Randy Smith
I have always had a ton of respect for Coach Steve Spurrier. When I was a young teen, I admired him when he became the first and still only native Tennessean to ever win the Heisman Trophy. I disliked him however when he joined the SEC as head coach at Florida, and always seemed to get the best of us. Then, after beating us year in and year out, he would rub it in a bit in the media. For instance, "You can't spell citrus without U.T." A reference to the Vols several trips to the Florida Citrus Bowl, after losing to his Gators during the regular season.
His quips have gotten even better since he moved to South Carolina. Right after taking the job as the Gamecocks head coach ten years ago, he said, "At Florida, we ran the run and shoot. Here at South Carolina, I guess we can call it the Cock and fire."
On playing Georgia very early in the season Spurrier was quoted as saying, "I don't know.......I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two to three key players suspended."
Not even Alabama's Nick Saban can escape Spurrier's sharp wit. "How many SEC's has he won there in eight years? He's won two. He's won three nationals, but he's only won two SEC's. Now if you had the number one recruiting class every year and so forth.....I don't know if he's maxed out potentially as well as he could."
Even though Spurrier is no longer at Florida, he still likes to poke fun at the Big Orange. Prior to last year's game with Tennessee, (won by the Vols by the way) he quipped, "This will be the 14th time I've coached at Neyland Stadium. I've coached there more than some of their head coaches."
It was always fun when Steve Spurrier made his annual appearance at the SEC Media Days each July. He was always refreshingly honest, and as a long time college football reporter, I really appreciated that. In 1996, I asked him just how good his Gators were going to be. He said, "I think we're gonna be really good. We might not lose a game." They did suffer one loss, but led by Danny Weurfel Florida won the National Championship. He has always told it like it is.
At the 2009 SEC Media Days, returning Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow was voted the pre-season choice of the league's coaches as the Player of the Year. The vote was 13-1. All the media members were discussing which coach it could be that would commit blasphemy by voting for someone other than Tebow as the SEC's best player. When Spurrier took the podium, he said, " Alright....I did it. I'm the one, so blame me." Spurrier explained his vote by saying he had given his ballot to a member of the South Carolina Sports Information Department to fill out for him. You can't convince me that whole issue was a set up deal; set up by the Ol' Ball Coach himself.
At the age of 70, Steve Spurrier recently passed former Georgia Coach Vince Dooley on the SEC Coaches all-time wins list. He now trails only the legendary "Bear Bryant" and considering the fact that he is showing no signs of retiring anytime soon, that sacred SEC record may be in jeopardy. Rightly so.....for the Johnson City, TN native who once wanted to come to Tennessee so bad, but while the Vols continued to run the single wing he chose a more progressive offense at Florida. The Ol' Ball Coach is still progressing.
-----
Randy Smith has been covering sports on radio, television and print for the past 45 years. After leaving WRCB-TV in 2009, he has written two books, and has continued to free-lance as a play-by-play announcer. He is currently teaching Broadcasting at Coahulla Creek High School near Dalton, Ga.
His career has included a 17-year stretch as host of the Kickoff Call In Show on the University of Tennessee’s prestigious Vol Network. He has been a member of the Vol Network staff for thirty years.
He has done play-by-play on ESPN, ESPN II, CSS, and Fox SportSouth, totaling more than 500 games, and served as a well-known sports anchor on Chattanooga Television for more than a quarter-century.
In 2003, he became the first television broadcaster to be inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Area Sports Hall of Fame. Randy and his wife Shelia reside in Hixson. They have two married children, (Christi and Chris Perry; Davey and Alison Smith.) They have four grandchildren, Coleman, Boone, DellaMae and CoraLee.
To contact Randy: rsmithsports@epbfi.com