CFB AM: Disgusted Steve Spurrier ditches presser after zero questions

Published Nov. 2, 2014 10:15 a.m. ET

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Teddy Mitrosilis

Week 10 wasn’t a good one for South Carolina and head coach Steve Spurrier.

The Gamecocks lost at home, 45-42, in overtime to drop to 4-5 (2-5 SEC) on the season.

They couldn’t stop Vols QB Josh Dobbs, who accounted for 467 yards of total offense and five TDs.

After the game, Spurrier was understandably frustrated and sick of his team’s performance. So instead of talking about it, he walked out after a few comments and taking zero questions.

“I don’t need to take any questions,” Spurrier said. “You guys watched it, and I need to just get out of here.”

Here’s a transcript of Spurrier’s entire press conference courtesy of Aaron Brenner:

For the real Spurrier, we have video:

This kind of thing doesn’t bother me much at all; coaches get frustrated and it happens. The only thing that isn’t cool about it is Spurrier left his quarterback, senior Dylan Thompson, to stand in front of the media and represent the school by taking every question. Spurrier is the one paid $4 million per year to do that and therefore should meet his obligations.

THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. The anticipated best game of Week 10 – No. 3 Auburn at No. 4 Ole Miss – did not disappoint a bit. The only unfortunate thing was the heartbreaking fashion in which it ended. Auburn won, 35-31, to improve to 7-1 (4-1 SEC) and move another step closer to returning to Atlanta and the SEC title game, while Ole Miss drops to 7-2 (4-2) and watches its College Football Playoff dreams all but come to an end.

For the Tigers, the usual guys came up huge. Nick Marshall went 15-of-22 for 254 yards and two TDs (one pick), while adding 50 yards and two scores on the ground. RB Cameron Artis-Payne racked up 143 yards and a TD. WR Sammie Coates hauled in five catches for 122 yards and a touchdown. Was it the most explosive version of Auburn’s offense we’ve ever seen? No, as the Tigers had “only” 507 total yards and hurt themselves with 13 penalties, but Gus Malzahn was still pretty excited and encouraging his offense to push the tempo.

The tough part of the loss for Ole Miss is that the Rebels played well. The offense lost two fumbles, but QB Bo Wallace was terrific – the total opposite of himself last week at LSU – completing 28-of-40 passes for 241 yards and two TDs (no picks!), while adding 61 yards and a TD on the ground. In fairness, those rushing numbers are highly misleading, as Wallace had a 59-yard run and then some more modest gains to offset negative plays. But still, Wallace’s performance left some Auburn fans without words.

The Rebs’ receivers were monsters, with Evan Engran catching eight passes for 123 yards and a TD and Vince Sanders adding six catches and 105 yards of his own. The tragic part of this game was Laquon Treadwell, a phenomenal player who had a superb game (10 catches, 103 yards, one TD) until his final play of the night. Down four with less than two minutes, he caught a screen at the Auburn 20 and took it for what appeared to be a score. Now two things: 1) The officials called it a TD on the field, then reviewed it and saw he fumbled before breaking the plane and Auburn recovered; 2) Treadwell was taken down from behind and ended up fracturing his left fibula and dislocating his ankle, which will require season-ending surgery. Ugh.

Now all that’s left for Ole Miss is the Egg Bowl, writes Hugh Kellenberger. Malzahn will spend the upcoming week cleaning up the penalties before a meeting with Texas A&M, writes Brandon Marcello.

2. Now for the Outcome Nobody Ever Saw Coming of Week 10: Florida crushed No. 11 Georgia in the Cocktail Party, 38-20, giving Will Muschamp a hugely important victory and perhaps the faintest hope of keeping his job. I still think it’s much too early for that kind of talk – the best case scenario for this season is 7-4, which comes with a mediocre bowl -- but we can’t underscore how big this win was for the Gators. Sure, they pulled off a fake field goal for a TD, but they beat the Bulldogs by mostly just smashing them.

Florida asked freshman QB Treon Harris to make only six passes and instead ran it 60 times with Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor turning in beastly performances. Each had 25 carries, with Jones piling up 192 yards and two TDs and Taylor adding 197 yards and two scores of his own. In total, the Gators averaged seven yards per carry against a UGA defense that entered the week ranked 11th in the country in rushing D at 3.04 yards per attempt allowed. This was a total annihilation of Georgia’s D-line.

