KNOXVILLE - Steve Spurrier helped build the Tennessee-Florida rivalry into one of September's marquee college football games, and though it's been 17 years since Spurrier roamed the Gators' sideline, he will still have an imprint on Saturday's meeting of the SEC East foes.
Nearly a decade ago, Spurrier took a chance on a strength and conditioning coach who is now playing a key role in Jeremy Pruitt's effort to rebuild the Tennessee program.
The early progress of that rebuild will be measured Saturday night when Tennessee (2-1) hosts Florida (2-1) at Neyland Stadium.
Craig Fitzgerald was four years in to overseeing strength and conditioning for 41 sports at Harvard when the strength coach position came open on Spurrier's staff at South Carolina after the 2008 season.
KNOXVILLE, TN - MARCH 20, 2018 - Director of Football Strength and Conditioning Craig Fitzgerald during Spring practice on Haslam Field in Knoxville, TN. Photo By Kyle Zedaker/Tennessee AthleticsFitzgerald pried Spurrier's phone number from a friend, called the coach and told him he could be at South Carolina that night for an interview.
"I was in there first and he hired me," Fitzgerald said. "I was really fortunate to get hired. I'm always grateful to him for giving me a shot."
A smile spread across Fitzgerald's face as he leaned forward on a chair inside his Tennessee office recently and recounted his interactions with Spurrier the day he learned he would be hired by a Southeastern Conference school.
According to Fitzgerald's memory, the conversation went something like this:
Spurrier: "Do you want the job?"
Fitzgerald: "Yes."
Spurrier: "Well, I didn't even tell you what you're going to get paid."
Fitzgerald: "Coach, I don't care."
Spurrier: "That's what I love about young coaches. They're cheap and available."
"That's what I was," Fitzgerald said. "I was cheap and available for South Carolina."
Fitzgerald is now one of the highest-paid strength coaches in college football, earning $625,000 annually to help the Volunteers do what the Gamecocks did during his three seasons there working for Spurrier.
South Carolina improved from 7-6 in 2008 to 11-2 in 2011 before Fitzgerald departed to work for longtime friend Bill O'Brien at Penn State.
Fitzgerald remained O'Brien's head strength coach for the last six seasons - two at Penn State and the past four with the Houston Texans - before his itch for college football grew too strong.
"I always felt like a minority up there in that there were 31 strength coaches that were like 'I hit the jackpot,' and I was like 'Man, I can't wait to get back to college,'" said Fitzgerald, who played tight end at Maryland from 1994 to 1996. "My wife was always like 'You're out of your mind. What is wrong with you?'
Soundcloud embed link:"It's a great quality of life; there's no recruiting. But I missed that developmental age."
O'Brien called Fitzgerald into his office on New Year's Day this year, which happened to be the NFL's "Black Monday" when coaches around the league are fired at the end of the regular season.
"I was rehired at Houston, which is good, because you never know when you're 4-12 who is going to get canned," Fitzgerald said. "Bill and I have been friends into two decades, but you just never know."
Fitzgerald told O'Brien that he wanted to come back but that he was also going to look at college opportunities.
"So I took a buddy out to lunch that day," Fitzgerald said. "I knew the Tennessee job was open, so I was talking to people about it - not anybody with any influence on it - just saying, 'Hey, what do you think? Who is going for that?' Just random thoughts.
"I'm out to lunch outside Houston. This guy pulls up, gets out of his car at the valet and he's wearing all Tennessee stuff. In Houston, right? I said, 'Hey, go Vols!' Me and my buddy were just messing around. The guy said, 'Go Vols!'
"I'm like 'How about that?' My buddy goes, 'That's a sign.' And I was like 'You're right. That is a sign.'"
Just as he did with Spurrier nearly 10 years before, Fitzgerald extracted Pruitt's phone number from a friend. Pruitt, busy pulling double duty as Tennessee's head coach and Alabama's defensive coordinator, suggested a meeting that weekend in Atlanta, site of the national championship game where the Crimson Tide would face Georgia.
"I said, 'Well, Coach, I can be in Tuscaloosa tonight,'" Fitzgerald said. "Jeremy said, 'You can?'
"So I called my wife. We paid for my own plane. I got to Birmingham, took an Uber from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa, met with him that night and then he called me the next morning."
The meeting went into the early hours of the morning.
"I told the Uber driver, 'I promise you, I'll make it worth your while.' He was listening to these calls that were going on in the car. And of course it's like it is here, where people love information. So I looked up from the phone and I'm like 'You've got to keep your mouth shut about this.' And he was like 'This is awesome, Coach.' He's like this 21-year-old guy. So I was like 'Go to Buffalo Wild Wings while I meet with Coach Pruitt, OK? I'll pay for your dinner; then when you get back I'll pay the Uber fare and give you 100 more bucks. Just shut up.' So he waited until about 3 in the morning.
"I got my flight out at 6. It was a fun night, and that kid is a good kid."
The same eagerness that helped land Fitzgerald his big break at South Carolina paid off again. It impressed Pruitt, who once showed up at the door of a high school coach he wanted to work for.
To be the best, you have to train with the best!@UTCoachFitz is making sure that Tennessee Football players have every tool they need to be successful.#PoweredByTheT pic.twitter.com/xFhDuzvYnR
— Tennessee Football (@Vol_Football) April 24, 2018
"I knew that based off just that meeting, his desire to be there, he was a guy that we wanted in the program," Pruitt said at a Nashville signing-day celebration this past winter.
Fitzgerald started his strength coaching career as a volunteer at NCAA Division III Catholic University before taking an assistant strength and conditioning position at Maryland. He said he and his wife dreamed about him making enough money to one day buy a house.
But simply being cheap and available - and aggressive - landed him in the SEC, where he finds himself again a decade later as the league's highest-paid strength coach.
"Obviously this is the premier college conference," he said. "But I heard a lot of great things about Coach Pruitt. A lot of it was Scott Cochran, the strength coach at Alabama. I called him and said, 'What do you think?' He said, 'This guy is a great coach. This guy is a tireless worker and one of the smartest coaches I've been around, and this would be a great experience for you.' He was very happy where he was, obviously.
"Then I talked to a few people on their staff that I've known for years. And then people on the outside, people I've known in the NFL that visit Alabama, visit Georgia, visit Florida State that had a connection with (Pruitt) because they were scouting or going to pro days. They said, 'Oh, yeah, this guy is all ball. He's a great football coach.'
"So I felt lucky to get a shot at getting in here."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.