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Thick skin required

Steve Spurrier is loud, demanding and quite willing to yank his quarterback when his ball plays aren't executed. But Gators past and present agree: He's a winner.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 12, 2001

[Times photo: Kevin White] Steve Spurrier grabs his head as the Gators lose ground in the third quarter against Mississippi State last season.

GAINESVILLE -- Friends and foes acknowledge his extraordinary gift for drawing "ball plays," his air of invincibility, his competitive nature and his ability to win.

It's all part of what draws some of the top high school quarterbacks from around the nation to Gainesville to play for the University of Florida.

But when they arrive, they should understand this: Steve Spurrier is an extremely demanding football coach who expects nothing less of his players than he does himself -- near perfection.

"You need to have very thick skin," said Terry Dean, a former Florida quarterback who was benched in the middle of his 1994 Heisman Trophy candidate season. "He will be on you all the time and he expects a lot. He will be yelling and screaming at you and you can't take it personally. A lot of times I did."

Dean, Shane Matthews, Danny Wuerffel, Doug Johnson, Jesse Palmer and Rex Grossman grew to fear the tossing of the Spurrier visor -- a precursor to their benching. But the first five went on to play professionally. Grossman -- a freshman All-American last fall -- is battling with Brock Berlin for this year's newspaper headlines.

"It's (the fear of being benched) not as big (a controversy) as everyone believes," Berlin said. "Everybody really does kind of blow it up to be a big thing. We go out to have fun, we're out to win championships and we have a good time out there."

Love him or hate him, his former proteges seem to agree on one thing: The man can coach.

"He teaches the game better than anyone," said Matthews, who played for Florida from 1990-92.

"He's an offensive genius," said Dean, a financial planner in Naples. "He might be the best coach in the country. The way he does things seems to work."

Spurrier might yank a quarterback from the game as quickly as he'll pull a wide receiver who runs the wrong route or a lineman who misses a blocking assignment.

He accepts that quarterbacks are human and prone to mistakes. He just doesn't tolerate many.

"He's the type of coach that will demand for you to be better all the time and continue to improve," said Wuerffel, the 1996 Heisman Trophy winner who led Florida to its only national championship. "He doesn't accept if you're not giving your best and that's tough for some people."

[AP file photo] Steve Spurrier rides on the shoulders of his players after Florida clinched its first official SEC title in 1991. It was the beginning of a decade of dominance for the program.

According to current and former quarterbacks, if you can't deal with that reality, you probably need to play football somewhere else.

It's that simple.

"He is hard on his quarterbacks, but as a quarterback you should expect that," said Matthews, now the starter for the Chicago Bears. "The quarterback is the leader of the team and a lot is put on your shoulders. In order for the team to play well, he had to be hard on me, but I never had any problems with him yelling at me."

What has become as synonymous with Florida football as its Gator mascot is the image of dueling quarterbacks and the notion that Spurrier loves to go to the bullpen.

More image than substance? Some players think so.

"It's overblown big time," said Noah Brindise, current Gators graduate assistant coach and a former walk-on quarterback who played from 1995-97 and was thrust into the lineup his senior season. "The best guys are going to play. If there are two guys that are equal, both will play, just like if there are two tailbacks that are equal."

Wuerffel said: "How he handles his quarterback is not atypical, it's just magnified."

Why is Spurrier's handling of quarterbacks controversial?

For starters, he proudly claims to have benched every quarterback who played for him.

In 1994, his reputation for impatience skyrocketed when he pulled Dean halfway through the season. Wuerffel kept the job in 1995 and 1996, then controversy picked up again when Johnson was benched, then alternated with Brindise in 1997.

The next season, Johnson and Palmer shared the job, at times alternating every play. After battling for the job again in 1999, Palmer and Grossman shared the position last season. This season, it's Grossman and Berlin fighting for arguably the most publicized college position in the nation.

And every time they throw a pass, they realize Spurrier just might decide it's the last one in that game.

"I was fortunate enough that I never got pulled," Matthews said. "All the switching started after I left. But at Florida, quarterbacks will always be in the spotlight. It's a successful program, the quarterbacks put up great numbers and he's the top quarterback coach in America. You have to realize when you do go play there, you're going to be put under a lot of scrutiny. If the team wins, you get praise; if they lose, you'll get the blame."

