News Flash: Old-School Steve Spurrier still has hope for New-School Billy Napier

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks for Steve Spurrier. He joined an exclusive group of “Distinguished Americans.” He made headlines for sounding like countless Florida football fans.

Spurrier received the Walter Camp Award last weekend at Yale. It goes to someone who, among other things, “has been dedicated to the preservation of American ideals.”

For someone who has enough awards to stock a museum (or restaurant), this one was special.

“It’s pretty neat,” Spurrier said. “It doesn’t necessarily go to a coach or football player.”

It’s probably the first award he has shared with showmen like Regis Philbin and Bob Hope. Of course, Spurrier has always been pretty entertaining himself. That brings us to the headlines.

“Steve Spurrier: ‘There’s a feeling around the Gators of ‘What the heck are we doing?’”

“Steve Spurrier calls out Florida head coach Billy Napier”.

“At Florida, even Steve Spurrier questions Gators’ Billy Napier. Uh-oh”.

Spurrier did do all that, though the headlines make it sound as if he’s ready to join the Napier firing squad.

Hold the bullets.

“I’m not trying to be negative,” Spurrier said. “The bottom line is we’ve had three straight losing seasons. Man, they were ready to run me out of here when we were something like 9-2 and didn’t win the SEC.”

The past is Spurrier’s frame of reference. That’s natural when you’re 78 years old and are constantly celebrated for things you did decades ago.

But one thing has not changed. Spurrier despises losing, whether it’s football or golf or which restaurant sells the most chocolate chip cookies.

That’s why he’s had a bad case of football indigestion the past few years. Nobody has suffered the Gators’ crash more than the man who made the program soar.

The Marshall Plan: Florida football CB Jason Marshall Jr. on why he came back, importance of Miami game

March Madness: NCAA selection committee might have sabotaged the greatest show in women’s hoops history

Receiving the Walter Camp Award made Spurrier reminisce about a speech 35 years ago. He’d just been hired at UF, and Ray Graves introduced him to the Tampa Gator Club.

“Steve may never win an SEC championship here,” Graves said, “but he’s going to bring fun and excitement to Florida football.”

That didn’t sit well with the guest of honor.

“I love you,” Spurrier told Graves. “But I’m not here to bring fun and excitement to Florida football. I’m here to win the SEC.”

That mentality was not Florida’s mentality, but Spurrier’s changed the program into his image. Among the traits was unvarnished honesty. So when Gene Frenette of the Florida Times-Union asked him about the state of Napier’s program, Spurrier stated the obvious.

He questioned the special teams gaffes and killer penalties. He wondered what the massive support staff was doing.

Every Florida fan has been saying that. But it’s news when The Head Ball Coach says it.

Spurrier didn’t mean to cause a headline-driven kerfuffle, but he can’t help himself. Ask him a question, you’ll get an answer.

He is instinctively puzzled why Florida’s football operation needs 60-plus employees. Spurrier had a 27-member support staff when UF won the 1996 national championship, counting the chaplain and head of security.

“I would not want that many people around because I don’t know what all they do exactly,” he said. “But if (Napier) thinks that’s going to help him win, he’s got a right to have all those people.”

Fact is, every big-time program has loaded up on analysts, nutritionists, scouts and recruiting specialists. In the crazed NIL/Portal world, head coaches have become more CEOs than guys drawing up ball plays.

Walter Camp wouldn’t recognize it. Spurrier barely does.

“Off-season stuff, transfer portal and all that stuff,” he said. “I don’t think I would have enjoyed it that much.”

That added to the sense of disenchantment in Spurrier’s initial comments. But he wants people to know he was talking about what has been. Not – he hopes – what will be.

“We’ve got a lot of new players, maybe it’ll make a difference,” he said. “We’ve got to be optimistic.”

As such, Spurrier predicts the Gators will win at least three more games than most people expect.

“Eight-and-four,” he said, “And win a bowl game.”

Now that would make headlines. And nobody would savor them more than Steve Spurrier.

David Whitley is The Gainesville Sun's sports columnist. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DavidEWhitley

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Steve Spurrier isn't giving up on Florida football's Billy Napier, yet