Spurrier Has a Buddy System Too

Steve saw something in the man with old-school values and thick old glasses, complimented him openly and tried to be friends.

Joe looked beneath the biting humor and the humorous insults delivered with a high-pitched twang, found some redeeming qualities and befriended the coach with few friends.

So, could college football’s odd couple--Penn State’s Joe Paterno and Florida’s Steve Spurrier--survive the start of their friendship?

After running back Fred Taylor rushed for 234 yards to lead the Gators to a 21-6 victory over Penn State on Thursday before 72,940 at the Citrus Bowl, the coaches followed through on a prearranged bet.

The Citrus Bowl loser would have to wear something from the winning coach. At least Paterno and Spurrier didn’t decide to exchange shirts, soccer style.

“I couldn’t get Coach Joe to wear that dang visor,” Spurrier said of his usual headgear. “I said, ‘Let’s make a deal: Whoever wins the game, if you win, I’ll wear that dang Penn State hat or I’ll wear those ugly glasses you wear.

“ ‘I’ll wear those ugly glasses if you wear my visor off the field.’ He said, ‘That’s a deal.’ By the way, he can’t see without ‘em.

“He wouldn’t wear that dang visor long. He had it on his head. I gave it to him. It might be in the trash can.”

Along with Penn State’s offense.

The Nittany Lions, without suspended star Curtis Enis, were limited to two field goals. Taylor finished his Florida career with aplomb, establishing a Citrus Bowl record with his 234 yards in 43 carries. The old mark of 174 yards was set by Jim Gray of East Texas State in 1953.

“We thought we could run on them the way Michigan State did and a lot of teams ran on them,” said Taylor, whose effort was the second-best single-game rushing performance by a Florida player, trailing Emmitt Smith’s 316 yards against New Mexico in 1989.

“They [Penn State] think they can just come down here and play smash-mouth football. And they think think the SEC is soft, down-South football is soft. They just found out that’s not true.”

Penn State (9-3) was hampered by the absence of Enis, as well as receiver Joe Jurevicius, out because of academic problems. The Nittany Lions sputtered in the first half--43 yards of total offense--and failed to score on two fourth-and-goal plays in the first half. One was inside the one-yard line with 4:10 remaining, the second was from the one with 26 seconds remaining.

“I’ve been here five years and can’t remember being stopped with a yard to go, and they did it twice today,” said Penn State center Kevin Conlin.

After Florida (10-2) took a 14-0 first-quarter lead, Paterno had a Spartan flashback. “I thought our kids played hard,” Paterno said. “When they got down 14-0, I thought, ‘It’s Michigan State again.’ ”

Eventually, the two-quarterback Gator shuffle changed runners when Doug Johnson left in the fourth quarter because of a shoulder injury. Freshman Jesse Palmer alternated plays with Noah Brindise and promptly threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Jacquez Green.

All three Gator quarterbacks figured in the scoring, as Brindise ran for a one-yard touchdown and then Green scored on a 35-yard pass play from Johnson in the first quarter.

“Our team was ready to play,” Spurrier said. “So, it’s possible to say good things about the other coach and still really have an emotional-type game. So we were ready to play, even though we were a little buddy-buddy a little bit before the game. And we’ll hopefully be buddy-buddy after it.”