The University of Florida's winningest football coach is not expected to return to Gainesville, but some would welcome him with open arms.
By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published December 31, 2003
TAMPA - Kevin Carter's "Welcome to the Swamp" sign in Ybor City Tuesday night somehow seemed appropriate.
While the 26-year-old said he likes what University of Florida Coach Ron Zook has done with the Gators, Steve Spurrier's resignation as head coach of the Washington Redskins on Tuesday, has Carter hoping for a homecoming.
"I knew eventually he wasn't going to want to coach in the pros anymore," said Carter, of Tampa, wearing a "Gator Bait" T-shirt. "If he wants to come back here, I'd take him back with open arms."
Carter stood outside Game Works waiting to snag autographs from UF football players at a reception there. The Gators play the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Outback Bowl on New Year's Day at Raymond James Stadium.
Between signatures, Carter debated Spurrier's reasons for leaving the Redskins with fellow Gators fan Paul Apple. "He simply didn't make a good fit for the Redskins," said Apple, 27, of Clearwater.
Carter and Apple were some of the few Gator fans wearing blue and orange in Ybor Tuesday night, where Gator and Hawkeye players gathered for a reception. Mostly it was Iowa fans who filled the brick streets and streetcars, proudly wearing their Hawkeye baseball caps and T-shirts.
More Gators fans, Carter insisted, "will come out when it counts, come game time."
Spurrier's resignation as Redskins head coach didn't surprise many Gator fans or players in Ybor Tuesday night.
"He had already mentioned it, so there isn't much you can say," said Howard Lingard, a 19-year-old linebacker for the Gators. "I guess he made a career move."
Neither Lingard nor Billy Griffin, 20, an offensive lineman for the Gators, played under Spurrier. They did not buy speculation that Spurrier, 58, was returning to Florida.
"Ron Zook recruited me, and I like him," said Griffin, who sat outside a tattoo parlor along Seventh Avenue talking on his cell phone. "I think he's going to be around for a while."
Greg and Karen Gandolfo live in Ashburn, Va., where the Redskins practice, but they previously lived in Tampa, and have family here. Visiting for the holidays, the couple said media coverage about Spurrier in the Washington, D.C., area usually had a negative slant.
"It didn't seem like he was getting any support," Greg Gandolfo said. "There was more focus on the coach instead of the lack of production of the team. It's not all about the coach."
Gandolfo said Spurrier's "style of football" wasn't a match for the Redskins either. Spurrier liked passing plays, but the Redskins need running plays, he said.
What's next for Spurrier, whose record at UF was 122-27-1 from 1990 to 2001, or why he left Washington didn't matter much to Woody Summerlin. He drove to Ybor City from Brandon with his family to meet some of the UF players and get autographs.
"If I made the amount of money (Spurrier) made, I'd go fishing or play golf," Summerlin said.
