Columnist Dean Juipe: Spurrier (and Zook) derailed

Dean Juipe

Friday, Nov. 29, 2002 | 10:43 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Think the University of Florida would like to have Steve Spurrier back as head coach?

Think Spurrier might wish he was back in Gainesville, too?

The answer would seem to be "yes" on both counts, what with Florida an uncustomary 8-3 heading into Saturday's game with Florida State and what with Spurrier's Washington Redskins a sorry 5-7 following a 27-20 Thanksgiving Day loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Once adorned with the flattering tag of "offensive genius" for his stylish play calling at Florida, Spurrier has been forced to take a far more conservative approach in his first season in the NFL. Yet he made the change with great reluctance and only after several of his players publicly criticized him just two weeks ago, most notably in last week's Sports Illustrated.

As they've noticed in both D.C. and Gainesville, Spurrier's vaunted "Fun 'N Gun" system of compiling yards and running up scores now seems to have been in vogue so very long ago. His replacement at Florida, Ron Zook, hasn't followed in Spurrier's footsteps and Spurrier himself has had a misstep or two in simply trying to replace the fired Marty Schottenheimer -- who was let go by Redskins owner Daniel Snyder after one 8-8 season.

Schottenheimer's team won seven of its last 10 games last season, but unless Spurrier's team does a quick reversal of its own his debut will go down as the most celebrated disappointment of the NFL season.

Thursday was another low ebb in that Spurrier, on the day he was hired, had promised Snyder a game ball after the Redskins beat the Cowboys. A good deal was made of that very fact this week and newspaper accounts of it were certainly up on the Cowboys' bulletin board.

Schottenheimer was let go, in part, because he couldn't beat Dallas, and Washington has now lost 10 straight to its leading rival. (The Redskins will get another shot at the 'boys in their Dec. 29 finale.)

Spurrier has to take his fair share of the blame for the latest loss, and not just because he let quarterback Danny Wuerffel throw three interceptions. With the game more or less on the line in that Washington had the ball near midfield with a little more than three minutes to play and facing a fourth and inches, Spurrier reverted to tricky at a crazy time. Instead of having running back Stephen Davis plow ahead for a foot, he called for a fake reverse and Wuerffel was sacked for a substantial loss.

In essence, the game was over.

Spurrier hasn't been associated with a losing team in a long time, or, to be precise, since his first team at Duke went 5-6 in 1987. His Florida teams were the envy of every college fan and the Gators came into this season as one of only two teams to have won at least nine games a year for the past 12 years. Moreover, Florida has finished in the top 15 in the AP poll for those same 12 years and has played in seven of the 10 most recent SEC title games.

But Zook hasn't done as well as his predecessor and Florida has lost to Miami, Mississippi and LSU with FSU (and a bowl game) still to come.

Smooth transitions? Neither Zook nor Spurrier has made one.

Revisionist history? Neither man can be too secure in the position he finds himself today.