Evil Genius or Harmless Genius?

As we tirelessly continue to document, Steve Spurrier's march up the list of Longest Tenured Coaches without a BCS Bowl Bid at their current school has reached a new high water mark. With the termination of Mike Leach (the former co-leader with a 2001 hire date) and the retirement of Rich Brooks, the head ball coach moves to 8th on the list.

The latest Top 10:

1.(T) Greg Schiano (Rutgers) - 2001
1.(T) Gary Pinkel (Missouri) - 2001
3.(T) Bobby Johnson (Vandy) - 2002
3.(T) Jeff Tedford (Cal) - 2002
5. Mike Riley (Oregon State) - 2003
6.(T) Randy Edsall (UConn) - 2004 Joined Big East
6.(T) Mike Stoops (Arizona) - 2004
8.(T) Steve Spurrier (South Carolina) - 2005
8.(T) Jim Leavitt (USF) - 2005 Joined Big East
8.(T) Mike Gundy (Ok State) - 2005
8.(T) Dave Wannstedt (Pitt) - 2005

In theory, Spurrier has a quality core of talent returning for the 2010 season. They return 9 starters on offense and 8 on defense (pending NFL departures). However, Garcia is still his quarterback, and this is the same core group that collapsed at the end of last season going 2-5 to close out the campaign. It's not like they were improving as they got older.

As for the Ray Goff comparison I continually make between Spurrier's tenure at Carolina and Ray's disastrous stint with the Dawgs...Spurrier needs 6 wins to surpass Goff's win total during his first six years in Athens. However, he'll need to go at least 11-2 to surpass Ray's winning percentage over the same number of years...by only .00079 percentage points.

All the Evil is gone. He's just a Harmless Genius now.

PWD