ATLANTA – The Centennial Ballroom in the Hyatt Regency had broken into continuous cheers and chuckles Friday afternoon when South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier began to talk about today’s Southeastern Conference championship game against No. 2 Auburn.
Five times previously, Spurrier has exited this game a winner, but always before he was coaching the Florida Gators.
But six years ago, his two-year run with the Washington Redskins deemed a failure, Spurrier wanted one last chance to “be a part of a team. … And I really wanted to go somewhere that maybe had not won very much but had a chance to.”
To that end, he likes his Gamecocks a lot. Especially since they’re the first South Carolina squad to reach this game as SEC East champion.
But fairytales don’t always fare so well against freight trains.
“I thought our three-game winning streak was pretty good,” Spurrier told the crowd of more than 1,200. “At least I did until I noticed Auburn is on a 12-game winning streak.”
It should be noted that the past two seasons have seen 12-0 records shattered in this game. An undefeated Alabama lost on this weekend in 2008 to a once-beaten Florida team headed for its second national championship in three years. Last year the Crimson Tide got revenge for that loss by knocking off the undefeated Gators.
Alabama also entered this game with a perfect record in 1994 and left with a loss to Florida. So perfection going in hardly means perfection going out.
Nor is Auburn your classic undefeated team. Four times this season the Tigers have trailed by at least 10 points. Eight times in 12 starts they’ve been behind.
Or as Auburn coach Gene Chizik – like Spurrier, a Florida grad – noted as laughter filled the room: “We certainly make games interesting. There is no doubt about that.”
There also is little doubt that the near-certain Heisman Trophy winner will wear Auburn blue and orange, quarterback Cam Newton now officially eligible to play per an NCAA ruling.
Not that either side is discussing the odd decision this week to make Newton double-secret ineligible Tuesday before restoring his eligibility Wednesday.
Spurrier said his Gamecocks haven’t paid any attention to it, which makes them the only college football fans in the country who haven’t.
Chizik said he wanted to talk about games only, and Newton has starred in 12 of those, though the player hasn’t talked about any of them in nearly a month as speculation swirled about his father shopping him to both Mississippi State and Auburn for more than $100,000.
Newton has maintained he never knew about papa Cecil’s scheme, which is why the NCAA apparently is allowing him to play.
As for the Heisman, which Spurrier votes on as a past winner (1966), the Ol’ Ball Coach is playing coy.
“Cam Newton will certainly get one of my votes,” he said. “You get three. I’ll keep secretive what order they’re in, OK? It’s a secret vote. But I think he deserves the Heisman, no question.”
A single quote to show how closely Spurrier can follow these postseason awards: When someone asked him Friday if the reason the Gamecocks were in the title game was mainly due to freshman running back Marcus Lattimore, the coach said, “Alshon Jeffery, who was just named a first-team All-American [by the American Football Coaches Association] has been pretty important, too.”
Yet what is most important is who wins this afternoon in the 19th edition of a game that Spurrier joked “I wasn’t even sure was legal” when former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer first staged it in 1992, Spurrier’s Gators losing to eventual national champion Alabama in a 28-21 classic.
Now it’s not only legal but consistently one of the three or four most-watched games of the entire season, leading all television ratings last year.
But can it send an undefeated Auburn on to the BCS title game or will it propel 9-3 South Carolina to an improbable Sugar Bowl as the SEC champ?
Said Chizik of the Tigers’ terrific season to date, recalling three straight narrow wins over Mississippi State, Clemson and South Carolina (35-27) early in the season: “At that point, we knew we needed to get a lot of things fixed on offense and defense. But we also knew we had a team that would fight and a team that would play hard for 60 minutes, so we knew we had a chance to be a really good football team.”
By early this evening we’ll know if the Tigers really are good enough to improve to 13-0, or if they’ll be the third straight school to enter the title game with no losses and leave with one.
I’ll go with Auburn, 34-28.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6273.