SEC Football: Head Coach Evaluations, South Carolina Gamecocks’ Steve Spurrier

Apr 12, 2014; Columbia, SC, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Steve Spurrier during half time of the South Carolina spring game at Williams-Brice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

SEC football coaches are constantly being evaluated, and we do our part to add to that. This is the second in our series of head football coach evaluations for the conference.

RELATED: Head Coach Evaluations, Georgia Bulldogs’ Mark Richt

The general consensus when searching the web for college football coach rankings is that two stand above the rest, at least in the SEC East.   Those two are the long-tenured Mark Richt and Steve Spurrier. These coaches are also the first two subjects of Southbound and Down’s Head Coach Evaluations.

In our series of evaluations, some will receive shorter assessments than others.  One may assume that the perceived top two SEC East coaches would receive short evaluations like “get serious, these guys rock.” Instead Richt got a full evaluation. . . as will the Ole Ball Coach Steve Spurrier.

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Anyone who remotely follows college football is familiar with Steve Spurrier. Older fans will remember him as a two-time All-American quarterback and winner of the 1966 Heisman Trophy. Middle-aged fans remember Spurrier’s time leading two programs, Duke and Florida, into conference (both) and National (Florida) Champions.

Young adults may remember his brief stint with the Washington Redskins, where he signed the then-most lucrative contract for an NFL coach. All fans now know Steve Spurrier as the University of South Carolina’s golf loving, one-liner spewing, Tebow-shafting, opposing coach pestering, Clemson hating “Ole Ball Coach.”

So how has he done for the Gamecocks coaching the game that, as he he would say, is just pitchin’-n-catchin’?

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