Spurrier Made the Right Call - Butch Just Outcoached Him

[dyer_maker]

It all made no sense. Why not try it a third time to see if he got yet a different defensive look? We've all collectively seen a lot of football over the years. Please explain where we've ever seen that before.

Prior to that possession we punted and the crowd collectively booed, however it was the right call by Butch. The right call was to save the timeouts and punt it back to us. We're assuming the outcome would have been the same regardless. Keeping those timeouts and using them would have changed the tempo, likely forced us to kick a longer FG and at least given them a chance for their offense to win it.

 

[alaVOL]

Now wait. 97-99 are really the only years you can argue that we were more talented than Florida.

Maybe that's true, however we were close enough in talent to be there in the end when so many times we folded like a cheap tent. Spurrier went for the win always. How many LONG 4th downs did he routinely make against us when they didn't have to go for 4th downs? Fulmer played it close to the vest most of the time and the Ole ball coach always had his foot on the gas.

 

[sjrobert]

If it had been another team with another defense, Spurrier's play may have very well worked and been hailed as "brilliant".

And, it is easy to think of "another team with another defense scenario" where Spurrier's tactics probably would have succeeded, before the last two debacle coaches were hired.

 

[VolNMO]

Honestly though, I would have been really nervous with SC going for it. Miles would have had a good shot at picking up two.

This ^
Miles can get hit behind the line and carry five guys for 5 yards. I was so glad they punted!

 

[orangeluvr]

Spurrier's two timeouts in the game last Saturday have been talked about repeatedly on VN, ESPN, and sports talk radio. By almost unanimous opinion, everyone has agreed that Spurrier made an inexplicably dumb coaching move.

When I was watching the game, I had the same view. South Carolina's defense held Tennessee's offense to points in the second half (prior to the winning drive). UT couldn't get anything going at all, so why not punt the ball on 4th & 2 and leave the game to your defense? After all, if UT couldn't move the ball, the worst thing SC could possibly do is give UT the ball on the 26 yard line. At that range, it was basically no worse than a 50-50 shot for the Vols. If the Vols could push 5 or 6 yards forward, it would probably be more like a 70-30 shot.

Yet, the more I think about it, the more I come to conclude that Spurrier made the right call. There's a reason why he's Steve Spurrier and one of the greatest college football coaches of all-time. Spurrier is a master tactician. That doesn't mean he's always right, but the guy understands football strategy.

Answer this question: how many times in college football have you seen a team drive for a game winning touchdown or field goal, with less than two minutes to go? I've been watching college football regularly since about 1990, and I can remember it happening dozens of times. It's not that unusual for a team that's offense can't seem to do anything all day, to suddenly make the game-winning drive when everything is on the line.

Spurrier is smart enough to know this. He knows you never want to leave your fate hanging with the opposing team's offense. Even though all logic says you punt it on 4th and 2 at your own 26, Spurrier knew that if he got one more first down, it was game over, and the Gamecocks would have a "W".

Yet, Spurrier is not stupid enough to go "balls to the wall" in that terrible situation. Rather, he wanted to call a quick play, see the Tennessee defense, and if things played out as he wanted them to, he'd run the play and hopefully grab the first.

Except it didn't work. Our guys had the perfect defense called. Spurrier retreated and came out with another idea. Our guys called the perfect defense once again, forcing Spurrier to retreat a second time.

After that, Spurrier had no choice. He had to punt it and he was down to one timeout. It's true that having three timeouts would've helped him conserve clock, but it's also true that Tennessee would've likely scored a touchdown in that event.

UT would've gone up either 26-21 or 28-21 (depending on the two point conversion). Then Spurrier would've ended up with no more than 45 seconds (at most) to charge down the field, with a backup quarterback who had barely been in the game, with ZERO timeouts. Those aren't great odds.

All in all, I'd completely disregard the idea that the extra timeouts would've helped Spurrier that much. Whether Spurrier made the right call is certainly debatable, but what's not debatable is that the exact thing that Spurrier likely feared (a dormant offense suddenly comes to life in the last few minutes), did occur.

