Steve Spurrier
Steve Spurrier
Stephen Orr Spurrieris a former American football player and coach, having served as the head coach of three college and two professional teams. Spurrier was also noteworthy as a standout college football player, and he spent a decade playing professionally in the National Football League. Spurrier retired from coaching in 2015 and now serves as an ambassador and consultant for the University of Florida's athletic department...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth20 April 1945
CountryUnited States of America
We felt like Blake is much better prepared mentally, physically. He's had an excellent summer working out, and it's clear to all of us here that he's our best guy to go out there. So when it's obvious, we've named him the starter. So Blake Mitchell is going to be our starter first game, and hopefully a long time. We'll go from there. Back-ups we don't know yet, we're trying a lot of guys right there. But Blake's earned it and he's our starter.
What we know about them is they had a tough, struggling year last year, but that year is history.
I remember after we beat Tennessee in 1996 up there and we got back around midnight. We went to Nappy's and watched Arizona State beat Nebraska. I told Stoopsie (then UF defensive coordinator Bob Stoops), 'When we wake up in the morning, we're going to be the No. 1 team in the country.'
I was watching him call plays, ... I said, 'That's a fun way to call it.' You go back and throw one 60 yards downfield. If you don't hit it, who cares? You're going to run it for the next play and you get to stay on the field. We're not near in that category.
It wasn't real pretty for the offensive guys, so we'll regroup, watch tape and see if we can get better.
I told him, if you've got the deep third (of the field to cover), you can't break on that throw, even though you're watching the quarterback,
I was watching him call plays. I said, 'That's a fun way to call it.' You go back and throw one 60 yards downfield. If you don't hit it, who cares? You're going to run it for the next play and you get to stay on the field. We're not near in that category.
They've behaved well and the focus has been pretty good.
Oh, that's a secret, a little secret, ... Nah, we're breaking the balls in. They're all brand new and slippery as can be. Like a watermelon seed when they bring them out of the box. So you try rubbing them in the dirt, the grass, put a little sweat on them. You try everything to get where you can handle them.
If you want to read about some full-blown fights, read about the Tennessee players, not our guys.
The way our pass protection is right now, I don't know if Blake could last anyway.
Shows you how alert we were as a team. It was sad.
I thought Blake played very well for his first performance, and, really, for any performance,
He's a big target and catches everything. As a quarterback, those are the guys you like. He's got a chance to help us win big around here and has a chance to break some records because we're going to be firing.