FanHouse Steve Spurrier

South Carolina had the honors of getting college football's fourth week off in high fashion, toppling preseason darling Mississippi 16-10 Thursday. Coming on the heels of Miami topping Georgia Tech last week, Thursday is fast becoming college football's version of Halloween, where underdogs dress up like contenders and make weird and wild things happen.

The win didn't come easy for South Carolina, however. Gamecock coach Steve Spurrier was the picture of agonized helplessness in the game's final period, alternating between shrugs, uncomfortable grins and palms-to-the-face while nursing a 16-3 lead. Relief finally came after his defense repelled Ole Miss' final charge at the Gamecocks' 41 yard line.

(Not to brag, but we told you so. Sort of. Ole Miss was ripe for an upset, with our only error being the assumption that they'd get through a few more weeks of play before reality set in. Apologies for that.)

Many are skeptical of Mississippi's No. 4 ranking in the AP Top-25 poll because its wins so far have been against Memphis and Southeastern Louisiana. For trivia buffs, however, the Rebels last reached No. 4 in the rankings on Oct. 12, 1970.

Of course, the country will get a better idea about Ole Miss on Thursday night when it visits the Ol' Ball Coach and South Carolina in its SEC opener on national television.

Week 1 was the flu. Week 2 was shoulder soreness. OK, what's going on in Week 3?

The health of Georgia quarterback Joe Cox has been discussed, dissected and debated so much this young season that he could be a regular on General Hospital. Despite a jammed finger on his left non-throwing hand this week, Cox is in one piece -- and in good spirits. The rumors were so rampant last week that some believed Cox wouldn't start against South Carolina.

"It's definitely been interesting to see how crazy it can get just based off of what somebody says, but it hasn't been something that has been a distraction," said Cox, who injured his finger on an attempted tackle following an interception in the Bulldogs' win over South Carolina last Saturday.

"It's honestly something that we've all kind of laughed about."

As is the case at college football games across the country, state troopers were on the sidelines when South Carolina played at Georgia Saturday night. But the officers from the Georgia Department of Public Safety who were on hand to get South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier off the field safely didn't just stand by to keep the peace: They also celebrated on the South Carolina sideline when Georgia clinched its 41-37 victory.

Clay Travis is a Titans fan. Ryan Wilson is a Steelers fan. With Tennessee and Pittsburgh kicking off the 2009 season tonight, they decided to mock each other over e-mail.

Ryan: First off, congratulations on Patrick Ramsey making the 53-man roster. Pretty good chance he'll play before Week 6, and, really, the road to Miami goes through a former Tulane graduate who Steve Spurrier once pegged as the Redskins' future.

Steve Spurrier has called heralded linebacker Eric Norwood the face of South Carolina's football program. Spurrier is hoping another player in time will develop into that role as well. But, at the moment, sophomore quarterback Stephen Garcia is not that guy.

Spurrier interrupted his own post-practice media session Monday night to ask The State of Columbia (S.C.) newspaper to change its daily advertisement about the approaching season. The Ol' Ball Coach doesn't have a problem with the ad, just who's pictured in it.

Instead of Garcia, Spurrier said he'd rather see captains Norwood or defensive end Cliff Matthews pictured.

"I am requesting that (change)," Spurrier said to reporters.

"He's not the face of our program yet. I hope he is someday."

Remember when a youthful Steve Spurrier made news for running up the score and drumming up controversy with his rivals via witty and debilitating quips? And how he always seemed to have receivers running in the open field? With every nervous and jittery tic of his body as he called a play, you expected a touchdown to ensue. On every snap you held your breath, shook with fear, and hoped that your pregame beer wasn't about to trickle down your leg. As the ball was snapped, you had but one thought: what horrible doom was impending for your team?

It got to the point in the '90s when you were happy if Spurrier's team only completed a pass for 20 yards. Even if the Gators were your rivals, you respected Spurrier's puckish wit, the way his eyes, nestled up under a visor, lit up when he saw a play that appealed to him on his play card. Love him or hate him, Spurrier left no doubt that he adored what he was doing.

All that's changed.

Ballotgate? Really? That's what they called it last week when the mystery was solved, and it turned out that ex-Florida coach Steve Spurrier was the one who had not voted Florida's Tim Tebow as the preseason all-SEC quarterback.

Technically, it was the staffer Spurrier had given his ballot to. The outrage wasn't that Tebow had lost the vote, but that he wasn't unanimous. See, if you're forced to vote the way others want you to, then it's not really a vote, is it?

Anyway, not to denigrate the church of SEC football, but unanimous or not unanimous in a preseason poll simply ... does ... not ... matter. It certainly isn't big enough to merit the all-important, yet 35-year old term of "gate."

What does matter, though, is that Spurrier showed exactly why coaches cannot be trusted with ballots at all. He said he didn't pay attention to the ballot or how it had been filled out over his name.

You can call him this. You definitely can call him that. Mostly, you can call Steve Spurrier the leader of bluntly speaking coaches in college football.

You also can call him the master of mind games.

So, if you consider everything I just typed, that controversy involving Tim Tebow not appearing on Spurrier's original preseason All-Southeastern Conference ballot likely isn't what you think it is.

Or maybe it is.

Et tu, Ole Ball Coach?

Last week's coaches' preseason all-SEC team kicked off an eight-day long hunt for hanging chads after one of the league's 12 head coaches failed to name Tebow, the 2007 Heisman winner, two-time national champion and quarterback-slash-battering ram, to the first team.

The culprit turned out to be Steve Spurrier, but with a catch.

ESPN.com's Chris Low learned this morning that it was Spurrier's ballot that included Ole Miss' Jevan Snead as the top quarterback, but with a catch. It wasn't the Gamecocks coach that filled it out. Spurrier explained that his director of football operations filled the ballot out and the coach only looked it over.

"I apologize to Tim and all Gators," Spurrier said, ending the did you or didn't you circus that has dominated each coaching appearance. Spurrier didn't damn Tebow with faint praise. He carried forth on the sterling character of the quarterback and on his talents.