Spurrier Press Conference Transcription
Tuesday, January 8, 2002 | Football
Steve Spurrier met with the media on Monday for the first time since announcing his retirement from UF on Friday. Here are his comments along with those of three Gator players. Credit for this transcription should be made to "Florida Sports Information."
Spurrier's Opening Statement
"It seems like just the other day I was introduced in the Gator Room 12 years ago. My little boy Scotty was still sucking his fingers back then, standing in the corner. Jerri's here. My daughter Amy is here and Lisa and Steve Jr.—had all the family. Got a couple of grandsons in 12 years, Jake and Kyle. I'm glad to have all my family here. Certainly I've been one of the luckiest guys in the world. God has really smiled on me and I'm very thankful to have the parents I had and live in East Tennessee and go to school up there. The high school coaches I had were just super, super coaches. A lot of wonderful things have happened for me. I'd like to say hello to the coaches out in San Antonio. This is convention week and I admire coaches that do it the right way. There are a lot of wonderful guys that are football coaches, and if you're out there watching, I really admire you and respect what you do in college football."
"I'd like to give a few thanks. First of all Doug Dickey gave me an opportunity to coach maybe nobody else would have in 1978. I will always be grateful to him. And when we got fired here, Pepper Rogers gave me a chance at Georgia Tech. And then Red Wilson at Duke University for three years in the early 80s. And then I had a chance to be the head coach of the (USFL's Tampa Bay) Bandits. John Basset hired a guy who had been coaching for five years. I had the chance to be the head coach in that league all three years. And then going back to Duke University. Tom Butters and Duke University has been very special to me. If you've seen my wife's car she's got three stickers on there: Florida, Duke and Oklahoma. So Florida and Duke are certainly my two schools. Duke is my second favorite because without Tom Butters and those people and Red Wilson, my coaching career probably would have been over a couple times. But they kept me alive, kept me going and I've been very blessed with what's happened all through the years. Again thanks to Bob Bryan who hired me at Florida. He was the interim president. John Lombardi went along with it. I don't know if Mr. Lombardi was involved too much with who the coach was going to be. Mr. Bryan told him Steve Spurrier was going to be the coach and he was all for it. President Lombardi was a fun guy to work with for 10 years. Jeremy Foley has been a good guy to work for. There have been a few disagreements here and there. But the environment to work here is as good as anywhere. Also thanks to a couple of 12-year assistant coaches, Jimmy Collins and Dwayne Dixon. A couple of us have lasted 12. Also, Timmy Sain, our equipment manager has also been here 12 years. Over the years, I've been blessed to have so many good players, assistant coaches, support staff. It's hard to mention all of them. I always go back to that 1990 team. Our first team here. Galen Hall left a very talented team here. That team still has not gotten the recognition they deserve. I still hope some day that the University of Florida will put '90 up where it says SEC Champs. They won it just as much as the others. To tell me the child support payment four years prior is the reason they were not called champions is wrong. And I'll always think it's wrong. Not many people around here agree with me but we're all entitled to our opinion and that '90 should be recognized someday. The '91 team was our first conference champion. Our first conference game I think was Alabama here. We beat them 35-0. But I got a letter from a Gator fan after the game. He said 'Coach you need to calm down on the sidelines. You're too stressed. You're too emotional. You need to calm down a bit. Head coaches don't act like you do and I'm afraid you'll burn yourself out real fast.' I read the letter and thought maybe this guy has a point. Maybe I can be successful and act like all the other coaches and let the assistants do all the yelling and so forth. So the next week, I tried to do that. I was very calm at practice, on the road trip and on the sideline. We went up to Syracuse, played like a bunch of zombies, got our butts kicked 38-21 I think. So I came back home and apologized to the players and said 'that style may work for some people, but it doesn't work for us, doesn't work for me.' That's the only way I think I have a chance to be effective. Coaching is very individual profession and you've got to do it your way and there's all kinds of ways to do it. I think our players understand that I'm yelling at them, I'm yelling at everybody. And I'm also trying to praise them at every opportunity I get. That's my style of coaching and hopefully we can achieve the most we can throughout the season. After that Syracuse game, we bounced back and won all of them and finished