This is why Spurrier planned to go for it on 4th & 2 on his own 26. In one sense, it was the right call. It just didn't work, because Butch & Co were one step ahead of "The Ole' Ball Coach." If it had been another team with another defense, Spurrier's play may have very well worked and been hailed as "brilliant".

After thinking it through, I think Spurrier made the right call. Butch & Co simply out-coached him. That's an encouraging sign for the future.

No one is perfect including steve superior . Nice post. :good!:

 

[omghulkhands]

I just assumed Spurrier was not actually trying to run a play, but rather to line up in an offensive set....catch UT unprepared ......in turn causing us to burn a timeout of our own and thus having fewer timeouts for a game winning drive.

I think it was actually a really smart move by Spurrier, it just didn't work out.

 

[Wylo]

.

 

[DiderotsGhost]

Spurrier is no more than a good coach and that's it. He never was and never will be a great coach. No one needs to argue this point otherwise I will drop the history on him. Bottom line is that the game has passed him by and immediate future should be retirement. Don't believe the talking heads when they lay praise on him. Facts are facts. South Carolina is losing money him but then again they are desperate for any coach with a perceived name. GO VOLS

No, Spurrier wasn't a "great coach" --- he merely revolutionized the college football offense, turned Duke (frickin' Duke!) into a winning program, turned an SEC also-ran into a national power, won a national championship and 6 SEC titles in 12 years at Florida, and then in his old age, turned a crap South Carolina program into a top 10 program. Oh, and he might've amassed a career record of 213-79-2, with the majority of those wins coming in the best conference in college football, as well.

 

[Vol Catdaddy]

Spurrier is no more than a good coach and that's it. He never was and never will be a great coach. No one needs to argue this point otherwise I will drop the history on him. Bottom line is that the game has passed him by and immediate future should be retirement. Don't believe the talking heads when they lay praise on him. Facts are facts. South Carolina is losing money him but then again they are desperate for any coach with a perceived name. GO VOLS

i don't care for Coach Spurrier no more than the next vol fan, but to marginalize his coaching career to just being and not great isn't smart as a vol fan. He was the envy of all coaches in his hay day and in his present able to bring sce to heights it has never had. I remember him putting 89 on the vol with a young peyton manning . the ole ball coach was and is a great coach. Put him back with florida and see what happens.

 

[Clemvolsince54]

Originally Posted by clemvol View Post
Spurrier is no more than a good coach and that's it. He never was and never will be a great coach. No one needs to argue this point otherwise I will drop the history on him. Bottom line is that the game has passed him by and immediate future should be retirement. Don't believe the talking heads when they lay praise on him. Facts are facts. South Carolina is losing money him but then again they are desperate for any coach with a perceived name. GO VOLS

No, Spurrier wasn't a "great coach" --- he merely revolutionized the college football offense, turned Duke (frickin' Duke!) into a winning program, turned an SEC also-ran into a national power, won a national championship and 6 SEC titles in 12 years at Florida, and then in his old age, turned a crap South Carolina program into a top 10 program. Oh, and he might've amassed a career record of 213-79-2, with the majority of those wins coming in the best conference in college football, as well.

This

Dang when I saw clemvol post I was afraid that I did that post in my sleep.

 

[DownTheField]

tl;dr

but, on the basis of the thread title, i'd say you're wrong... i'm pretty sure Spurrier's decision was novel not because he's brilliant, but because it was stupid... next you're gonna tell me how brilliant it is to punt on third down

 

[NashVOL93]

I was shocked he didn't go for it. Mike Davis is a hell of a back and would surely have picked up the first down. I actually turned around to where my old man was sitting and said "watch him go for it, this is classic Spurrier".

Even with the OBC not going for it, the breaks had to go our way in a manner they haven't in a long time for us to come out of that game with a W. If North doesn't come up clutch on that 3rd and 10, we're done for.

