The Buzz Surrounding The Ol' Ball Coach
It took three questions to bring up the subject of Steve Spurrier's return to The Swamp during the coach's press conference this afternoon in South Carolina.
Spurrier sat down at a table in front of about 35 media members and gave his opening comments. He talked about Saturday's loss to Arkansas briefly, then he said he was, "looking forward to going to The Swamp, playing the Gators."
First he was asked if UF is the best team USC will play.
Then someone asked Spurrier how the loss of Marcus Thomas will affect the Gators.
At that point I thought to myself, "Maybe they won't ask him about going back to UF. Maybe I missed out on all that on Saturday or Sunday."
And the next thing I knew, Spurrier spent the next 10 minutes or so addressing questions about his return and his time spent in Gainesville.
What will the reception from the fans be like?
"I don't know exactly what the reception (will be)," Spurrier said. "I think it will be fine, though, because it was fine the other two times I was down there."
Spurrier was referring to his induction into the Ring of Honor at UF and his return to pay tribute to the 1996 National Championship team.
"For 12 years, I had a wonderful relationship with the Gators fans."
Now the Gator faithful will swarm into The Swamp to root against the Ol' Ball Coach. Well, at least they'll be rooting against his team. It will be hard to carry any ill will towards a Gainesville hero like Spurrier.
Speaking of he Swamp, Spurrier actually helped give the stadium its nickname. He didn't come up with "The Swamp," but the nickname was not catching on until Spurrier started using it.
"One of our marketing guys there, I never will forget," Spurrier said. "He said, 'That will never work. That will never catch on.' He's not working there anymore."
Spurrier even seemed surprisingly jovial and light-hearted while being interrogated about his return.
"'Swamp' is a word, if you think about it, it's a word that's fun to say. There's some words that are fun to say. If you've ever met a guy named Bubba, you'll say, when you're talking to him, 'Hey Bubba!' You'll use the word 'Bubba' over and over again."
So clearly, the coach was in a good mood. He wasn't tired of talking about the subject. And while I was concerned all the talk would be a distraction for Spurrier and his team, I left the press conference with a completely different impression.
"It sort of adds some motivation," running back Cory Boyd said. Boyd added that the team wants to, "give Coach his first win there, back at The Swamp."
"They're not getting distracted," defensive lineman Casper Brinkley said of his teammates. "I mean, we're getting motivated more or less... We're trying to motivate each other."
Spurrier insists he won't even hear the crowd once the game starts because he'll have his headphones on. He'll settle in and just start calling plays and watching the defense.
"It's our team against their team," he said.
Try telling that to the media this week.
This week, it's Spurrier vs. their team.
The coach is preparing his team for that media hype.
"I told them where my name was on the walls around there and where the championship things are and so forth," he said. "We'll get there a couple of hours before the game and players can go out and walk around."
It was good to see that South Carolina has only UF on its mind. Still, the buzz surrounding Spurrier's highly anticipated return is very real and won't go away until Saturday night.
If South Carolina pulls out an upset, then the Spurrier talk will linger for much longer than that.
