“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”
-Mark Twain
The Senator talked extensively about the Steve Spurrier vs. Mark Richt this morning. I had planned to discuss this subject last week, but Senator Blutarsky made some points that I had wanted to make also. Here are some additional points to consider.
I have simple question: why isn’t Steve Spurrier on any sort of “hot seat”? Or a better question: why doesn’t the media portray Steve Spurrier to be on the “hot seat”?
Paul Westerdawg once compared Steve Spurrier’s tenure at South Carolina to Ray Goff’s tenure at UGA, and it is one of the most memorable blog post I’ve ever read. Thanks to Google, here it is.
The Finebuams and Bradleys of the world make a living for making asinine statements. This particular column by Jeff Schultz is more aggravating than a visit to the dentist.
I know, I know. They guys get paid to start controversy, get people talking about their column. But that doesn’t piss me off any less.
Let’s look how Mark Richt has done vs. Steve Spurrier over the last nine years as a head coach:
Mark Richt is 90-27 in his nine seasons as Georgia’s head coach. He inherited a Georgia program that was a perennial third place team in the East and catapulted the University of Georgia to the following accomplishments in his tenure:
2 SEC Championships, 3 BCS Bowls (2-1) and 6 Top 10 finishes, including finishes of #2 and #3.
Let’s take a look at Steve Spurrier’s last nine years as a head coach: the last 5 at South Carolina and his last 4 seasons at Florida (1998-2001). During his last nine seasons, Spurrier has mounted 74-39 record at South Carolina and Florida (South Carolina: 35-28, Florida: 39-11). In addition to wins and losses, here’s another comparison:
1 SEC Championship, 3 BCS Bowls (2-1), 3 Top 10 finishes, with highest finish being #3.
Mark Richt has had two 8 win seasons. Coach Spurrier, since arriving in Columbia, has only had one season in which he has had at least 8 wins.
Coach Spurrier quipped how he got a bigger postseason bonus for his teams APR score than any bowl game (funny stuff). UGA had a higher APR than South Carolina this year.
Including 4 years from his Florida days, Coach Richt has been a better head coach than Steve Spurrier over their last nine years coaching. Head to head, Coach Richt has a 5-2 record against the Ole Ball Coach.
Should Coach Spurrier be on the “hot seat”? Heck no. But if Mark Richt’s seat is getting warm, Spurrier’s should be on fire.
The hacks at the AJC and Paul Finebaum don’t want to let facts get in the way of a good story.
Corbindawg
The Grit Tree 
Put it simply. If Richt is on the hot seat, and Spurrier isn’t – then a straight up trade for head coaches between the two ‘similar’ SEC institutions would net out in excitement for UGa and disappointment for USC… does that seem correct?
The reason for Spurrier not being on the hot seat is simple: He’s at South Carolina, where retread coaches go to finish out their careers.
This is a school that didn’t win a bowl game until 2000 and acted like winning the Outback Bowl against a bad Ohio State team was akin to a national title.
If they get rid of Spurrier, who will the SC crowd get? More precisely, who would want to coach there? Saban, maybe, if they paid him $10 million a year. SC, like MS State, is a dead zone. So far as I am concerned, given equal parameters, I would take Spurrier as a head coach over Richt anyday. Spurrier did something at FL; Richt has done nothing comparable at UGA. I know, he averages 10 a season. That excuse gets older every year. Yeh, Richt is better than Goff, also Donnan. Big deal.
I don’t think averaging 10 is ever an excuse, but rather an example of Richt’s ability as a coach?