Steve Spurrier has a message for you: Coaches know more about their teams than you do.
More specifically, he has a message for South Carolina's "The State" columnist Ron Morris. In a recent column, the ever-arrogant Morris announced that either Spurrier start junior quarterback Stephen Garcia, or "by midseason, USC again will be saying, 'Wait 'til next year.'"
Apparently, Morris's comments did not sit well with the Ol' Ball Coach. When Morris asked him about his expectations for the upcoming season, Spurrier snipped, "I was going to defer that question to you. You know more about them than I do. By the way, I wanted to ask you who you wanted to play at right guard this game. Got any ideas?"
Point, Spurrier. And because The Visor never misses an opportunity to run up the score, he later used a question about rotating quarterbacks to pile on.
"I know that some of you here know a lot more about coaching quarterbacks than I do. You're not supposed to jerk 'em in and out of the game. It hurts their feelings," Spurrier said. "But of the eight conference championships that I've been fortunate enough to coach, four of those eight we used two quarterbacks."
Game, set, match. Spurrier can still employ sarcasm with the most elite coaches in the game. His mediocre record with the Gamecocks, however, leaves one wondering just how much rope he should be given to mock skeptical sportswriters.
Morris, though presumptuous, is paid for his opinion, and coaches do often have a penchant for making stupid decisions. Grady Little didn't pull Pedro Martinez in Game 7. Marty Mornhinweg chose to kick off in sudden-death overtime. Al Groh was, well, Al Groh. These coaches are paid millions of dollars to make the right choices, so surely they can be second-guessed when they don't.
For every instance of idiocy, however, there is an instance of genius. Dean Smith gave the last shot to a freshman Michael Jordan. Earl Weaver moved Cal Ripken, Jr. to shortstop and Ed Barrow moved Babe Ruth to the outfield.
The media and fans also are far from infallible. Draft guru Mel Kiper lauded Ryan Leaf as a "very ... grown up 21-year old." Analyst Beano Cook predicted Ron Powlus would win two Heismans. Eagle fans booed the selection of Donovan McNabb.
And the less important the sport, the more out of line fans become. Take my high school tennis team, for example. Tryouts include a round robin to seed players followed by a full winner and consolation bracket tournament to determine rankings. Sure, it's 100 degrees in South Carolina in August, and nobody wants to play about 100 matches against their own teammates. But it's necessary because it's fair, right?
Wrong. When you are Tennis Parent, life is only fair when it goes your way, and when your daughter finishes 10th on the team, it can't be because there are nine better players. You are therefore morally obligated to take matters into your own hands, storm into our practice and throw an angry tirade about how you will have the volunteer coach fired.
Worse still is Little League Parent. The majority of Little League parents are perfectly lovely people. There is always that one, though, who is going to berate the volunteer coach because he didn't put his kid on the All-Star team. The poor coach is just a dad trying to bond with his son and impact a new generation of baseball players. Yet he's the one criticized, even though Little League Parent's kid is inevitably the one who hasn't scared the Mendoza line all season and would much rather just play video games.
Surely those unpaid coaches have every right to use the "Who should play right guard?" retort.
By virtue of their paycheck, professional coaches merit more scrutiny. These coaches, however, also spend their lives around a team, and consequently know much more than we ever could.
Our fallibility, however, rarely stops us from offering our insight. I questioned Ray Tanner's inclination to bunt all the way until his Gamecocks won a College World Series. It is human nature to question coaches - it makes us feel involved in sports we otherwise can't control. We follow a team like we are a part of it, so we like to be included in the decision-making process. It is almost as if it's owed to us.
So can Steve Spurrier legitimately rebuke Ron Morris for offering an opinion? Spurrier's Gamecocks backed him up, opening the season with a 41-13 rout of Southern Miss. Spurrier primarily used one quarterback, though - Stephen Garcia, just like Morris suggested.
I like to think that Spurrier always knew he was going with Garcia, and just wanted a chance to call out sportswriters. After all, it's only fair that if we get to take shots at coaches, they get to take shots at us, too.
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