Steve Spurrier says he wouldn’t be any good at retirement
South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier turned 70 this spring. His age, coupled with South Carolina’s 7-6 season that fell short of expectations in 2014 made people wonder if the Head Ball Coach was close to hanging it up.
Not so, he said Tuesday at SEC Media Days, and he pointed to some people making news as to why he could coach for a while longer. With the exception of 2004 after he parted ways with the Washington Redskins, Spurrier has been a head coach since 1967.
“Well, like I told people, I breezed right through age 60, breezed right through 65, and I’m going to try my best to breeze right on through 70. I can still remember just about everything,” Spurrier said.
“So mentally, I think I’m the same as I was. We got two people running for president, I think Hillary and Donald Trump are both 69, I believe. [Mike Krzyzewski] at Duke, he’s still doing pretty good at, I think 69 also. So the age really doesn’t mean a lot. The number on your years is not what’s important. It’s whether you can function physically, emotionally, mentally, get your team ready to play. That’s what’s important. We’ve got some goals there that we’ve not hit yet. That retirement thing, I don’t think I’d be very good at it. I can go to the beach and stay four or five days, and, hey, let’s get on out of here. We’ve been here long enough.”
For the record, Clinton turns 68 in October. Trump just turned 69 in June. And Krzyzewski turns 69 in February. So Spurrier wasn’t too far off.
Spurrier was also quick to point out the optimism about Tennessee and Arkansas entering 2015. Both teams finished with the same record as South Carolina. His team’s record seems disappointing because the Gamecocks were a preseason top-10 team to start the season and was .500 entering the Independence Bowl against Miami.
“We were 7-6, same as Tennessee and the same as Arkansas, and I think they’re sort of celebrating big seasons last year. So we were celebrating also. We were doing some cartwheels and high fiving after that Independence Bowl game because it was a year that could have gone real south, and guys hung in there and somehow or another found a way to win the game.”
Now, entering 2015, the expectations aren’t as high for South Carolina. The Gamecocks will have a new quarterback and return 12 starters. And if South Carolina starts to struggle, Spurrier said he’ll be the first person to realize it may be time to get out of coaching.
“You’ve never lost the way we were losing,” he said about the team’s losses last season that led to his brief post-game press conference after losing to Tennessee. “It wears on you a little bit. You need something to pick you back up. Obviously, the bowl game, all the recruits coming. When the recruits sign on, they’re sort of looking you in the eye and saying, Coach, you know I’m signing on to play for you, don’t you? That’s what they’re sort of saying. It’s tough. It’s tough to walk away from these guys.”
“Now, if we go bad and they need a new coach there, then I’d be the first one to say, you need a new coach here. But right now I think the fans still like me there. I think all the records and so forth that we have there are still pretty good. Somebody told me the other day I’m the youngest coach in the SEC that’s won four straight Bowl games. Did you know that? Youngest coach to have done that right now. You all knew that, didn’t you? Okay. Just a little something.”
For more South Carolina news, visit GamecockCentral.com.
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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
