Steve Spurrier on Florida State recruiting in the 90's: 'I hate to say it but no one was looking over their shoulder about the rules'

Former Florida coach Steve Spurrier usually doesn’t pass up an opportunity to take a shot at one of the Gators’ rivals. So it wasn’t surprising to see his comments on Florida State in a recent article from The Athletic.

Reflecting on the recruiting battles he had with the Seminoles in the 1990s, Spurrier admitted that Florida was “probably out-recruited.” However, he also accused FSU of cheating to get some of those players.

“When we were going up against them, they were an independent school so, I hate to say it, but nobody was looking over their shoulder about the rules and all this, that and the other,” Spurrier said. “We’d bring some recruits in and their moms would say, ‘Coach, your parking lot of cars don’t look near as good as those up at FSU.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I know. That’s just the way it is right now. That’s all right.’ So they probably out-recruited us a little bit back in the ’90s, and of course Miami was down there recruiting very well back then, also.

“But we got our share. We had a good bunch of guys.”

It wasn’t just on the recruiting trail that Florida State got the best of Spurrier. In his 12 seasons in Gainesville, the coach had a 5-8-1 record against the Seminoles.

Still, Spurrier had plenty of moments to celebrate against Florida State as well. That included a win against FSU in the 1997 Sugar Bowl to claim Florida’s first national championship. He ended his career with the Gators with a 122-27-1 record and six SEC titles in addition to that championship.

Steve Spurrier recalls losing out to Tennessee on Peyton Manning

It wasn’t just Florida State that Spurrier suffered some tough losses to in recruiting. The coach also recalled recruiting future NFL legend Peyton Manning to Gainesville in the early 1990s.

Of course, Manning would ultimately go on to sign with Tennessee and put together an incredible four-year career with the Vols. In the end, it worked out for the Gators as they already had Danny Wuerffel, who led them to the championship in 1996.

“Peyton came in and … in fact, he came in the same weekend Kirby Smart came in,” Spurrier said. “They sort of palled around together, I learned later. But anyway, so then the next, oh, Tuesday or so, our recruiting coach came in and he said, ‘Coach, Peyton Manning’s going to Tennessee.’ And I looked at him and I said, ‘You know what? Tennessee is probably the best place for him to go because we’ve got Danny Wuerffel, and we had another kid here named Eric Kresser.’

“I’m glad it worked out that way because Peyton had a great career. And I’d say Danny Wuerffel had a pretty good one, also.”