 

[livefaith]

Spurrier is no more than a good coach and that's it. He never was and never will be a great coach. No one needs to argue this point otherwise I will drop the history on him. Bottom line is that the game has passed him by and immediate future should be retirement. Don't believe the talking heads when they lay praise on him. Facts are facts. South Carolina is losing money him but then again they are desperate for any coach with a perceived name. GO VOLS

My Lawd. No one needs to argue the point? lol:

"Facts are facts" huh? Well, did you see the condition of Duke (who beat UT in Neyland), the condition of UF, and the condition of USC ... BEFORE Steve Spurrier arrived. USC was not as dire, but the guy has vaulted up ever college program he's been at.

I hope you're joking or just trying to troll.

 

[livefaith]

And, it is easy to think of "another team with another defense scenario" where Spurrier's tactics probably would have succeeded, before the last two debacle coaches were hired.

No doubt. Ole Chavis would have called time out twice and had the Mustang package in there. :crazy:

Wow, what planet do the Chief haters come from. Did you actually witness anything from 1995-2008? No, we were not undefeated and unscored on. But our defense was rarely the problem during that time.

Do you realize that Fulmer got fired, yet had a top ranked SEC defense that season? Did you not see Chief get hired instantly by a NC coach and top SEC program? Have you not watched LSU's D for the past 4 years?

I (and about 99 D1 programs) would take that guy as a DC!

 

[Reivax26]

Fulmer is 2nd on the all time wins list behind only General Neyland himself. He was the coach of the last National Championship team at UT and recruited some of the best players to ever wear orange.

So yeah, he's a great coach for what he accomplished at our university.

 

[knoxvols11]

Spurrier was just being spurrier. He's always done quirky stuff (punt on 3rd and 6).

 

[clemvol]

Well, well, sounds like we have lot of spurrier lovers around. You know 1 national championship doesn't make you a great coach. If so then we need to put Phil Fulmer in this class. With Tennessee not being able to beat florida does not make the opposing coach great. Turning around a duke team in the extremely weak acc dos not make you a great coach. When spurrier was coach was a florida there were only 2 maybe 3 teams that were good on a constant basis. Since spurrier has been a south Carolina the only reason he's had a decent to good team is that the rest of the east has been down. His record for bowl games are 9 wins and 10 losses. I cant think of one quarterback from his college teams that are or will be all pros in the NFL. These are the players he has direct influence over. His coaching record in the NFL is awful. His stats as a player in the NFL are awful. If you have to base everything on records then you have to say Pete Carroll is a better coach than spurrier. So,before anyone gets mad and thinks a Tennessee fan is in envy of this guy everybody needs to thank their lucky stars that he never coached at Tennseess. I mean, he even believes that college players need to be paid. How stupid is that? But, this is another story for another day. I said it before, the game has passed spurrier by. He needs to retire and quit taking college football programs money for a job that is not being done. GO VOLS

 

[sjt18]

Spurrier said he was going to go for it. He wanted UT to show him the alignment with the first TO. UT then changed their alignment into something he didn't expect so he called the second TO and ultimately decided to punt rather than put the O out there again.

Spurrier was definitely a great coach at Duke and UF. He DID revolutionize the game. To his great credit, he understands that if you don't evolve then yesterday's "revolutionary" is tomorrow's "used to be". Unfortunately for him, he either has not been able to get the players or else find a new "thing" to take his current team back to the level of his 90's UF teams.

He's no more an "great" coach right now than Fulmer was from around 2002 til his firing. His schtick had gotten old too... he just didn't have the wisdom to try and change soon enough.

 

[sjt18]

Fulmer is 2nd on the all time wins list behind only General Neyland himself. He was the coach of the last National Championship team at UT and recruited some of the best players to ever wear orange.

So yeah, he's a great coach for what he accomplished at our university.

Fulmer had two careers at UT. The first one ran from his hiring until around 2002... but you could really say the second career started with his hiring of Sanders as OC and his ultimate decision to stick with his incompetence due to personal loyalty.

From 92 to 98, CPF was 67-11 for a 85.9% win percentage. If I am not mistaken, he only lost once or maybe twice to an unranked team. From that point on, he was 85 and 41 (67.5%) presiding over a program in obvious decline that posted two losing records. In his last 3 seasons he had 11 SEC losses with 7 by 2 TD's or more. He had a total of 7 SEC losses in his first 6 seasons plus the 4 games in 92. Only 3 were by more than one score.