the season 10-1 and won our first SEC championship. The '92 season was one of the most fun I've had because that was the least talented team I had. I remember we were at the Sugar Bowl and Shane Matthews asked me who was going to be offensive tackle next year and we didn't have anybody. I told him somebody would show up and that we can't worry about that now. And who showed up were true freshmen Reggie Green and Jason Odom who played the '92 season. They played well. Probably the Georgia game was one of our favorites. We were five, six point underdogs. Somehow or another we won that 26-24. Even the Alabama championship game was a favorite game because we weren't supposed to have a chance against the number one team in the nation. And even though we didn't quite get it done that night, it was a fun game. Our team really competed hard. I'm proud of that '92 team. And of course the next four years, '93-'96 was our hayday. Danny Wuerffel and Terry Dean played a bunch in that time too. That was an era that SEC wasn't as quite as good. It seemed like every time we played Tennessee something good always happened. We really maximized those four years with four SEC Championships and a national. In the last five years, we haven't achieved quite as much. Only one SEC as Pat Dooley reminds us all the time, only one SEC in five years and that's the truth. But we have gone to three major bowls in the last five years, which really isn't all that bad. But we still haven't quite hit the top. Sometimes you don't always win. Hang around near the top, like our guys have and we've won our share, but things didn't quite work out. Obviously the Tennessee game was a very frustrating time for us. It was heartbreaking. We just didn't play that well, we just didn't do it that night and that's what happens sometimes. I'm really proud how our guys bounced back in the Orange Bowl and played one of the best games of the year, which was what we were trying to do. But anyway, people always ask what I'm proud of here and I would say hanging out near the top. The championships are nice but in the years when they don't win them, our guys were still hanging in, fighting for the top. I think we figured out that even though we were in the top seven of the 12 years, the other five to begin the season, I think we were second place. I'm proud that our guys competed every year. Consistency is something I'm really proud of our team over the years that they could do that. Obviously, our fans are very responsible for the success we've had. The Swamp is a difficult place for opponents to come win in."
"I was talking to President Lombardi last summer. And I said, 'President Lombardi, did they sort of shove you out the door, or did you retire, or resign on your own?' And he said, 'Steve, 10 years is enough to be a university president.' It sort of hit me what time is long enough. Somehow late in the year it started to hit me that maybe it was as good as time to say goodbye. Though I was hoping, as we all were, to say goodbye after the Rose Bowl. But it didn't work out."
"I'm intrigued if my style of coaching would be successful in the NFL. But I need to find that our before I hang it up, call my last play. I think I'll get that opportunity real soon. Florida will be all right. Jeremy Foley will hire a good coach. They'll be fine. Butch Davis left Miami and it didn't hurt them too much did it. They didn't skip a beat. And we won't skip a beat much here."
"Again, I thank everyone involved. I had a good run here, feel good. I'll always be pulling for the Gators. I just told the players, I hope that I won't be too far off. I hope to keep a house here and come back often and use the weight room here. I hope to be around unless they lock the doors on me. I appreciate all you media people. We've had a wonderful relationship. And the one that caused all the problems is no longer with us. All you guys here have been fine. There's always this perception about the way I talk and the way I act and things like that. People write opinions about me and that's fine. I just don't like people writing lies. When you write lies, to me that's wrong. If you say the guy's a lousy coach, egotistical, then that's ok because they're just words. Again, I thank my family. My wife Jerri is back there, she's a wonderful head coach's wife."
ON HIS EMOTIONS…
"I guess I'm supposed to cry a lot because that's what FSU people say I do. I'm not really much of a crier. I don't get all choked up. I don't understand why they said I was crying, I guess because we only won by 24 that day. But anyway, it hasn't been that much because once I felt like this was the best thing for me and the University of Florida. University of Florida needs to get a coach in here that can see himself being here seven, eight, 10 years down the road. We're always building for the future here. It would be neat to coach these guys for one more year but it wouldn't be the right thing to do because I've sort of envisioned someday coaching in the NFL. It hasn't been all that difficult to tell the truth."
