Steve Spurrier recalls a referee move against LSU that nearly got him ejected

Baseball is a unique sport in that ejections are relatively common. Still, the ejection of Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall during the first inning of the College World Series against LSU was a surprise. Even legendary football coach Steve Spurrier took notice.

Spurrier never ended up getting ejected from a game himself. It’s much rarer in football, after all. However, as he explained on Another Dooley Noted Podcast, there was one time, ironically against LSU, when he should have done enough to get tossed.

“Talking about umpires and LSU and all that,” Steve Spurrier said. “The only one time that I should have got myself thrown out, but I laid back and didn’t do it. We’re playing LSU in ’97. Down there. They’re up 28-21. We’ve got time to go tie it up and Jesse [Palmer] was at quarterback. Hit about a 25-yard pass past midfield. We had time to maybe score, and all of a sudden, when the play was over, the guy on our sideline came out and threw a flag. He went to the head ref and he said, ‘One of their coaches had his foot on the field during that last play.’ So, he came over and said, ‘You were on the field.'”

At the time, Florida was the top-ranked team in the country. LSU was ranked 14th. The score would, ultimately, stay 28-21 and the Tigers won. It was Florida’s first loss since the Florida State game in 1996, a season they’d ultimately win the national championship in. Instead of repeating that, the loss sent Florida on a path to the Citrus Bowl.

“Well, I was behind it. I did have a foot on it,” Spurrier said. “Gerry DiNardo, their coach, he was on the field the whole game if the ball was on either end. If it was in the middle, I don’t guess he was. But, that is a call nobody ever makes. Coach had his foot on the field.”

Steve Spurrier does have his suspicions as to where the call came from, though. It turns out, the referee had attended Georgia. So, he suspects there was some bias coming from the rival school uninvolved in the game.

“Later, I found out that guy,” Spurrier said. “He went to the University of Georgia and he can’t referee Georgia games but he can referee everybody else’s. There’s a lot of guys like that. So, you’ve got to watch them… If you’re in the SEC, you can’t do your team but you can do the other team. That dude made up it. He said, ‘I’m gonna get those Gators for us.'”

Steve Spurrier on Kevin Schnall’s ejection

Steve Spurrier also dove more deeply into the Kevin Schnall ejection specifically. Schnall would be tossed for arguing balls and strikes in the first inning, which Spurrier thinks should have had more of a warning attached to it.

“I would hope the ump gave him a warning like, ‘If you don’t leave now, you’re gonna be out of the game.’ If he’d had said that and then the guy just kept yelling and yapping, then the umpire certainly has the right to do that. But I don’t know the conversation before,” Spurrier said.

“When I come out to ask what the warning is, a grown man shooed me. At that point, I can now hear him say there was a warning issued for arguing balls and strikes. At that point, I said, ‘Because you missed three.’ At that point, ejected. If that warrants ejection, I’m the first one to stand here like a man and apologize.”