ESPN: Why did Steve Spurrier fail in NFL?

[NC_Skins]

College football - Unhealthy culture contributed to Steve Spurrier's failure in NFL - ESPN



Pretty good read and interesting. Can't say that I'm shocked to see some of these things. Hope our owner never gets involved with making draft picks again. **** him.

But several games into his first season with the Redskins, Spurrier was playing rookie quarterback Patrick Ramsey even though he didn't want to. Owner Daniel Snyder had pushed to draft Ramsey in the first round.

"Because Spurrier was so hands-off on defense, it got to the point where guys on defense were doing whatever the heck they wanted to do," Hasselbeck said. "You had LaVar Arrington freelancing and Jeremiah Trotter doing his own thing. I think they even tried to bench Bruce Smith at one point because he wasn't the same player, but [Smith] went above Spurrier and started the following week.

[donofriose]

So basically he was a typical college coach that could control the lives of 20 year old students but not the lives of 30 year old men. That is usually why college coaches fail in the NFL, cause you can't control a nfl player like a college player.

[53Fan]

I'm not sure any coach would have succeeded with this organization at the time...but I don't think Spurrier was prepared to coach an NFL team either. No discipline..inexperienced coaches etc. A bad situation all around.

[GoSkins!]

To much ego, to little work ethic.

[Chico23231]

More about the Snyder and Vinny's dumbass football decisions than Spurrier coaching...but the mix of the two were lethal. But yet we continue the same coctail of ingnorance and stupidty under Snyder, Vinny and Zorn.

Glad its all in the past. I still pull for Spurrier at South Carolina.

[NC_Skins]

Originally Posted by 53Fan

I'm not sure any coach would have succeeded with this organization at the time...but I don't think Spurrier was prepared to coach an NFL team either. No discipline..inexperienced coaches etc. A bad situation all around.

I agree. Even with the best GM and personnel guys, Spurrier would have failed because he didn't adapt or game plan all that well.

[MTK]

He didn't want it bad enough and he was woefully underprepared.

[NC_Skins]

Ross Tucker tells hilarious Steve Spurrier stories - DC Sports Bog - The Washington Post

Came across this old gem about Spurrier too. LOL Good stuff. So glad we don't deal with this kind of Mickey Mouse crap anymore.

[SmootSmack]

This is right in my wheelhouse. Believe I've shared many of these stories over the years here

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

This is right in my wheelhouse. Believe I've shared many of these stories over the years here

any favorites you like to humorous with?

[irish]

In college the talent mis-matches are so big that a lot of times any scheme will work. Spurrier was so used to having much better talent than his opponent that he took it for granted and assumed it was his schemes that were making the difference. He never realized it wasnt the schemes but the superior talent that made him look so good. As we all know everyone in the NFL is good and its the schemes and attention to detail that matter. Spurrier never figured that out.

I'm not surprised special teams are mentioned as something OBC didnt care about. When you are crushing Cupcake U by 40 missing a field goal in the 4th quarter doesnt matter. In the NFL its the difference between winning and losing.

[53Fan]

Originally Posted by NC_Skins

Ross Tucker tells hilarious Steve Spurrier stories - DC Sports Bog - The Washington Post

Came across this old gem about Spurrier too. LOL Good stuff. So glad we don't deal with this kind of Mickey Mouse crap anymore.

Sounds like it would make a great movie. Comedy of course. My God what a joke we use to be.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by donofriose

So basically he was a typical college coach that could control the lives of 20 year old students but not the lives of 30 year old men. That is usually why college coaches fail in the NFL, cause you can't control a nfl player like a college player.

I remember Spurrier saying one time something like he was surprised he still had to hold a grown mans hand and tell him what to do like a child. Seems he expected pros to act like pros and not needing their hand held for everything.

[Daseal]

I'll say this, everyone knows I'm a Spurrier fan. I was disappointed with his tenure here, but he clearly had a lot stacked against him in DC. He was putting up more PPG with his absolutely pathetic roster than Gibbs did with a much better roster. I wonder what would have happened if he went to a program with a real front office. He did an okay job scheming up ways to get points with subpar talent. Better suited for an O coordinator position.

[SmootSmack]

Players lazy in meetings:http://www.thewarpath.net/redskins-l...tml#post524128

Spurrier didn't give a damn who was playing defense. He couldn't name more than two or three players on defense without a script in front of him.

Under Spurrier, meetings where chaotic and no one was held accountable. Ladell Betts on multiple occassions would doze off and call people on his cell phone. Rod Gardner would do the same. Heck he called me once during a meeting. Players were regularly late to meetings. No one was ever held accountable. Under Gibbs (granted I wasn't actually there for Gibbs, I left right before) there was accountability and an understanding of the consequences of not being responsible. Not in terms of fines but in terms of the respect of your colleagues and the effects on the field.

For all intents and purposes, the true head coach that first year was Marvin Lewis. He was the leader of many meetings, he knew both the offense and defense.

As for player acquisitions and personnel, Snyder just gave Spurrier whatever he wanted, with the occasional minor disagreement. But it was such a joke because Spurrier never attended any personnel evaluation meetings, he would vacation at the start of free agency. You know how most coaches, Gibbs for example, call up a potential free agent, fly out to see him, fly him in to Redskins Park, etc., Spurrier couldn't even be reached by phone during the first days of free agency. The whole Jetskins ordeal of 2003, there was no rhyme or reason to that. That was just Dan and Vinny (mainly Dan) scrambling to do something based on the offense Spurrier said he needed.

That was pretty much the last straw. Snyder wanted Spurrier to succeed, for selfish reasons as well. But changes were ready to happen the next offseason. I believe it would have started with putting Cerrato in charge of the football operations, and responsible for the roster. The same way he is now, but five years earlier. But when Spurrier quit, and Gibbs came aboard, VC took a back seat.

In short, there was no sense of responsibility under Spurrier and he constantly skipped out on important meetings and off-season decisions. It was every man for himself in the locker room. There was no "team"

Snyder and Ramsey: http://www.thewarpath.net/redskins-l...tml#post824076

Not to sidetrack this conversation, but that's not exactly true about #1. Regardless of what Snyder told the WaPo Magazine. Ramsey was not their first choice. Choice #1. Heck 1-3 was Joey Harrington. They tried desperately to move up to get him. When that option failed, they decided they would sit at #18 and wait to see if Donte Stallworth fell to them. When that didn't happen is when they mobilized a trade down with the Patriots to get Ramsey and add picks later in the draft. He can say he "discovered" Ramsey (whatever that means) and that Ramsey was the guy they wanted. But I can tell you first hand it was really Joey Harrington all along. Why do you think they were so close to trading Ramsey to the Bears before he even took a snap with the team?

Bruce Smith: http://www.thewarpath.net/redskins-l...tml#post609354

Bruce Smith did worse than go to Dan Snyder, he (and Fred Drasner) used to go to Snyder's father and had Snyder's father berate Dan Snyder for not seeing to it that Smith got more playing time

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