The Best Of "The Head Ball Coach" Steve Spurrier

You heard it here first last night (ok maybe you saw it on ESPN or something) – Steve Spurrier, the Head Ball Coach, one of the most celebrated college coaches ever has decided to call it quits. Right away, right now, smack dab in the middle of the season. Kind of strange timing to be honest – let’s all hope there are no health conditions or anything going on, and that he’s just old, tired and all done caring, doesn’t want to drag it out and let the search for the next guy begin.

Time to take a quick trip down memory lane and remember some of the iconic moments of a legendary career.

The images:

The success:

The quotes:

Georgia:

His thoughts on the Georgia-South Carolina game moving from the second week of the season to the sixth week in 2012.

“I don’t know. I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended.”

Saban

“He’s got a nice little gig going, a little bit like (John) Calipari. He tells guys, ‘Hey, three years from now, you’re going to be a first-round pick and go.’ If he wants to be the greatest coach or one of the greatest coaches in college football, to me, he has to go somewhere besides Alabama and win, because they’ve always won there at Alabama.”

Alabama

“In 12 years at Florida, I don’t think we ever signed a kid from the state of Alabama…Of course, we found out later that the scholarships they were giving out at Alabama were worth a whole lot more than ours.”

Wuerffel

“He’s like a New Testament person. He gets slapped up side the face, and turns the other cheek and says, `Lord, forgive them for they know not what they’re doing,’°” he said. “I’m probably more of an Old Testament guy. You spear our guy in the earhole, we think we’re supposed to spear you in the earhole. That’s kind of where we’re a little different.”

In response to an Auburn dorm fire that burned books… “but the real tragedy was that fifteen hadn’t been colored yet.”

On Retiring:

His thoughts on going out on his terms.

“Let me ask you this: How many coaches do you know that have retired in the last 10 or 15 years, and I’m talking honestly retiring, guys who had a good job, were winning and stepped aside on their own? There aren’t many. They all got fired. Who would have ever thought that Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno would have to get forced out? When I leave, they’re not going to pay me $4 million because I had another five years on the deal and got fired. I ain’t going to be one of those guys. I just have too much pride. That’s not going to happen.”

h/t Saturday Down South for some quotes