GATORS AT 100

In His Shadow

By ANDY STAPLES

Published: Jul 18, 2006

GAINESVILLE - University of Florida football coach Urban Meyer sat toward the back of a small meeting room at the Hilton Sandestin resort in May answering reporters' questions about the upcoming season. About 10 feet to Meyer's left sat Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan, who answered questions about his team's recent national-title run.

A few minutes into the interview session, a voice familiar to anyone who follows college football cart-wheeled in from the front of the room.

"Is this where the Billy Donovan show is?" South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier asked to no one in particular.

Suddenly, Meyer's thoughts on football rules changes weren't so interesting to the media throng. Ditto for Donovan's post-title honeymoon. Before anyone could say "Southeastern Conference title," a three-deep pool of reporters had formed around Florida's former coach.

Spurrier didn't intend to steal Meyer's or Donovan's thunder that day. It just sort of happened. Intentional or not, since he resigned in January 2002, Spurrier has cast a shadow over the men in orange and blue - especially Florida's football coach.

When the Gators win, they don't win by enough. When the coach steps to the microphone for news conferences, he doesn't toss enough zingers at Georgia, Tennessee or Florida State. The Gator Nation expects another Spurrier, and many inhabitants have yet to realize that, until scientists perfect cloning technology, such a being does not exist.

Spurrier's successor, Ron Zook, couldn't escape the shadow. He tried to avoid it by pointing out 11 times during his introductory news conference that he wasn't Steve Spurrier. Zook proved his own point by losing five games his first season. In 12 seasons as Florida's coach, Spurrier never lost more than four.

The bar - set so high by Spurrier's six SEC titles and one national title - eventually clotheslined Zook in 2004. Last summer at Big Ten football media days, Zook blamed those heightened expectations for his downfall in Gainesville.

"I think that maybe in Florida the expectations were a little out of sync where they were talent-wise," said Zook, who led Illinois to a 2-9 record in 2005.

When Meyer was hired to replace Zook in December 2004, he took an opposite tack with regard to the visored one. Meyer raved about watching Spurrier's Florida teams, and Meyer seemed to understand Gator Nation would forever measure him against Spurrier.

Unlike Zook, Meyer had a chance to prove himself against the shadow-caster, who had accepted the South Carolina job a few weeks before Meyer accepted the Florida job. Last Nov.12, Meyer took his favored Gators into Williams-Brice Stadium to face Spurrier's Gamecocks.

Calling in audibles from the sideline, Spurrier toyed with Meyer's defensive staff. South Carolina won. Florida's chances at the SEC East division title evaporated. The shadow grew longer and darker.

At Meyer's speaking-tour stop in May in Tampa, a fan asked the coach point-blank: "Are you going to beat South Carolina?"

Meyer chuckled, pointed at famous fan George Edmondson and said, "We'll let Mr. Two-Bits answer that one in a second."

Meyer knows he will have to provide his answer on Nov.11 at Florida Field. But if the Gators don't leave that game with an SEC East title, the final score probably won't matter.

Spurrier conditioned Florida fans to accept nothing short of excellence. Meyer must deliver soon or suffer the same fate as Zook.

But is the pressure to win immediately unique to Florida? Before a speech in May in Orlando, Meyer said he faced similar pressure at his previous two head-coaching stops.

"The pressure is the same as when I was at Bowling Green, the same at Utah, the same [at Florida]," Meyer said. "Our staff and myself, we just want to give these guys an opportunity to win.

"We all know what it takes to win."

Others say the Spurrier factor does add more stress to the Gators' job. Just ask the first ball coach to fall victim to the expectations of a fan base that considered a 10-win season average.

His name is Steve Spurrier.

When Spurrier resigned at Florida, he famously wished to be "an underdog again."

"Now it's a disgrace every time we lose," Spurrier said on Jan.7, 2002. "It's almost like a relief when we win."

Eighteen disgraces and 32 moments of relief later, little has changed.

"There are a bunch of guys playing here who have never experienced what Florida expects," Meyer said in May. "That's the SEC championship, the [Bowl Championship Series] and all the great things that come with that."

The creator of those expectations believes the coach who finally delivers on them will cast his own shadow on the program.

"I guess since I've left, [Florida] hasn't won the SEC," Spurrier said this month. "When they win one or two, that coach will replace me."