ON WHEN HE THOUGHT IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE FLORIDA…
"I started feeling late in the season that maybe this would be as good a year to leave, retire, or whatever you want to call it, after 12 years. I mentioned a couple of my favorite games, I don't remember if you recalled it, but both of them we were underdogs. I'd like to be the underdog again. Do you realize how big a favorite we are all the time? It's nobody's fault. It's just the way it is. We are double-digit favorites over everybody. I guess we should be, because we cover most of them or get beaten. One or the other. Anytime we lose, it's us coaches. We screwed up. Look how huge a favorite the team was, and they didn't win. So anyway, that wears on you a little bit. Maybe in a way looking back, it would have been smart not to score so many points. You don't score that many points and you are not big a favorite the next week, and maybe guys… But I don't know. I don't know how basketball is coached or if I have to tell these guys to hold it down or this that and the other. I've just always let the guys play. We put the backups in, but we give them a chance to score. They like to score too. They score quickly a lot. Where as if you look back, what may be a 24-10 win might have been better than a 52-10 win, looking back. But, I don't know. It would be hard for me to hold the guys back from playing."
ON WHAT HE LOOKS FORWARD TO AT THE NFL LEVEL…
"One thing I would look forward to is calling the plays in the microphone that go to the helmet. I don't have to get everybody to hid the signals. Gosh, you know how much a pain that is playing Tennessee and FSU 12 straight years and they know all the signals? You gotta get a guy to hid here and hid there. That would be smart if college football would do that, but I doubt if they will. Something smart is not always part of the logic. I would look forward to that part."
ON WHAT HE WILL MISS FROM THE COLLEGE GAME…
"The pagentry and the passion of college football is hard to match up. I know some of those pro teams are just playing out the strings at times. Hopefully, I will be part of a team that never gets in that situation. That game the other night wasn't much, was it? Tampa Bay and Philly. Ever seen a game where nobody cared who won? I don't know. We had that situation in the USFL. We played Birmingham back to back. The Birmingham Stallions. We went up there and played a heck of a game. Gary Anderson ran for about 115 or 120 yards and I think we beat them about 27- 20, something like that. And then the next week, we went up there and they beat us. It didn't work out the next week. But I'd rather win one out of two than 0 for two. Wouldn't you [Gainesville Sun reporter] Robbie [Andreu]?"
ON WHAT NFL CITY WOULD HE LIKE TO COACH NEXT SEASON…
"Again, I don't have to coach in Florida. I don't have to coach in the state of Florida. Hopefully, whatever team I end up with will be the right one and the right fit. It doesn't have to be in the state of Florida."
ON FACING CRITICS IN THE NFL AND BEING AN UNDERDOG…
"Certainly there are critics out there and sometimes I apologize for how much attention I get. I was hoping to sort of retire and slip a little notice that I'm leaving and [Florida Sports Information Director]Norm [Carlson] said 'Well, we got to have a little press conference to do it right and officially.' But I get way to much attention right now and I sort of apologize for that. There are a lot of underdog teams out there, so hopefully the opportunity will come pretty soon. Being an underdog is a little bit more fun at times. It was more fun the first years here when Florida lost to Auburn and Georgia so many times. Listening to them say 'we beat you so many times before' and blah blah blah blah sort of added a little bit more of pizzazz to us I guess. Now, we are just carrying on. It's almost a disgrace every time we lose. It's a relief when we win instead of we got them when we weren't supposed to."
ON HIS CRITICS AT FLORIDA…
"Yeh, it is a little bit. I always enjoyed the critics that say you can't do something. They are out there and that's good. That's good. We need those people out there."
