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They'll all stick together

True to the words of UF's most famous song, Steve Spurrier confidently collects ex-Gators in D.C.

By DARRELL FRY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 19, 2002

LAKE BUENA VISTA -- You can toss their shoddy statistics at Steve Spurrier all you want, but he's not buying any of it.

Since becoming Redskins coach, he has added to his roster with several castoffs who played for him at the University of Florida, moves that have drawn light-hearted chuckles from around the NFL.

Spurrier, though, doesn't see anything funny. He is convinced these former pupils, who include ex-Bucs Reidel Anthony and Jacquez Green, can be the same players in the NFL they were in college.

"I've seen them play," Spurrier said Monday during a break at the owners meeting. "Reidel was a first-round draft pick. Jacquez was a second-round pick. I've seen (quarterback) Danny (Wuerffel) play in the game, so I don't need some NFL experts to tell me he can't play. I've seen too much. I've seen him against FSU, Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia. All pretty good defenses."

Spurrier said he didn't go into the Redskins job with a plan to fill the roster with former Gators, but the team's needs -- quarterback and receiver -- happened to fit the handful of former Gators available in free agency.

Early into the signing period, he brought aboard receiver Chris Doering and Wuerffel, then added Anthony, followed by Green, who last week spurned the Bucs for a fresh start in Washington.

More are possible. Spurrier is interested in Bears quarterback Shane Matthews and Giants receiver Ike Hilliard. And there's next month's draft, where several Gators are available, including receivers Reche Caldwell and Jabbar Gaffney.

With each signing, Spurrier has had to defend the move to those who have questioned how he's going to get more out of a modest free agent than his former team. In case anyone in the Redskins front office had similar worries, Spurrier dug up the Gators' 1996 highlight reel recently and played it for his staff.

"Our personnel guys were impressed with Reidel and Quez and Danny Wuerffel," he said. "Of course, time will only tell, but obviously I've seen all of these players play very, very well."

That was in college. This is the NFL.

Anthony's production, for instance, has steadily declined each season since he caught 51 passes in 1998 for Tampa Bay, bottoming out this past season when he had 13 catches.

Green never caught more than 56 passes in a season with the Bucs and had 36 receptions for 402 yards in 2001. And Doering, who last played with the Broncos, wasn't in football when Spurrier signed him. He had been working for a cable television station in Gainesville.

Still, Spurrier insists the jump from college to the NFL has not been too substantial for them and that they only need to be in the right system.

His system.

"Nothing is guaranteed, but I've got to believe in the system we've had from Duke to the USFL and back to Duke and back to Florida, if we've got good players like we've had at all those places," he said. "I don't think the game is a whole lot different. Obviously the talent is much, much better in the NFL, but the defenses these coordinators run are a lot like the colleges. They all interchange. The college coaches all visit the pro camps all the time. So, it's not a whole bunch of different defenses than we saw in college."

As for Anthony and Green specifically, Spurrier said they thrive in an offense that stretches the defense.

"We're trying to go out and prove all the naysayers wrong," Green said. "It's a double-edged sword. I want to prove myself and coach wants to prove that his system (and players) will work in the NFL."

Plenty of people are waiting to see if the experiment will fly. Perhaps the only person whose opinion really matters is Redskins owner Daniel Snyder. And he seems fine with it.

"I think they are good players," Snyder said Monday. "(Spurrier) recognizes talent and he feels comfortable with some of his players who've done very, very well. And why not?"

-- Staff writer Roger Mills contributed to this report.

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