When you’re the winningest coach at two different SEC football programs, you can say what you want, when you want. And for Steve Spurrier, his legendary status as the king of one-liners and unfiltered opinions reverberated again this week when he questioned Arch Manning’s status as the Heisman frontrunner ahead of the 2025 season.
If you were expecting a love letter to the Manning family, it was never going to happen from the former Florida coach.
It might not have been his favorite dig, but the Old Ball Coach’s “you can’t spell Citrus without U-T” at a Gators booster function in 1997 was a public slam of Tennessee, led then by quarterback Peyton Manning. The two previous seasons, Spurrier and Florida trounced the Vols, keeping them out of the national championship picture.
Tennessee went 45-5 under Phil Fulmer from 1995-98 with three of those losses coming against Spurrier. And during Manning’s tenure, the Vols were winless, including a 33-20 setback his senior season despite a 353-yard, three-touchdown performance.
“It bothers me that we never did beat Florida, but hey, I can’t control the way other people view Tennessee or view my career,” Manning said after the loss. “I’m sure Coach Spurrier will go make a few more jokes. That’s fine. He’s got a good ballclub.”
Twenty-eight years later, Spurrier’s infamous cut has surfaced again in a different light, but around those same rivalry parameters. Arch Manning, the nephew of Peyton and Eli, enters his first season as the Longhorns’ starter this fall as a former top-ranked recruit in the country with considerable hype for one of the nation’s playoff title contenders.
He redshirted during the 2023 season and played behind Quinn Ewers last fall, showing off in spot duty and in two starts…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/steve-spurrier-revives-long-held-manning-fixation-with-half-baked-swipe-at-arch/
Author : Brad Crawford
Publish date : 2025-06-25 14:31:00
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