Sidelines
reader writes: Which Spurrier is
coaching UH?"Why?" (Readers often write in quotation marks.) "Unless he wasn't making enough and did not have a long-term, no-cut contract with the UH. He'd have to put up with the pampered idiots on the field and egomaniacal owners. Plus he could be dumped for whatever reason, as many are, due to the fickleness of management. He was there before and left. It makes no sense."
I agree. On paper, a move to the NFL makes no sense for June Jones. It's out of the question. Jones should stay here and coach at UH. No contest. No-brainer. He's got at least a five-year cushion, his situation is cushy, he's Big Man On Campus. The BYU game alone is worth a year or two of public support.
He's got the closest thing a coach has to job security.
He's hot.
Sure, college coaches get fired. But in pro football, ALL coaches eventually get fired. And fast. And they roast you alive first. You end up looking like Jimmy Carter during the Iranian hostage crisis.
Ryan Leaf and Randy Moss will do that to you.
No, on paper, Jones should turn his back on the NFL forever, sign the deal, become Joe College. This is the good life. Only a complete fool would fall back into that nest of vipers.
But wait. Just look over to Florida, to the evil genius, the offensive mastermind, the mastermind of offensiveness, to the great Visored One, to the curious case of our friend, Steve Spurrier.
Spurrier is that rare coach who will never get fired. He is bigger than that. He is the king. He makes millions. He brags. He boasts. He golfs. He says anything he wants. He does anything he wants. He has everything he wants.
His life as a college coach is perfect.
And yet he chose the vipers.
Which brings us to another comment from a reader:
"Kalani: Please help me with some information if you can. June Jones is looking for upgrades in the program and facilities. Can you tell me what he is looking for? I'm curious."
Easy. Follow the flying visor.
Jones wants a program like Florida's. That's the model. That kind of atmosphere, support, momentum, machismo, power, football-runs-the-show, devilish run-it-up fun. He wants to be the boss, the Man, the mastermind, the Big Gator.
He wants to be Steve Spurrier.
That's exactly what he wants. And he just might get it.
If they get this deal done, if he stays a while, if the overall commitment is there, if the offense continues to click, Jones just might become the next (slightly more diplomatic) Steve Spurrier.
If that's enough.
But if Spurrier could give it all up for the pros, anybody could. Spurrier had roots that went deep. If you cut him, it came out orange and blue. He could have retired at Florida. He could have died at Florida.
"I'm a Gator," Spurrier said in his farewell release, "and will be for the rest of my life."
Now he's gone. Off to the NFL. Why? Why, indeed.
And so now the question is: Is Jones the next Steve Spurrier?
Or the next Steve Spurrier?
Kalani Simpson's column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays.
He can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com