Former Florida football coach Steve Spurrier watched the brawl between Florida and Missouri that broke out during last Saturday’s game.
And unsurprisingly he wasn’t happy about it.
The fight broke out after Gators’ quarterback Kyle Trask took a late hit from a Missouri defender on a Hail Mary before the end of the first half. Both sidelines cleared, as players and coaches escalated the squabble. The SEC suspended three players, two from Florida and one from Missouri, for the first half of their next game because of their actions. The conference also fined Florida head coach Dan Mullen $25,000 for his role in the fight.
Both team apologized in a joint statement issued on Sunday morning.
According to ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum, Spurrier, the Florida head coach from 1990 to 2001, felt extremely disappointed that the altercation even occurred.
“None of us were very happy about it,” Spurrier said. “Those things don’t need to happen. It was an embarrassment for both universities.”
–@SteveSpurrierUF tells us about watching Saturday's Missouri-Florida halftime altercation. “None of us were very happy about it. Those things don’t need to happen. It was an embarrassment for both universities.”
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) November 3, 2020
Spurrier’s comments summed up the feelings of most college football fans. The fight escalated to an unacceptable level and leaders of both teams acted in a reckless and dangerous way.
For the former Florida head coach, the team’s altercation affected him personally. Spurrier led the Gators from 1990 to 2001, winning a national championship and six SEC titles.
Spurrier and the rest of the college football world hopes that the conference can move past the incident in a productive manner and finish the 2020 season safely.
No. 8 Florida returns to action this weekend in an important game against No. 5 Georgia. Missouri will take the weekend off.
