Sidenote: Living in Spurrier’s shadow

There’s a fine line between disdain and awe. I have both for South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier. I have literally been hearing his name since I was in the 7^th grade. Even though he is almost 20 years older than me, and out paths have never crossed, I’m well aware of who he is. Years before my father was the minister at Mars Hill Presbyterian Church in Athens, TN, his father, Graham, held the same position. After graduating from high school in Athens, I went to East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN. Spurrier was a three-sport star at Science Hill High School there. This was in the late eighties and those people up there were STILL bitter than he went to the University of Florida instead of the University of Tennessee. By the time I graduated from ETSU, my folks had moved back to Georgia. And now, he was busy turning around a very lame Duke University football program and everyone in Atlanta lamented on how former Georgia Tech coach Bill Curry had fired Spurrier from the Tech staff. The common statement from Tech fans was “now look what Steve’s doing. Wish we still had him”. (Personally, I think it’s funny. Curry was, I mean, is, a moron). In 1989, Spurrier was asked to come back to his alma mater, Florida, to take the helm. At this point he began a domination of my beloved Georgia Bulldogs that is difficult to comprehend. I moved to Virginia in 1993, but the pain followed. In 2001, apparently just to piss me off, he left his stunned Gators behind to take the head coaching job right up the road from me in DC. The Washington Redskins. My in-laws are Redskins fans, but I knew there was no way I would secretly root for them with Spurrier coaching. Lucky for me he failed miserably, compiling a 12-20 record (and earning cool $10 million in the process). So I would just ASSUME he would go off into the sunset and indulge his first passion – golf. But no, what does he do? He takes the vacant head coach job at the University of South Carolina, a football program stuck in mediocrity, but with a great stadium and great fans (who seem to have an optimism that defies reason). The fact that South Carolina is in the same division as Georgia will insure that the Dawgs will see Steve every………..single……….year.

How long will this man torment me?