Interesting and entertaining thoughts by Spurrier
GAINESVILLE — Steve Spurrier is no longer coaching in the SEC, but his words still carry weight in a league he ruled during the 1990s.
Spurrier’s quick lip was at the ready when asked about Texas and Oklahoma pushing to join the nation’s top football conference. The two schools applied this week for SEC membership in 2025.
“I can understand Texas jumping over,” Spurrier said. “They get to play Texas A&M again. They get to … they can’t win the Big 12 anyway.
“I think they’re only won two in the last 30 years or so. What is it?”
The Longhorns have won three Big 12 titles since 1996, the year Spurrier coached the Gators to their first national title in football. Texas last won the Big 12 in 2009 and since Mack Brown left the school in 2013 has had three head coaches, the latest being Steve Sarkasian.
Sarkasian, the offensive coordinator for Alabama’s 2020 national title team, will be eligible for the inaugural Steve Spurrier Award. Created by the Football Writers Association of America and announced this week, the award will honor the top first-year coach at a new school.
Whatever happens in 2021, based on the current timeline Sarkasian will have time to prepare for his SEC return. But Spurrier wonders even then whether the Longhorns be ready for the rigors of facing Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, Auburn and other top programs in the conference.
Oklahoma’s decision to leave the Big 12 is even more baffling to the Head Ball Coach, winner of six SEC titles during 12 seasons at UF. The Sooners have won six straight Big 12 titles, a run of success even SEC standard-bearer Alabama cannot match within the conference ranks.
“I’m sort of surprised Oklahoma,” Spurrier said. “I just don’t think they’re going to come over to the SEC and win with any regularity the way that they win the Big 12. Their fans might say, ‘Yeah, now we can beat Alabama and LSU and all these dudes.’ It may not happen like that.
“I don’t know. It’s obviously more money.”
What is certain to the 76-year-old Spurrier is the remaining eight members of the Big 12 are the real losers.
“I feel sorry for the other schools, Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, all those guys, because they obviously need those two schools there,” Spurrier said of Texas and Oklahoma. “It (the move to the SEC) looks like it’s going to happen. Maybe it will work out for the best.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at
GAINESVILLE — Steve Spurrier is no longer coaching in the SEC, but his words still carry weight in a league he ruled during the 1990s.
Spurrier’s quick lip was at the ready when asked about Texas and Oklahoma pushing to join the nation’s top football conference. The two schools applied this week for SEC membership in 2025.
“I can understand Texas jumping over,” Spurrier said. “They get to play Texas A&M again. They get to … they can’t win the Big 12 anyway.
“I think they’re only won two in the last 30 years or so. What is it?”
The Longhorns have won three Big 12 titles since 1996, the year Spurrier coached the Gators to their first national title in football. Texas last won the Big 12 in 2009 and since Mack Brown left the school in 2013 has had three head coaches, the latest being Steve Sarkasian.
Sarkasian, the offensive coordinator for Alabama’s 2020 national title team, will be eligible for the inaugural Steve Spurrier Award. Created by the Football Writers Association of America and announced this week, the award will honor the top first-year coach at a new school.
Whatever happens in 2021, based on the current timeline Sarkasian will have time to prepare for his SEC return. But Spurrier wonders even then whether the Longhorns be ready for the rigors of facing Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, Auburn and other top programs in the conference.
Oklahoma’s decision to leave the Big 12 is even more baffling to the Head Ball Coach, winner of six SEC titles during 12 seasons at UF. The Sooners have won six straight Big 12 titles, a run of success even SEC standard-bearer Alabama cannot match within the conference ranks.
“I’m sort of surprised Oklahoma,” Spurrier said. “I just don’t think they’re going to come over to the SEC and win with any regularity the way that they win the Big 12. Their fans might say, ‘Yeah, now we can beat Alabama and LSU and all these dudes.’ It may not happen like that.
“I don’t know. It’s obviously more money.”
What is certain to the 76-year-old Spurrier is the remaining eight members of the Big 12 are the real losers.
“I feel sorry for the other schools, Kansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, all those guys, because they obviously need those two schools there,” Spurrier said of Texas and Oklahoma. “It (the move to the SEC) looks like it’s going to happen. Maybe it will work out for the best.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at
