Steve Spurrier Fires Back at Ron Morris

Every Thursday night during football season, Steve Spurrier has a radio-call in show that gives him a forum to talk about the week’s upcoming football game, talk about how the football team is doing, and generally answer questions from fans. It’s not usually very newsworthy, as the usual comments about how the football team is doing aren’t exactly “news”.

Spurrier changed that last night.

During the show, Coach Spurrier went off on a little soliloquy about winners and losers. He specifically mentioned that there was a certain journalist in Columbia that was a “loser” and an “enemy”. Coach Spurrier never mentioned the journalist by name, but everyone knows that he was referring to Ron Morris of The State newspaper. At one point, Coach Spurrier quoted Attila the Hun. Here's what Coach Spurrier said that I want to get into:

"If Mike McGee (former USC athletics director), when he hired me, he would have said 'Steve, we're gonna give you a chance to run the football program at South Carolina, you hire your coaches, do your thing, but there's one thing you gotta put up with, the local media will try to trash you, they'll try to ruin your reputation, they'll try to portray you as a mean, evil, self-serving person.' And, I would have said, 'well you give that job to somebody else, I'll wait for the North Carolina job to open.' which was opening the next year. But, I'm glad it worked out."

"That is not part of being the head coach at any university, is to be the target of the newspaper to give a guy who obviously has an ax to grind. I'm not that mad at the guy. The guy is who he is, we all know who he is."

"But we need to make some changes and I really believe between President Pastides and the guy that runs the newspaper, that some good changes are coming forth and I encourage the people that canceled their subscriptions last year, when some of this crap started last year, to give the newspaper and our university a chance. I believe that our city is going to be better off."

Mr. Morris and Coach Spurrier have been in a feud of sorts ever since Mr. Morris wrote a column stating that Coach Spurrier “poached” Bruce Ellington from the basketball team and convinced him to play football. Coach Spurrier took exception to that characterization, and feels that he has been accused of dishonest conduct. Given the connotation of the word "poaching", I can't say that I blame him.

I thought the feud had reached the high point last season when Coach Spurrier actually refused to continue with a press conference while Mr. Morris was still in the room. Last night may have marked the beginning of the end of the feud. I'm all for having a strong, vibrant newspaper - but that's not what we have right now.

I don’t know what this all means exactly, but it sounds like the University is backing up Coach Spurrier on this issue. I know that Mr. Morris is in the business of writing controversial columns that generate page-views and circulation, but there’s a difference between writing an opinion and misstating facts that impugn someone’s character. Also, simply trolling the football program to get internet traffic isn’t exactly a great business model, and it should be beneath the dignity of our newspaper. It’s bush-league.

It’s fine for the newspaper to criticize the coach when he deserves it, give him praise when he deserves it, and offer insight into the sports program. I would welcome that. But that’s not what we have. Our local newspaper seems to perpetually criticize the football program, and doesn’t offer any great insight.

Heck, I don’t even go to The State for sports coverage anymore. It’s just not that good. In any event, there should be some sort of shake-up with either how USC Football is covered by The State. Maybe the end result could be some good journalism.