SEC commissioner bids Spurrier a fond farewell at Media Days
HOOVER, Ala. – Commissioner Greg Sankey, kicking off SEC Football Media Days for the second time since taking the reins from Mike Slive a year ago, said a fond farewell to Steve Spurrier on Monday.
Spurrier, of course, resigned as South Carolina last October and will not be a pivotal participant in Media Days for the first time since 2004, his final year away from the SEC before agreeing to take over the Gamecocks program.
Most of all, Sankey will miss Spurrier’s delightful wit, wisdom and wackiness during his annual mid-July rounds in front of the hundreds of media pundits at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham – The Wynfrey Hotel.
“We will miss Steve's unique football genius, and you will miss the entertaining quotes he offered annually at SEC Football Media Days,” Sankey said Monday during his State of the SEC speech Monday afternoon kicking off Media Days at Hyatt Regency Birmingham – The Wynfrey Hotel.
“Steve once said, ‘I don't want to coach too far into my 60s. By that time I'll be playing golf four or five times a week.’ Last week Steve and his wife, Jerri, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and he coached until he was 70. It is my hope he and Jerri enjoy all of the best and many, many rounds of golf.”
Spurrier, the winningest coach in Gamecock history (86-49 in 11-plus seasons in Columbia), stepped down after a 2-4 start last season and was replaced by interim head coach Shawn Elliott, who went 1-5 with several close losses over the second half of the 2015 schedule.
Including his 12-year tenure at Florida (1990-2001), Spurrier served as a SEC head coach for 23+ seasons as well in the USFL (1983-85), Duke (1987-89) and the NFL’s Washington Redskins (2002-03). Overall, he was a head coach for 31+ seasons.
NOTES
-- Sankey said the SEC expects legislation to be ready for the NCAA Convention in January that will lessen the time demands on Division I athletes. According to a July 7 press release, new rules will be proposed to “rebalance the student experience between athletics and campus life, providing students with more time to focus on other college interests, including academics, work experience, travel and additional rest.” One proposal dubbed ‘Flex 21’ would provide athletes with 21 additional required off days during the school year. Among the changes, travel days would no longer count as off days.
-- Academic progress in the SEC: In 2005, 47 athletic teams at the 12 member schools were below the APR line. Today, not a single program at any of the 14 member schools is less than 10 points above the APR minimum. Thus, no SEC athletic program is in danger of being sanctioned by the NCAA.
-- Sankey paid homage to the late Pat Summitt, who passed away recently. Summitt was Tennessee head women’s basketball coach for three decades and a key (perhaps the most important) figure in the rising popularity of women’s athletics over the past three decades: “Pat was a pillar of the Southeastern Conference. She's on par with many of the great names, may have set the standard for all of the great names that are a part of this conference. Her impact is felt every day in the lives of the young people she mentored. Their ongoing success is living proof of Pat's influence and truly positive impact of intercollegiate athletics.”
-- Sankey and the SEC unveiled a new slogan kicking off the 2016 season: “It just means more.”
-- The SEC Network televised over 1,600 live events in 2015-16, a sizeable increase over the network’s first year in 2014-15 when about 1,000 live events were televised.
-- Sankey on two SEC programs (including Ole Miss football) being investigated by the NCAA: “Our institutions are expected and will continue to handle these matters with integrity. We hope both of the current matters are completed in a timely manner. We understand there are issues that arise. That's why the expectation for integrity is so high. And as we move forward together, we can't have any more of those issues arise.”
-- Sankey has formed a working group led by Georgia president Jerry Moorehead to promote compliance with NCAA rules and meeting “the NCAA's expectations and how our athletics teams continue to succeed at the highest levels while avoiding integrity compromises that challenge our entire mission.”
-- Sankey on the new rule passed in Destin affecting the ability of SEC schools to accept a transfer with past misconduct problems: “Everyone in this conference must understand the high expectations for their conduct, and the high level of scrutiny their conduct brings. Young people need to understand the serious consequences associated with their behaviors, and our leaders need to make certain the laws and expectations of society are unquestionably followed.” Nonetheless, Sankey cautioned against “judging one's character on ten seconds of video.”
-- Sankey predicted about 125 current or former SEC athletes will participate in the Summer Olympics in Rio.
-- Sankey mentioned Gamecocks offensive lineman Mason Zandi, whose father fled Iran during the Islamic Revolution in the late 1970’s.
-- Auburn DL Carl Lawson on opening vs. Clemson after a disappointing 2016 season: “Last year has been the motivating factor for us because we didn’t like the way we played. We didn’t like our record last year. Every game next year is one game at a time same mentality. But last year has been the motivating factor for this team, to not repeat.”
