Spurrier friendly with Georgia's Richt

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Steve Spurrier always liked former Florida State assistant and current Georgia coach Mark Richt, something the head ball coach can't say about all the FSU people he's dealt with.

Richt "was a little different than a lot of the Seminoles," South Carolina's Spurrier said Tuesday. "He was a little different type guy."

Different how, coach? "No, I don't think so," Spurrier said, declining to dig himself a bigger hole at Florida State than he's got as a former Heisman Trophy winner and championship coach at Florida.

Richt laughed off Spurrier's sideways jab at his former bosses. "I've always had a good relationship with coach Spurrier," he said.

The acquaintance gets renewed this weekend when Spurrier returns to Southeastern Conference play at No. 9 Georgia (1-0). It's the head ball coach's first league game since he left Florida in 2001 - and his first time at Sanford Stadium since the Gators beat the Bulldogs 52-17 in 1995 to become the first opponent to ever hit the half-century mark at the Southern football shrine.

"The time I went there, they weren't near the team they are now," Spurrier said. "A different environment, completely different, different team, different head coach."

And one of the few coaches Spurrier hadn't rankled during his brash days as Gators coach.

The two had gotten to know each other, Richt said, through Heisman Trophy functions. Richt had several worthy candidates during his years at Florida State, including winners Charlie Ward in 1993 and Chris Weinke in 1999.

As a Heisman winner himself, Spurrier would attend the gatherings and mix with Richt away from the heated sidelines of Gainesville and Tallahassee.

They became close enough for Richt to ask Spurrier for career advice.

"The Virginia and the Georgia jobs were coming open, which one did I think" would be best for Richt, Spurrier remembers. "I said, 'Well, the Virginia job's a great one, you ought to go after that.'"

"I'm sure he was playing around," Richt said, chuckling.

Richt's eye was on Georgia, where he eventually settled before the 2001 season. Over the past four years, Richt's done what Spurrier feared when he counseled him to go to the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Bulldogs have gone 42-10 before this year, winning an SEC crown in 2002 and the SEC Eastern Division a season later.

"Certainly that Georgia job is one of the best in the country," Spurrier said.

Spurrier has a ways to go to make South Carolina its equal.

The Gamecocks beat Central Florida 24-15 in Spurrier's return to college football last week. But after two quick touchdowns on South Carolina's opening drives, Spurrier saw plenty of holes to fix.

The running game managed only 32 yards, in part because of inexperience, but also because of poor blocking. Defensive breakdowns kept the Golden Knights in it longer than anyone imagined. Spurrier said it was the first game he could remember where he went more than 11 minutes without calling an offensive play. There were five fumbles between both teams and South Carolina didn't recover any of them. "Shows you how alert we were as a team. It was sad," Spurrier said.

Meanwhile, Georgia looked crisp in a 48-13 victory over Boise State, which fell out of the rankings from No. 18 after the loss. Bulldogs' quarterback D.J. Shockley threw for five touchdowns and ran for another in his first college start.

Spurrier knows he's got his hands full prepping his team for this one. "So there's a lot of room for improvement with this team we're taking to Athens," he said.

Perhaps part of Richt's success at Georgia is tagged to Spurrier. Richt's loved his offensive style and adapted what he could to the Bulldogs attack.

Spurrier is "one of the best in the business, probably ever," Richt said. "I've learned so much just watching."

And maybe from not listening to everything Spurrier says.