[AP file photo] The head ball coach's hatred of losing goes way back. A dejected Florida QB Steve Spurrier takes a knee on the Gator Bowl field during the Gators' 27-10 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in 1966, Spurrier's senior year.

Wuerffel is the last quarterback to start every game in a Gator season, his Heisman Trophy year.

"When I was there, I never switched every play ... so it's hard for me to personally say what that's like," Wuerffel said. "I know a lot of things are said about that, but when you're in a competitive sport at that level, it's all performance-based. It's the coach's responsibility to put the best player on the field at any given time and Coach Spurrier has had a lot of success doing that."

Spurrier has won six SEC titles, the same as Vince Dooley and Johnny Vaught and one more than Bob Neyland.

In terms of SEC titles, the 56-year-old trails only the legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant, who won 13 league championships in 25 years at Alabama and had another at Kentucky.

Spurrier has won six titles in 11 years.

"If I was a high school quarterback coming out, there is nowhere else I would go," said Matthews, who rose from fifth string to starter in one season. "He's by far the best there is at teaching a quarterback to play the position. I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for him."

[Times file photo] Danny Wuerffel and Spurrier share a laugh before a team photo in 1996. The Gators went on to win a national championship and Wuerffel the Heisman Trophy.

Palmer even helped Spurrier take the quarterback shuffle international. Media from Palmer's native Canada kept Florida's sports information office busy during the late 1990s, calling daily to find out if Palmer had lost his job.

"I think as long as he's there, Florida is always going to have a bunch of real good athletes coming in and playing the position," Palmer said. "I personally don't see his style changing, because he's winning with it."

For the record, Spurrier doesn't see the need to change:

"When we've played two (quarterbacks), they've been close in talent. If one's going bad, the other stays ready. The other guy knows if that first guy's not doing well, Coach will put me in. Some people think it hurts the feelings of the starter and he'll lose his confidence. For some reason, nobody ever worries about the left guard losing his confidence if you pull him out. You need to treat everybody the same. Have to earn your way every week. If you're playing well and smart and know what you're doing, you'll stay out there. If you're not, the other guy gets a chance."

Which is exactly the situation Berlin and Grossman are in.

The preseason No. 1 team doesn't have a starting quarterback. And if it did, history shows it wouldn't mean much.

Matthews said Spurrier's way may seem cruel from the outside looking in, but it prepares athletes for the reality of the next level.

"The way it works in the NFL for guys like me and Danny who don't get a lot of chances and make millions, when I get a chance, I'm going to make the most of it," Matthews said. "That's the way those guys (quarterbacks at Florida) have to look at it too."

To adapt in Spurrier's world of quarterbacks, a few innate characteristics are needed.

[AP file photo] Florida QB Rex Grossman and Steve Spurrier try to fathom what went wrong in the second half of the Gators' loss to Miami in last season's Sugar Bowl.

"You've got to be very competitive and you've got to want to win," Wuerffel said. "Coach Spurrier is a demanding coach. If you're a player that has a hard time being pushed and who loses your cool, you'll have a hard time there."

And you need to know when to keep your mouth shut and go with the flow.

"I have a very laid-back personality, actually Danny and I have very similar personalities, and I can take constructive criticism," said Matthews, who lives in Gainesville during the offseason and spends a lot of time with Spurrier. "It didn't bother me when he would yell and scream at me. I always said, "whatever.' I listened and let it go in one ear and out the other. But I did listen. You have to forget about it and get ready to make the next play."

Dean said the toughest part about playing under Spurrier was getting into the rhythm of the game.

"At the start, I was so fired up it would take me a couple of series to calm down," Dean said. "I compare it to golf. The first couple of holes you're just trying to get your swing. It's tough when you're in and out. But obviously he's (Spurrier) made it work."

And he continues to do so, his way.

The 2001 season is three weeks away. Let the quarterback controversy begin.

Again.

"I don't think anyone cares (who the quarterback is) as long as we win," Grossman said. "I believe Coach Spurrier is going to find the best quarterback for the job and that quarterback is going to be pretty good."

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