South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier took a dig at Alabama coach Nick Saban's record as the Crimson Tide's head coach that could rank among his all-time most caustic remarks, as lofty a standard as that is.
Spurrier was speaking on a topic he's made brow-raising remarks about before: The volume of hours football coaches put into their work.
"How many SECs has (Saban) won there in eight years? He's won two," Spurrier said, according to gogamecocks.com. "He's won three nationals, but he's only won two SECs in eight years. Now, if you had the No. 1 recruiting class every year and so forth, I don't know if he has maxed out potentially as well as he could."
It's not the first time Spurrier has rigorously defended his reputation for working shorter hours. Former New Orleans Saints coach Jim Haslett drew some unprovoked fire from Spurrier, as well. Recall, when Spurrier was head coach of the Washington Redskins, this All-Time Spurrier classic:
"I saw a story where Jim Haslett comes in at 4:30 in the morning," Spurrier said. "That's not doing him much good."
Haslett's Saints, at the time, were coming off a 7-9 season.
As long as Spurrier is wielding his silver tongue, however, he ought to make sure his numbers are right. Saban, in fact, has only been at Alabama for seven seasons, as 2014 will be his eighth.
Need a ready-made storyline for an Alabama-South Carolina SEC Championship Game this December? Presto.
Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter *@ChaseGoodbread.*