Kentucky Football has moved on to greener pastures than ever with Will Stein leading the way, but the Big Blue Nation knows that things weren't always so bright back in the day. ESPN just dropped a list ranking the greatest college football villains of all time, and a notorious Kentucky hater took the top spot.
Steve Spurrier, who ESPN's Ryan McGee lovingly calls a "hat-slinging, trash-talking, strut-walking winning machine," is undisputedly one of the biggest names in the history of the game. He won a national championship with the Florida Gators in 1996, before going on to become the winningest coach in both Florida and South Carolina history.
He's a massive deal, put simply. But he's also one of the sport's most historic antagonizers, and as Kentucky stumbled through the SEC in the football program's traditional fashion, Spurrier took shots at the Wildcats on more than a few occasions.
From the perspective of a Wildcat fan who has long wanted the team to compete in the SEC, Spurrier's antics could be seen as pointless kicks on a man who is already down. Still, there's a reason his name has such a vitriolic reputation, and it's worth looking back on.
Steve Spurrier's Has a Long List of Pointless Jabs at Kentucky Football
Let's start all the way back in Spurrier's historic 1996 season, in which he had to face Kentucky on the way to Florida's national title. After winning that contest to a ludicrous 65-0 count, Spurrier simply said, "These sort of games don't prove very much. All it proves is we're better than Kentucky."
Ouch. The snark was only just getting started.
Flash forward to 2011, wherein Spurrier decided to grill Kentucky once more following the Cats' embarrasing 54-3 loss to South Carolina at home. "Kentucky has a heck of a punter, I know that," Spurrier said. "We could have picked up 70 or 80 points today... But 50 was enough."
Yet again, the coach found a way to slam the Wildcats at their absolute lowest. Spurrier also notably called Kentucky great Randall Cobb a "running back" and discounted beating Clemson in 2006 because, you guessed it, the Tigers would go on to lose to Kentucky later that season. Truly, Spurrier bashed Kentucky any chance he got all throughout his career.
By the time Kentucky Football actually got into workable shape in the mid-to-late 2010's, Spurrier retired in 2015. This random rivalry will thus go down as one of the most one-sided in the history of Kentucky's program, and fans, in spite of his accomplishments, will never fail to grimace at the mention of Spurrier's name.
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