ON THE MENTALITY OF HIS PLAYERS FOLLOWING HIS RESIGNITION…
"I think they are doing O.K. I had a nice little meeting with them. It must have been 30 or 40 players that showed up, about 40. Basically, I just said that 'you guys will be fine. They'll get a new coach in here and they'll be throwing the ball and going to be playing. Good things will happen here.' I told them 'play well enough, and you got a guy that is going to try to draft a bunch of Gators, you know that, if I can.' I'll try to get a few of them wherever I go, hopefully. It's a little easier or it's a lot easier going right to a pro team, hopefully, I don't know if I am going yet, than to another college. When you go to another college, I think the players look at you and say 'Aren't we good enough for you?' But I think they understand that this is an opportunity Coach Spurrier has got, and maybe I'll play for them again someday. Which some of them will, some of them will play for me again someday."
ON HIS KNOWLEDGE OF NFL RULES LIKE SALARY CAP, FREE AGENCY, ETC… .
"Not very much. I'm not going to be a salary cap guy, I'll tell you that right now. I think they got other people to do that. I've been coaching at Florida the last 12 years, where you been? I've been coaching here. I'm not a guy that wants to do everything. The team I go to hopefully will be very strong in the organization, management, and ownership, and on down the line. I think in life we all got to know what our strong suit is, what we bring to the team. I don't think salary cap is part of my expertise right now. But I'll listen to them. I don't have to do it all. I'm not one of those guys, that's for sure."
ON COACHING NFL PLAYERS…
"I coached the [USFL]Bandits three years and there is really… Of course, they make a lot more than those Bandit ballplayers, don't they? I think that my experience with almost player I've ever coached, just about all of them, has shown that they want to be shown a plan to win games, and win championships. If they can't get with the plan, than you have to let them go and play for somebody else. And that's pretty simple really. Players want a plan that gives them a chance to be successful. I've never had any problems with players, and don't anticipate any. But I don't anticipate everyone agreeing what you say, but that is part of coaching and so forth."
ON THE DARNELL DOCKETT INCIDENT…
"That didn't have a lot to do with it, but since you mentioned that, that was one of the ugliest incidents that I've ever been involved with. Another thing that was ugly also was that nobody seemed to give a damn except me and Earnest Graham. Nobody seemed to care. Nobody seemed to bring up that the guy was intentionally hurt and couldn't play against Tennessee in the biggest game of the year. Earnest Graham is 10-0 as a Gator this year and didn't play in two games this season. How important was he to our team? I don't know. Y'all can figure that out. I wish at some point that someone will make a call either to the NCAA, the Football Coaches Association, the SEC, or the University of Florida. I wish someone would make a call either that Spurrier and Earnest are lying, or the guy did it and something needs to be done. Right now, that fight is in your hands. I've carried it as far as I can carry. If you want to see something happen, that is up to you."
ON NFL SITUATIONS THAT SUIT HIM…
"I don't think I have a choice of where I want to go. I may not get an offer. I just said that probably for what I do it would be best for the team to be strong in the General Manager, Personnel, and all that. I don't know about personnel. That's why you have General Managers and Scouts and all that to figure out who the left guard is going to be. Just let try to figure out who the quarterback is going to be and a few other positions, and I'll have a chance to play. I don't profess to know a whole bunch about the NFL."
ON POSSIBLY TAKING SOME FLORIDA ASSISTANTS WITH HIM NEXT YEAR…
"Hopefully I can take some guys with me, sure."
ON BECOMING PART-OWNER OF AN NFL FRANCHISE…
"No, no. That's not going to happen."
ON WHAT ROLE HE WANTS AS AN NFL COACH…
"Too many NFL questions. Let's talk about the University of Florida today. I just hope to coach four or five years somewhere in the NFL. That's not what we are talking about today. Let's talk about Florida football."