Fulmer had his time but was not wise enough to figure out that it couldn't last if he didn't change. I personally knew it was over for him when he began to tell reporters that "we have won a lot of games around here doing it the way we do it so we aren't going to change now". Simply put... the game passed him by.

 

[MikeVol44]

Spurrier's two timeouts in the game last Saturday have been talked about repeatedly on VN, ESPN, and sports talk radio. By almost unanimous opinion, everyone has agreed that Spurrier made an inexplicably dumb coaching move.

When I was watching the game, I had the same view. South Carolina's defense held Tennessee's offense to points in the second half (prior to the winning drive). UT couldn't get anything going at all, so why not punt the ball on 4th & 2 and leave the game to your defense? After all, if UT couldn't move the ball, the worst thing SC could possibly do is give UT the ball on the 26 yard line. At that range, it was basically no worse than a 50-50 shot for the Vols. If the Vols could push 5 or 6 yards forward, it would probably be more like a 70-30 shot.

Yet, the more I think about it, the more I come to conclude that Spurrier made the right call. There's a reason why he's Steve Spurrier and one of the greatest college football coaches of all-time. Spurrier is a master tactician. That doesn't mean he's always right, but the guy understands football strategy.

Answer this question: how many times in college football have you seen a team drive for a game winning touchdown or field goal, with less than two minutes to go? I've been watching college football regularly since about 1990, and I can remember it happening dozens of times. It's not that unusual for a team that's offense can't seem to do anything all day, to suddenly make the game-winning drive when everything is on the line.

Spurrier is smart enough to know this. He knows you never want to leave your fate hanging with the opposing team's offense. Even though all logic says you punt it on 4th and 2 at your own 26, Spurrier knew that if he got one more first down, it was game over, and the Gamecocks would have a "W".

Yet, Spurrier is not stupid enough to go "balls to the wall" in that terrible situation. Rather, he wanted to call a quick play, see the Tennessee defense, and if things played out as he wanted them to, he'd run the play and hopefully grab the first.

Except it didn't work. Our guys had the perfect defense called. Spurrier retreated and came out with another idea. Our guys called the perfect defense once again, forcing Spurrier to retreat a second time.

After that, Spurrier had no choice. He had to punt it and he was down to one timeout. It's true that having three timeouts would've helped him conserve clock, but it's also true that Tennessee would've likely scored a touchdown in that event.

UT would've gone up either 26-21 or 28-21 (depending on the two point conversion). Then Spurrier would've ended up with no more than 45 seconds (at most) to charge down the field, with a backup quarterback who had barely been in the game, with ZERO timeouts. Those aren't great odds.

All in all, I'd completely disregard the idea that the extra timeouts would've helped Spurrier that much. Whether Spurrier made the right call is certainly debatable, but what's not debatable is that the exact thing that Spurrier likely feared (a dormant offense suddenly comes to life in the last few minutes), did occur.

This is why Spurrier planned to go for it on 4th & 2 on his own 26. In one sense, it was the right call. It just didn't work, because Butch & Co were one step ahead of "The Ole' Ball Coach." If it had been another team with another defense, Spurrier's play may have very well worked and been hailed as "brilliant".

After thinking it through, I think Spurrier made the right call. Butch & Co simply out-coached him. That's an encouraging sign for the future.

Simply stated, he should have punted the ball without wasting timeouts. In Baseball you never want to allow the tying or winning runner on the bases, especially in the 8th or 9th inning--and in football you never want to GIVE your opponent the ball in your territory when a field goal beats you.

Since the 'ol ball coach is not a Prophet--no way he could foresee Worley's perfect throw and North's amazing catch (and his DBs obvious, but uncalled pass interference).

I do not know what he was thinking--and I did watch his post-game presser, but I believe that the ultimate deciding factor was not our Defense or our coach, but was the injury to Connor Shaw. If Shaw isn't hurt, the 'ol ball coach may really go for it and in all likelihood succeeds in getting the first down.

If he fails and we kick a field goal, he still has time on the clock to get into a situation to win with a field goal. Once again--all of that is predicated on having a HEALTHY Connor Shaw.