QB Hutson Mason did some things for the Dawgs, completing 26-of-41 passes for 319 yards and a TD with no picks, but UGA’s attack has quickly become too reliant on freshman RB Nick Chubb, who’s a superb player. Chubb ran for 156 yards and a TD on 21 carries and was also two yards from being UGA’s leading receiver on the day, catching five balls for 59 yards and another TD (Michael Bennett caught six for 60). This beautiful TD run represents Chubbs’ talent – the vision, the agility to make that cut, the burst to the corner, the power to break tackle and plow into the end zone. Watch – he’s remarkable.

But he needs help, and finally the ghost of Todd Gurley came back to haunt Georgia. The suspended star running back will return on Nov. 15 against Auburn, and we all assumed Georgia would go 4-0 in its games without Gurley, but Florida ruined those plans and flipped the balance in the SEC East.  Missouri, with one conference loss that came by getting crushed at home to UGA, now sits alone atop the division and can reach the SEC title game if it wins at Texas A&M, at Tennessee and home against Arkansas. That’s doable, although I’ll say one of those teams gets the Tigers (give me the Vols at home). Unless two-loss Georgia finds its way to Atlanta and dominates the West representative, and there’s more chaos around the country, its playoff hopes are done too.

Last thing: Here’s the hilarious reaction from Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel when being informed after the game that UGA lost to Florida and his team now leads the division (if you can't hear it, click the 'X' over the audio icon in the bottom-right corner).

3. Beyond Auburn-Ole Miss, many of us were looking forward to No. 7 TCU at No. 20 West Virginia, and that didn’t disappoint either, the Horned Frogs escaping, 31-30, on a last-second field goal. West Virginia had plenty of chances to win this game but probably didn’t deserve it, with its five turnovers to TCU’s two and overall neutered offensive approach. WVU ran the ball 54 times – eight more than its season average entering the game – which probably had to do with the wet and blustery conditions. QB Clint Trickett went only 15-of-26 for 162 yards and one TD with two picks. Miscommunication on special teams that allowed TCU to recover a kickoff untouched didn’t help.

We have to give TCU’s defense so much credit. After we spent a week kissing the cheeks of new OCs Doug Meacham and Sonny Cumbie – rightfully so -- because their unit dropped 82 on Texas Tech last week, it was head coach Gary Patterson’s, and DC Dick Bumpas’, guys who stole the show. Those five turnovers aside, they limited All-America candidate Kevin White to three catches for 28 yards, and while Mario Alford did record 79 yards and a TD, that’s considered a quiet game in Dana Holgorsen’s offense. On a night when QB Trevone Boykin wasn’t at his best, the Frogs got 105 yards and two TDs from RB B.J. Catalon and a badass performance from the D.

TCU now sits alongside Baylor as the one-loss teams in the Big 12, and they’re looking up to Kansas State, which is perfect in the league but now begins its death march: at TCU next week, at West Virginia and then at Baylor to end the season after a game at home against Kansas. The Big 12 is about to get incredibly fun, and it’s already been awesome.

THREE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

1. Anyone who thought Oregon QB Marcus Mariota needed to beat Stanford to somehow erase some blemish that would have been left on his remarkable career can now sleep soundly knowing he’s done that, as the Ducks crushed the Cardinal, 45-16, up in Eugene. Mariota went 19-of-30 for 258 yards and two TDs (one pick), while adding 85 yards and two TDs on the ground.

A good sign for the Ducks, who at 8-1 (5-1 Pac-12) are in complete control of the Pac-12 North: While freshman RB Royce Freeman made a significant impact, averaging 5.2 yards on 19 carries (98 total) and adding 52 yards in the pass game, sophomore Thomas Tyner came alive and added some spark. Tyner got 10 carries and turned them into 63 yards and two TDs, including one on this beautiful spin move:

The only interesting question left for the North division is who Oregon will face out of the South in the Pac-12 title game.