ON THOUGHTS OF LEAVING FLORIDA PRIOR TO LAST WEEK…
"I came close a few times as you know… After 12 years, it added up to 'hey if you are ever going to go, you better go now or it could be too late.' I don't want to coach too much into my sixties. I hope to be playing golf about four or five days with [Gainesville Sun columnist] Pat Dooley here. If he shot a 74, that's going to be tough to beat. Believe that [Orlando Sentinel writer Mike] Bianchi?"
ON THE FUN PARTS OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL…
"The fun part are the games of course. The fun part is practice, and the fun part is being a part of a college team and being a Gator. All that kind of stuff. The big games. But I don't look back a lot right now. Some day when it's all over as far as coaching than maybe I'll look back and reflect."
ON NOTIFYING HIS PLAYERS OF HIS RESIGNATION…
"It was hard getting them all together. As soon as the Orange Bowl was over, that was not the time to say I'm out of here. Talk about the game and enjoy the game. But two days after that, [Florida Athletic Director] Jeremy Foley needed to go find him a ball coach. So that was the time to go get that out. It would have been wrong to say, 'hey this is my last game' before the game, because that doesn't work. I tried that at Duke one time for the All-American bowl. In 1989, I told the team the day before that I wasn't going to be their coach anymore. We get to the ballgame, and one guy was loafing down the field on the kick-off coverage. I yelled at him and he looked at me sort of funny, like "your not my coach anymore". That was his look. 'Why you yelling at me for? You're not even my coach.' So it doesn't work, it doesn't work. To me the only way to do it is when you've had your run and given it your best shot all the way through, bang. Go. Get somebody else in and carry on."
ON WHAT HE WON'T MISS ABOUT FLORIDA AND COLLEGE…
"Everything about being the head coach here was about what we hoped for, right Jerri? Pretty close. It was about what we expected. What I won't miss really doesn't bother me too much. But when I was hired here, Tom Butters the Athletic Director at Duke said 'Steve if you take that Florida job, they are going to write things about you that you didn't do. They are going to quote you as saying things that you didn't say. I said 'wait a minute. Now that's never happened to me. I've coached at the Bandits, I've coached at Duke. And he said 'but you've never coached at Florida. That's a different job.' And it is. You have to be a little bit fixed in and so-forth. I got to where I accepted that for a while. I used to write those writers names down that wrote stuff and sort of filed them over in the closet. As long as they didn't write lies about me, I was O.K."
ON WHETHER CERTAIN ASPECTS OF COLLEGE DROVE HIM AWAY…
"Not too much. This is what college football is. We have conferences, some have conference championship games, and some don't. There is no playoff system and that's the way it is. If you don't like it, then go somewhere else. I knew that's what we have. I disagree with it, but I accepted it and did the best we could each year. I do think the NFL is fair because the worst team gets the first draft pick. They got a salary cap and they all spend about the same amount. They share their revenues, and nobody is going busted. You'd think basketball and baseball would say 'how do you boys do this? Everybody makes money.' But baseball and basketball they do it their own way. But they seem to have a pretty good system as far as looking out for each other."
ON WHEN HE THOUGHT HE'D LEAVE FLORIDA WHEN HE WAS HIRED IN 1990…
"I guess in 1990 I envisioned seven or eight years, something like that. And then maybe try the NFL if that opportunity came. It didn't. But really, I went one year at a time and thinking three or four years down the road is what I've always tried to do here. We've not had any real stinking years, fortunately. There has never been a real down time. I think Jerri knew that someday maybe the challenge of the NFL is what I needed to do before I hung it up. So she was understanding of course, like she always is."
ON HIS DECISION AFFECTING RECEIVER JABAR GAFFNEY'S CHOICE TO TURN PRO…
"If he goes to the NFL, odds are that he'll probably have to play for somebody else too. I think Jabar's situation is that he doesn't know if there is a coach coming in that is good as throwing the ball. Jabar has had two big years of course. So has Reche [Caldwell], and Taylor [Jacobs] had a pretty good Orange Bowl… .I always encourage players to try to stay four years, and also realize that maybe the situation merits for their best interest to leave after three. Ike Hilliard had the big game after the Sugar Bowl, Reidel [Anthony] had a big year. They all left after three. I encourage all of our guys to stay, but also to understand that they have got to do what's best for themselves and their family. Most of these guys don't come from rich families, hardly any of them have a lot of money They don't get paid anything, and there is a lot of money made in college football. They need to do what's best in their own interest."
