Franks attacks spurious characterizations of Spurrier

He is the bad boy of college football.

The figure on the sidelines is familiar: the madman, yelling at his quarterbacks.

He smiles, his eyes obscured by the trademark visor and sunglasses, as his team scores its 63rd point of the afternoon.

Steve Spurrier is not a beloved figure. In fact, there are probably coaches around the country that believe he would run up the score against a pee-wee football team.

"I don't think that image fits him at all," Duke coach Carl Franks said.

Franks played for Spurrier when Spurrier served as an assistant at Duke in the early 1980s, and spent 12 years as one of Spurrier's top assistants.

"The people who make those statements obviously don't know him," Franks said.

"He is a competitive individual, and I think that carries over to his football team."

After leaving Duke, Spurrier returned to his alma mater, where he had won the 1966 Heisman Trophy as a quarterback.

At Florida, Spurrier's high scoring offense, known as "Airball" at Duke and "Fun and Gun" in Gainesville, took the Gators from the bottom of the SEC to a position of dominance.

The Gators have stepped on the field only once in Spurrier's tenure without a national ranking--the first game he coached.

Florida has won 7-of-9 SEC Eastern Division championships, six outright conference championships and the 1996 national championship. Prior to his arrival, no Gator team had won a conference title in the 56 years that Florida belonged to the SEC.

But along the way, the Gators have earned criticism for their propensity to put up videogame-esque point totals.

"It's really an unfair assessment," the third-year Duke coach said.

"Your job on offense is to go out there and score points. In basketball, when you get way ahead, you don't quit scoring. In football, when you put your [second team] out there, they're allowed to keep playing. If the other teams keeps blitzing, you're allowed to keep throwing."

Franks also vehemently disputes suggestions made in the media that Spurrier is an ego maniacal control freak who second-guesses his assistants.

"You coached your players," Franks said. "They knew what to do, and they played hard. You did your job in recruiting. That's what he expected of you. That's fair--that's what every coach should expect."

Franks said the national news media pays little or no attention to the things Spurrier does off the field, choosing instead to focus on making him out to be a rogue element.

"One of the greatest experiences of my life was being involved with his staff," Franks said. "He and his wife do a lot of things as a football staff family. We would go on cruises, and we'd go on beach trips. We were a close-knit group because he does care about family and the coaches. These are the things people don't know and don't see."

Franks also spoke highly of the role Spurrier has played in his own coaching career.

"He's been a tremendous influence on my career," Franks said of his mentor. "He gave me my opportunity to coach, and I did well enough that I was able to move with him to several places.

"Hopefully I've learned something about how to be a head coach from him, how to manage a team and make the game fun for the team. He's easily been the biggest influence on me in terms of what I know about offense and hopefully how to be a good head football coach."