/2006 at 10:52 PM #

    I agree completely. He is an “AH”, but he is a very good college football coach. Since South Carolina has been in the SEC they had never beaten Tennessee or Florida. Last year they beat both of them.

    I don’t like him, but….

  17. class of 74 10/02/2006 at 5:57 AM #

    I wonder when Chuck has met or will meet those high standards of his? Or is fourth place and a minor bowl a high standard?

  18. redfred2 10/02/2006 at 10:44 AM #

    I don’t know if six years at the head coaching position is enough time to develop a perspective as to the aspects that the HC absolutely needs to be in total control of, or enough time to learn the parts that are better deligated to others know how. Could it be that NCSU is possibly suffering from a recent rash of control freaks at the head coaching positons. Sidney, if you’re out there, please let your assistants do their jobs and let the players do what they’re good at.

    As far as coaches in general, save the popularity contest for junior high, coaching is about results. It sounds like everyone wants Cowher to come here? If anyone thinks he got where he is today by putting on a happy face or trying to please the media/fans, they haven’t been watching.

    The administration at the University of South Carolina is different from the one in Raleigh. They’re weren’t looking for a perfect “fit” when they hired Steve Spurrier, they wanted a coach who could…well…coach the game of football. Just flat out do the job that he gets paid to do. His persona wasn’t a major factor in the decision to hire him and his persona will not become the image of the University of South Carolina. That only way that Spurrier’s image makes them looks bad is if he doesn’t produce at or above expected performance levels.

    Jimmy V was entertaining, and someone who could hold a building full of people right in the palm of his hand, and then turn around and coach a game that even the greatest of all time have to admire and respect him for. That is rare! I think guys like S Spurrier, B Knight, B Cowher, and even B Parcels are all entertaining, just in less likeable ways. They all know how to win consistently, but they’re maybe not as huggable as some would like. If it wasn’t for their ability to win ball games, time after time, the fans and media would have already booed those guys off of the field/court.

    The head coach can and should always display a winner’s mentality around his assistants and his players, but he needs to win games, and prove it consistently, to flaunt that winner’s mentality around in public. The media will not tolerate it, they will ride his back and fans will follow, until he either proves them wrong, or is no longer around to bother anyone anymore.

  19. highstick 10/02/2006 at 1:54 PM #

    Spurrier tells it like it is, whether you like it or not and I respect him for that. I questioned the selection in the beginning as I was not much of a Spurrier fan either, but he has changed my mind both as a coach and as a person. He did not put up with the garbage that some of the players that Holtz recruited were doing and told them to get lost.

    If South Carolina is ever going to develp a program, it will be under Steve Spurrier.

    By the way, I’m recovering from a bad cold sitting in the rain watching the USC-Auburn game Thursday night. I almost converted my Tarhole friend that I took. He’s ready to fire Bunting and put in a deposit on a Cockaboose!

  20. redfred2 10/02/2006 at 2:13 PM #

    ^In the sentence, that first “anyone” was supposed to be followed with the word “anymore” instead of “anyone” again. Anyhow, I just thought I might to clarify that anyway.

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