"Well possibly, possibly. Jabar certainly played well last game. He blocked well. He blocked better than he's blocked all year. I told him that I was going to put him on the bench if he didn't. He and Reche and Taylor I think they had their best games blocking down field. I should have told them that all year."
ON WHETHER ONE THING PUSHED HIM TO RESIGN…
"No, none whatsoever. I just feel like it is the right time, and we've had a good run. I was figuring out that being the head coach at Florida is kind of like being the captain of a big battleship, called Gator Football. We've had 150 battles, and the head coach is sort of like the Captain. Of course I'm one of those Captains that take the wheel instead of letting his crew do about everything. It's just time to move on. 150 battles, won a bunch of them. It's time to let somebody else captain this big ship for a while."
ON WHETHER COLLEGE FOOTBALL WILL HAVE A PLAYOFF IN THE FUTURE…
"Not in the next four years."
ON WORKING LONG HOURS IN THE NFL…
"I'm not ready for a lot of long hours if that's what you mean, but I've talked to several coaches, Jim Bates for one. He said you don't have to do it that way. A lot of college coaches spend long hours too. They come in at six in the morning and stay till midnight. [Florida assistant coach] Buddy Teavens told me he was one of those guys. Midnight four nights a week. I said 'did that do you any good at Tulane?' He said 'no it didn't.' I said 'why'd you do it?' He said 'I thought everyone else was.' If you can hopefully work efficiently and work smart… I saw an article on Jim Haslett, the New Orleans Saints coach about him coming in at 4:30 I think. That's not doing him any good coming in at 4:30. How you spend the time with your players is the most important thing. The time that you are with them trying to keep them how you want them to play the game. That's what is important. I guess what I'm saying is there is all kinds of ways to get the job done."
ON WHEN HE WOULD LIKE TO BEGIN WORK IN THE NFL…
"Probably within a month. Hopefully within a month it will happen."
ON WORKING WITH THE TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS…
"I'm not talking about any NFL stuff right now. Let's talk about Florida."
ON QUARTERBACK REX GROSSMAN…
"I did speak with Rex today. I left a message on his cell phone a couple of days ago. Rex was in the Bahamas after the ballgame. Where is he? Is he in here? He's back there somewhere. He had a little vacation to the Bahamas, but he was back. I just left a message that I'm outta here. I've retired, resigned, whatever and hope to coach in the NFL. And I said 'I might be coaching your butt again someday, and you better not miss curfew again.' So Rex and I are O.K. now."
ON DENVER BRONCOS COACH MIKE SHANAHAN BEING A CANDIDATE AT FLORIDA…
"I don't know anything about that."
ON WHEN HE DECIDED TO LEAVE FLORIDA…
"It sort of grew a little bit. If it was the time to leave, I felt it was maybe this year. I was hoping it would be the Rose Bowl, but it didn't work out that way. But 12 years is enough. I think it all just added up. Running the ship, captaining the ship for 12 years was enough to let somebody else have a go at it."
ON HOW HE WOULD LIKE TO BE REMEMBERED AT FLORIDA…
"I would like to be remembered, like I said earlier, as his team's were always in the hunt. We were in the hunt. We didn't win them all, but we were up there fighting for it. It didn't work out all the time, but we came close about every time. I would like to be remembered as obviously a guy that never ever was charged with breaking any rules, which in 12 years we never were. I don't know why that is so difficult, but there is a lot of rule breakers it seems like. Not too many now, but there are still a few out there. And hopefully the players once they leave here have hopefully learned something about how to be a good person and a good citizen, and they'll be successful when they leave here. That's what I hope happens, that our players say they enjoyed playing for me and the assistant coaches."
