In five years at South Carolina, Steve Spurrier has pretty much been a shell of what he was at Florida.
The Visored One certainly hasn't done a bad job in Columbia. But the Gamecocks' mediocrity, largely brought on by an offense that has not come close to resembling his Fun 'n' Gun juggernauts in Gainesville, has watered down the old Spurrier mystique.
The struggles on the field have minimized the jabs and one-liners in the papers that made Spurrier such a hated man in Gainesville.
Hard to call him the "Evil Genius" now with a straight face.
So is there someone else out there who warrants the "Evil Genius" title?
You could make a case for the guy now at Spurrier's alma mater, but Urban Meyer's arrogance is different from Spurrier's because Spurrier's arrogance seemed to always come with a sense of humor (witness "Free Shoes University" and "Can't spell 'Citrus' without 'UT.')
Nick Saban could definitely get some votes in the Evil Genius category.
But how about in the ACC's neck of the woods? Only two years in at Georgia Tech, Paul Johnson would win in a landslide.
He has a complicated offense that most opposing defensive coordinators pull their hair out trying to decipher (including Clemson's Kevin Steele).
He wins.
And he thinks very highly of himself.
The ACC Sports Journal has Part 2 of its Q&A with Johnson, and here's an excerpt.
ACCSports.com: You believe this offense would succeed in the NFL. Why?
Johnson: It’s worked at every level we’ve done it at, so I don’t know what would be the difference.
The speed thing is a joke anyway. Everybody talks about SEC speed. The 27 fastest guys at the (NFL) combine, how many of them were from the SEC? Three. But if you say it enough, everybody will believe it.
It’s the same with the option. They say, “You can’t do it. They have too much speed.” It’s the same as anything else. If you have fast guys, it’s going to be hard to do anything. That said, at the next level, you’d have to have somebody committed to having a couple of quarterbacks who could do it.
And I think another myth is that option quarterbacks are always getting hurt. Our guy played every game last year. How many dropback, pro-style teams just in our league had their quarterback play every game? North Carolina’s didn’t. Wake’s didn’t. Florida State’s didn’t. Boston College’s didn’t. Guys get hurt. It’s football. The guys I had at Georgia Southern and Navy, they didn’t miss much time. But it makes for a good story.
Johnson takes on all comers, and the ACC needs more of this. Too much collegiality. Too many guys afraid to hurt feelings. Too much backslapping and too little backstabbing.
Yesterday, at Day One of SEC Media Days, Nick Saban and Dan Mullen clashed over the spread offense and its ability to put guys in the NFL.
Lobbed an intricate question about the spread offense here Wednesday, Alabama coach Nick Saban's response went in the direction of recruiting. Basically, Saban said, recruits who play in the spread are sacrificing some ability to be evaluated by NFL scouts.
Told of this answer about an hour later, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, whose team uses a variation of the spread, turned some heads in his rebuttal to a coach who just won a national title.
"I'm not going to knock him. I don't know his personal record," he said. "I've coached the spread offense and I have a lot more first-round quarterbacks drafted than he has in his career as a head coach. Develop them for the NFL, I don't know. In the last six years, I've had two of mine get drafted in the first round."
That's standard fare in the SEC. More of it in the ACC, please.
Heck, even the SEC's commissioner took a stab at a former coach.
Slive started by welcoming two of the league's new coaches, Kentucky's Joker Phillips and Vanderbilt's Robbie Caldwell. Then the commissioner mentioned the third, Tennessee's Derek Dooley. Slive paused, and there was a knowing laugh from the press. Then a smiling Slive pointed out that Dooley's predecessor "returned to his Western roots," leading to more laughter.
"I want to welcome coach Dooley back to the SEC, and when I say welcome, I mean welcome," Slive said.
You see John Swofford ever doing that?
And by the way, you see any ACC coach other than Johnson having the stones to liken agents to pimps?
Speaking of this burgeoning agent circus, this guy says Butch Davis owes an explanation.
There’s clearly logic behind North Carolina’s silence, but the case to provide some answers is just as compelling. It’s fair to expect some degree of transparency and accountability from a public institution like the University of North Carolina, and Davis is the executive overseeing the football program.
He should be the spokesman, not a player’s father.
Plenty of silence after a Tar Heels team meeting.
In Athens, A.J. Green said he didn't attend the infamous Miami party.
Tyrone Willingham says he's done with coaching.
Here's something that might be useful to schools (including Clemson) with lagging season-ticket sales: Oregon State has experienced a huge rise in sales after reducing prices.
So last winter, those leaders decided to do something unconventional, especially amid a push to increase Oregon State's donor base: They eliminated the $100-per-seat donation on the seats and lowered the section's season-ticket price from $252 to $149.
The result: Fans snapped up 4,000 of the so-called "Valley View" season tickets, up from 450 last year. The surge gave Oregon State a record in football season-ticket sales: 26,600.
Doc Saturday reflects on Kyle Parker's decision.
And Heather Dinich identifies the key stretch for Clemson this season: Georgia Tech, at Boston College, N.C. State, at Florida State.
Will Clemson really cave a third straight time to Georgia Tech, this time in front of a home crowd? Not if the defense has anything to say about it. This should be another game that’s decided in the fourth quarter, and right now I give the Tigers the edge because of the redemption factor, defense, and home field advantage. I’ll also make them the early pick against NC State because Clemson has more answers right now, despite the differences at quarterback. As for the two road trips? BC is a tough team to beat in Chestnut Hill, and expectations are much higher for Florida State this fall. If the Seminoles are going to leapfrog Clemson in the Atlantic Division standings this year, they have to win that game in Tally and I think they will. I’ll predict a 2-2 record in this stretch.
Paul Myerberg of Pre-Snap Read ranks Temple No. 44, three spots ahead of Clemson.
So technically, Rob Spence could say he's advanced his career since leaving here in 2008.
OK, maybe not.
LW
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