However, does anyone really have a clue what goes through the mind of Spurrier over the course of a game?

I'm just glad we got the big W as wins against the 'Ol ball coach have been few and far between for the VOLS. Like him or hate him--he just wins a whole lot more than he loses in college FB. :salute:

 

[MikeVol44]

Well, well, sounds like we have lot of spurrier lovers around. You know 1 national championship doesn't make you a great coach. If so then we need to put Phil Fulmer in this class. With Tennessee not being able to beat florida does not make the opposing coach great. Turning around a duke team in the extremely weak acc dos not make you a great coach. When spurrier was coach was a florida there were only 2 maybe 3 teams that were good on a constant basis. Since spurrier has been a south Carolina the only reason he's had a decent to good team is that the rest of the east has been down. His record for bowl games are 9 wins and 10 losses. I cant think of one quarterback from his college teams that are or will be all pros in the NFL. These are the players he has direct influence over. His coaching record in the NFL is awful. His stats as a player in the NFL are awful. If you have to base everything on records then you have to say Pete Carroll is a better coach than spurrier. So,before anyone gets mad and thinks a Tennessee fan is in envy of this guy everybody needs to thank their lucky stars that he never coached at Tennseess. I mean, he even believes that college players need to be paid. How stupid is that? But, this is another story for another day. I said it before, the game has passed spurrier by. He needs to retire and quit taking college football programs money for a job that is not being done. GO VOLS

You're just a dern idiot!

Spurrier and his Gators accomplished a number of memorable feats during his twelve seasons in Gainesville (1990–2001), including:

Won one national championship (1997), and played for another (1996).[3]

Won six SEC championships (1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000).[3]

Named SEC Coach of the Year five times (1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996).[3]

First Heisman Trophy-winner to coach a Heisman Trophy-winner (Danny Wuerffel).[3]

Won at least nine games in each of his twelve seasons, one of only three coaches in major college history to do so.[3]

Averaged more than ten wins per season.[3]

Ranked in the final top fifteen in each of his twelve seasons, including nine top-ten finishes, five final top-five rankings, and an average end-of-season ranking of 6.8.[3]

Appeared among the top twenty-five teams in the weekly polls 202 of a possible 203 weeks, including each of his last 202 consecutive weeks. The Gators were ranked number one in the polls twenty-nine times, appeared among the top five team for 117 weeks, and among the nation's top ten teams for 179 weeks.[3]
Appeared in a bowl game in each of his last eleven seasons, one of only five schools to do so during the same time period.[3]

Only coach in major college history to win as many as 120 games in his first twelve seasons at one school (an overall record of 122–27–1, with a winning percentage of .8167).[3]

One of only two coaches in major college history to win ten or more games in six consecutive seasons (1993–1998).[3]

Only college football team to score at least 500 points, including bowl games, for four consecutive years (1993–1996) since the NCAA began keeping statistics in 1937.[3]

Career college record of 213-79-2.

Has taken a perennial .550 program (USCe) and led them to a 71-39 record (.645).

I am certainly a VOL fan--maybe the only one--who would have welcomed Spurrier to the Big Orange Nation in a heartbeat!

Hate him or not--whether he's eccentric or not--He's one of the BEST NCAA coaches to have ever walked the sidelines and has earned his respect as a coach. :salute: GO VOLS!

 

[clemvol]

No hate on spurrier just know he is no better than average, that's all. As a Tennessee fan I understand that some want to be "personally correct" and I guess its good for some peoples feelings to want to be warm and fuzzy. But the reality is you need to get what you pay for and again if the SEC East had not been down for the last several years then spurries team would be no better than 4th place and that's a fact.

 

[GetEmVols]

No hate on spurrier just know he is no better than average, that's all. As a Tennessee fan I understand that some want to be "personally correct" and I guess its good for some peoples feelings to want to be warm and fuzzy. But the reality is you need to get what you pay for and again if the SEC East had not been down for the last several years then spurries team would be no better than 4th place and that's a fact.

Did this post make you feel warm and fuzzy?