ON THE "RULE-BREAKERS" IN COLLEGE TODAY…
"Awwwww, I don't have any definite facts yet. I turned a few in this summer, ask [Florida Compliance Director] Jamie McCloskey. He's always getting a 'check this out, check this out.'"
ON DENVER COACH MIKE SHANAHAN AND OKLAHOMA COACH BOB STOOPS…
"They are both excellent coaches, but this is a decision they make and it is up to them. I don't know if [Foley] has talked to Mike Shanahan, has he? [Foley] is going to find himself a ball coach today."
CLOSING REMARKS…
"Last question, we are going to bring Rex [Grossman] up and let him talk a while. Come on up here Rex. I tell you what, Rex may have had his best game the other night. He only threw 28 balls. We usually let him throw about 40 or so. But he was picking out his receivers and I think his decision making was as best as it's ever been. Rex Grossman."
SOPHOMORE QUARTERBACK REX GROSSMAN
ON COACH SPURRIER'S RESIGNATION…
"I saw it on T.V. first, and it was a huge shock to everyone. But I can see his point of view, and no one on the team is angry or upset at him at all."
ON FLORIDA'S NEXT COACH…
"The next coach is going to have a hard time following him. He's definitely left a legend. As far as I'm concerned, I just need to know all facts before I even figure out what I'm doing."
ON THE EFFECT COACH SPURRIER'S RESIGNATION HAS HAD ON HIM…
"I was coming back until this. I just have to know what is going on first. I need all the information I can get, and I'll make a decision from there."
ON WHETHER OTHER FLORIDA PLAYERS ARE CONSIDERING GOING PRO AFTER SPURRIER'S RESIGNATION…
"I think there are one or two of us that are probably in the same situation. I know Taylor [Jacobs] is on the same page with me. I think we both are going to do the same thing. We'd love to come back. I'd love to come back and play. I'm not ready to leave, but it may be the best decision for me in the end."
ON RECEIVER JABAR GAFFNEY'S FUTURE…
"I'll try to convince him to stay, or give him some reasons why he should stay. But I think everybody in here if you were the parent of Jabar Gaffney you would tell him to leave. He has an unbelievable future ahead of him, and he is probably going to be in the top 15 picks. This is too much money for him to turn down at this point. We have a new coach and a new system. It'd be different if coach Spurrier was coming back, but I'm pretty sure he is going to leave."
ON WHEN HE PLANS TO MAKE HIS DECISION CONCERNING HIS FUTURE…
"I'm going to have to make my decision on Friday, so I'd like to know who the coach is before I make my decision."
ON THE FUTURE OF RECEIVER TAYLOR JACOBS…
"Like I said, I think Taylor and I are on the same page. I think we are definitely going to do the same thing. Right now I would guess that Reche and Jabar are gone, but I don't know. They are still contemplating and things like that."
ON HIS FUTURE…
"Like I said, I don't have all the information I need. I am trying to work on that too. I wasn't even planning on this at all. I'm going to try to get as much information as possible. I'm not going to know exactly where I am going to go, but hopefully once I put my hat in the ring that it would snowball. But like I said, I want to come back. I want to play another year, two years here. I haven't accomplished my goals here at Florida and I love playing here. But this obviously threw me for a loop."
ON IF HE'S READY FOR NFL…
"I think physically and emotionally I am ready to go. I like going to school here. I like playing here, I like all my teammates. We have a great time here. It would be obviously the biggest decision of my life if I were to go. Most likely, I will be back. There is a lot of uncertainty that I'm looking at."
ON BOB STOOPS OR MIKE SHANAHAN COACHING THE GATORS…
"If either one of those guys come, that definitely improves the chances of me playing again. I respect both of them, but don't really know either of them. I think those would be great coaches."
ON CONVERSATIONS HAD WITH BACKUP QB BROCK BERLIN…
"I've been on the phone with Brock quite a bit lately, and we are on the same page too. I'm not 100% on that, but we've definitely been in communication. He's probably going to do the opposite of what I do."
