Weekly meeting with reporters thrown into chaos
South Carolina football, and its head coach, made national headlines hours before quarterback Stephen Garcia's dismissal from the program was even announced Tuesday.
Steve Spurrier's weekly press conference devolved into the theater of the bizarre just moments after it started when Spurrier announced he would not speak until Ron Morris, the longtime sports columnist at The State newspaper in Columbia, left the press room.
The Daily Gamecock is a commercial printing client of The State newspaper.
"This has been weighing on me, on my chest, and I'm getting it off my chest right here today," Spurrier said.
Spurrier never mentioned Morris by name, but several times gestured in Morris' direction, referring to what he called "a negative guy ... that tries to hurt our football program," and said he would no longer "help" Morris out by answering questions while he was present.
"That's my right as a head coach," Spurrier said. "I don't have to talk to him, and I don't have to talk to him when he's in here."
With that, Spurrier left the room to speak to television stations in the hallway, saying he would return to speak with the remaining print and internet reporters, presumably after Morris left the room.
But when Spurrier returned, Morris remained in the room with reporters. Spurrier then left the room again, inviting reporters to his office after he finished an interview with 107.5 FM in Columbia, which holds the broadcast rights to USC sporting events and simulcasts Spurrier's press conference weekly.
Eventually, multiple outlets, including The Daily Gamecock, met with Spurrier in a conference room inside the football office suite. Morris was not present.
Morris is the second sports writer Spurrier said he has had to "disassociate with" in his 26 years as a head coach. Morris has written numerous columns critical of Spurrier, and Spurrier said he was "OK" with that. But Spurrier said he objected to the column Morris wrote about men's basketball point guard Bruce Ellington's decision to join the football team.
"I just don't like stories that aren't true," Spurrier said. "And last spring, he wrote a story about me recruiting Bruce Ellington, and luring him away from the basketball program; raiding and jilting (men's basketball) coach (Darrin) Horn."
The Morris column, published in The State on March 25 of this year, said Spurrier and the football program "poached" Ellington, who starred in football at Berkeley High before only playing basketball as a freshman. Spurrier Tuesday said the story was "completely fabricated."
"That's the only thing I ever take exception with sportswriters," Spurrier said. "When they write stuff that isn't true. I didn't talk to Bruce Ellington until after he had met with coach Horn and he came over here. It's a completely untrue story."
Morris told The Daily Gamecock he stands by the story and had no further comment.
The other writer Spurrier has objected with is former Orlando Sentinel sports columnist Larry Guest, who Spurrier did mention by name Tuesday.
According to a question and answer piece conducted with Guest prior to his 2000 retirement archived on The Sentinel's website, Guest wrote a story Spurrier objected to in the 1990s.
Spurrier spoke about his issue with Morris further when he met with the media in the conference room, allowing that he would be criticized for his actions.
"I know I'll get blasted for it, and it's OK," Spurrier said, continuing that he "didn't like doing it," but "I can look in the mirror. I did what I thought I had to do, and we'll move on.
"The only recourse a coach has, if a writer steps over the line, which in my opinion he has, is you don't have to talk to him," Spurrier said. "And I don't have to talk if he's in there. That's the only thing I've got."
Spurrier said he made the decision without consulting either Athletics Director Eric Hyman or USC President Harris Pastides.
"No," said Spurrier when asked if he spoke to the two prior to his announcement. "Was I supposed to? I didn't talk to Jamie (Speronis, Spurrier's longtime director of football operations). I didn't talk to my wife. Just something I felt like I had to do."
When asked about the issue late Tuesday, Pastides said he had no immediate comment.
"I need to interview people and speak to more people to find out," Pastides said. "I don't know what happened before, and I don't know what was in the coach's mind at the time. I'm not skirting the issue, but I just don't know enough yet."