What kept Steve Spurrier from winning more than 1 national title at Florida?

Great topic... hard to believe he only had 1.

In the 90s, Miami won one and played for another. FSU in 1993. Nebraska had the next two then Florida got theirs. Then Tennessee and FSU again. So two teams in their state, one in their division, and another from their conference won it all during his time. Throw in Frazier and Nebraska in the middle of it all.

His 2001 Florida team was his best. Played Tennessee late in the year because of 9/11 in an all time regular season game and lost.

I don’t thank they would’ve beaten that 2001 Miami team.

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I know FSU was a great team in the 90’s and Miami to some extent but for such a storied and accomplished coach, hard to believe that 1996 was his only championship.

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The single biggest reason was going 5-8-1 against FSU, which included going winless in Tallahassee. All 8 FSU teams he lost to finished Top 4, which is absolutely nuts. FSU also gave UF their 2nd loss (in the final regular season game) 5 times. Bowden ruined lives and is realistically responsible for numerous domestic violence incidents in Alachua county. We’re biased to recent memories of how average they were at the end of Bowden’s career but in their prime FSU were absolute titans. Unfortunately for HBC that prime essentially perfectly overlapped with his UF tenure. They realistically kept him from at least 1 more title

Overall 17 of his 27 total losses were to teams that finished Top 5. They won a lot of Top 5 matchups too but FSU and 1-3 very good SEC teams every year is tough sledding when you have to be near perfect in the Bowl Coalition/Alliance/BCS era. 1 ding either ended your title shot or gave you no more room for error

Also while 1 title in 12 years seems low, most legends with multiple titles coached way more than 12 years

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Also, I thought he would have been more successful in the NFL. Maybe he went to the wrong franchise and could have been better elsewhere.

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Fun n gun at UF relied heavily on talent superiority (particularly at receiver) and getting players into space that simply does not exist against NFL defense speed and awareness. He didn’t instill any locker room discipline or know how to manage professionals. He also clashed on personnel decisions with the FO and Snyder a lot. And played way too much golf in a league where coaches sleep at the team facility half the time. Just a bad fit all around for the NFL

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QB talent. If we're picking between danny wuerfel and rex grossman as your best QBs, you've left something to desire.

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Gino Toretta, Shawn Jones, Jay Barker, Brian Griese, Tee Martin, Josh Heupel, Chris Weinke, and Ken Dorsey all won national titles during Spurrier’s tenure at UF. I don’t think QB talent was the issue.

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QB talent. If we're picking between danny wuerfel and rex grossman as your best QBs, you've left something to desire.

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You mean Heisman winner Danny Wuerfel and runner up Rex Grossman?

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QB talent. If we're picking between danny wuerfel and rex grossman as your best QBs, you've left something to desire.

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Huh? Wuerffel was a Heisman winner and Rex almost won it in 2001. Shane Matthews was SEC Player of the Year twice. All three were fantastic college QBs.

Florida was in the national title conversation almost every year and they lost some tough games to damn good teams during that era. Suggesting that a lack of QB talent prevented Spurrier from winning more is unfair IMO.

Recruiting. He coached em up way better than Bowden, but Steve was a shite recruiter. He couldn’t do the religious, fill in father sales pitch to the single mommas.

Spurrier would constantly cry about cheating, but the reality was he just wasn’t built to recruit at an elite level.