ON IF WAS SURPRISED BY COACH SPURRIER'S RESIGNATION…
"I don't think anybody saw it coming. He just dropped the bomb on Gainesville really. Nobody really saw it coming."
ON WHAT COACH SPURRIER DID FOR HIM…
"He provided me with a great opportunity to play quarterback under him in these last two years. I just feel privileged to play under him and he's been an unbelievable coach as everybody knows. I know he is going to succeed at the next level, and I think everyone in here realizes that he is going to do well. That's why it is such a big story. He is going to have a great offense and he's a competitor. He's just not going to lose."
ON WHEN HE WOULD LIKE FLORIDA TO NAME THEIR NEXT HEAD COACH…
"Hopefully it will be in the next couple of days. But you never know. I don't think anyone really knows."
ON COACH SPURRIER'S MEETING WITH THE PLAYERS…
"It was a good meeting. It was one of the first times that we really had a long talk. It was good, I'm glad we had it. It answered a lot of my questions. It explained the situation and we just had a good time and a good talk."
JUNIOR CENTER DAVID JORGENSEN
On the team's reaction:
"We (the players) all agree that this is the right decision for coach Spurrier. You have to look out for number one and he is doing what he feels he needs to do and what he wants to do. One thing you have to look at is that guys leave after a couple of years of college, and so what he is doing isn't that big of a problem. This might be a speed bump on the road, but nobody is going to call it quits or jump ship over it."
University of Florida after Spurrier:
"Mr. Foley has done a great job of getting good coaches, and he'll do the same with this job. It's a highly sought after job and somebody is going to want it and they're going to be a great coach. No matter what happens we will have a good coach and we still have great talent here and will continue to bring it in. We have a good solid core here and guys are still going to want to come to the University of Florida because it is still going to be the greatest place to play in the country. The Swamp will still be packed and we are going to continue to contend for the SEC title every year."
The role of the veterans:
"Nobody wants to come to a place and have their coach leave the next year. We as older players need to let these young guys know that this is the right decision for him and to show them that we're coming back and we're going to make sure this team wins because we care. We all have a lot at stake here and a lot of time invested in here. We've been around here long enough to know that good coaches come and go and there will be another good coach in here very soon."
SOPHOMORE DEFENSIVE TACKLE IAN SCOTT
How he first heard the news:
"I heard the news from a friend of mine who called me and told me that coach Spurrier was going to resign and then I turned on the TV and saw it there too. It was kind of hard to wait this long to hear it straight from coach."
When Spurrier addressed the team:
"When he told us, it just took all the wind out of me. We didn't know what was going on or what was happening so it was very shocking and kind of hard to not have any answers at the time. I don't think all the answers can be given until we can get somebody else in here and we can get working and get our minds focused on the task at hand. Right now we still have a lot of uncertainty and there is a lot of work that has to be done to get ready for next season. It seems like all the coaches that recruited me are gone now. You have to be able to adjust.
Looking to the future:
"Sometimes things just come your way that you just can't control, things that God puts in your way just to test your character so hopefully I can rise to the challenge and be able to handle this and get to work. We still have the goals of the team and the same guys here that want to win football games. I think that whoever comes in here is going to have the same objective.
Having had the opportunity to play for Spurrier as a Gainesville native:
"It seemed like when I was growing up that is all that you ever hear about was Spurrier. For a long time, you didn't really hear that much about the players. It was cool getting to meet him for the first time so that you could see how he was. He was this guy that you wanted to play for and it's going to be a change not to be able to have him around.
What the team has to do now:
"I think the challenge for the players is to have the same respect and play just as hard for the next guy. It's just going to be a matter of who want's to get the job done and who is going to work the hardest to make sure we get that done. We have to make sure that we don't let something like this get us down as a program. We just can't let his legacy die. We can help that live on by continuing to play hard and win games. I never could have imagined playing for anyone but coach Spurrier so