2. I’m interested to see how the playoff committee handles Mississippi State this week. Yes, the Bulldogs won to move to 8-0 (5-0 SEC), but the 17-10 victory at home over Arkansas wasn’t impressive. The Hogs held RB Josh Robinson and QB Dak Prescott to 125 yards combined on the ground, which is a massive victory for Arkansas’ defense, and forced the Bulldogs into three turnovers (two coming via Prescott picks). Give Miss. State credit for handling an Arkansas run game that has just mauled people this season. Alex Collins had 93 yards and a TD on 16 carries, and Jonathan Williams had 47 yards on 15 carries.

If you’re the committee, though, do you leave MSU in the No. 1 spot simply because it won? I agree, for the Bulldogs’ sake, the only thing that matters is surviving and advancing. But one-loss Auburn, sitting at No. 3, has the most impressive resume to date with wins against LSU, at Ole Miss and at Kansas State. The hang-up there is Miss. State handled the Tigers when they faced off.

Elsewhere in the SEC: Myles Garrett set a new SEC record for sacks as a freshman, breaking Jadeveon Clowney’s previous mark of eight. Garrett has 11 sacks on the season for Texas A&M, with three games (and a bowl) to play. It’s not unfathomable at all for him to double Clowney’s record.

3. There were a couple fun late Pac-12 games that many of you probably didn’t see because they ended well beyond midnight in the East. No. 22 UCLA knocked off No. 12 Arizona at home, 17-7, with a fantastic defensive effort and monster performance from QB Brett Hundley – 19-of-26 for 189 yards and one TD, along with 131 yards on the ground. The Bruins also limited Rich Rod’s explosive Arizona offense to 2.6 yards per rush and 3.6 yards per pass. Hundley’s lone TD pass tied him with Cade McNown for the all-time school record in TD passes at 68.

In the other big Pac-12 game, No. 14 Arizona State beat No. 17 Utah in overtime, 19-16, to take control of the Pac-12 South. So here’s where we stand in the division: ASU is first at 7-1 (5-1 Pac-12), followed by USC, UCLA, Arizona and Utah all with two conference losses. The Sun Devils host No. 10 Notre Dame next week, which is huge for their playoff resume but doesn’t affect their Pac-12 standing, and then finish with at Oregon State, home against Washington State (which lost QB Connor Halliday for the season with a broken leg) and at Arizona. Win out, and ASU plays for the Pac-12 title and likely a spot in the playoff.

Quietly, the Bruins are in good spot, with the tiebreaker over ASU and USC still ahead on the schedule. UCLA doesn’t hold the tiebreaker against Arizona or Utah, though.

THREE THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO KNOW

1. Who knew Maryland-Penn State would become our next great rivalry! OK, maybe that’s a little much. But the two schools have been trading public barbs about controlling recruiting territory ever since Maryland joined the Big Ten, and in their first meeting, the Terps won 20-19 in State College. Really, the only thing you want to know from this game is Maryland did this at the pregame coin toss:

Oh damn. Not very sportsmanlike, but secretly coach Randy Edsall had to like the edge and tone that brought to a massive road game for his team (he apologized for the act after game, saying that’s not how he wants his team to be, yada, yada).

2. I’m not including No. 13 Baylor’s 60-14 whipping of Kansas here because that’s of any importance. I’m including it because we were then treated to this strange and awkward postgame press conference in which QB Bryce Petty answered every question with, “Ready for OU.” So, yeah. The Bears play in Norman next weekend in a game that has lost some luster due to Oklahoma’s struggles but is still vital for Baylor to keep pace with the winner of the TCU-Kansas State game.

3. Pitt had a chance to beat Duke at home but didn’t because, in part, a kicker named Blewitt missed a field goal. You really can’t make sports up.

LASTLY

* This is an incredible catch by a Northwestern receiver that’s worth looking at a few hundred times in slow motion.

* Congrats to Michigan, which deserved its 34-10 win over Indiana after all the hell its football program has been through this season and the forcing out of AD Dave Brandon this week. The turnover isn’t over in Ann Arbor, but at least Wolverines fans can talk about football for once.

* An Army band member had a hilarious Halloween costume – he turned his trumpet into a human leg.

* It’s not often you see the hidden ball trick outside of baseball, but here is Indiana State giving it a try on kickoff return.

Have a great Sunday, all. Hope you enjoyed Week 10.

Teddy Mitrosilis is an editor and writer for FOXSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TMitrosilis and email him at tmitrosilis@gmail.com.

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