Steve Spurrier has coached in college and coached in the NFL, and he knows how much harder it is to win in the pros. And yet Spurrier thinks the No. 1 team in college football right now is good enough to compete in the NFL.
Spurrier said on the Dan Patrick Show that he believes this year’s Alabama team is good enough that it could beat some of the weaker teams in the NFL.
“Alabama, gosh, they look like they could beat a couple of those NFL teams that I’ve watched on Sundays,” Spurrier said. “I think a lot of the oddsmakers out there, that usually know what’s going on, I’d guess Alabama would be favored by a little bit.”
If Spurrier wants to talk up Alabama, fine, but let’s get real: The idea that Alabama could compete with any NFL team is ridiculous. Whoever you think is the worst team in the NFL -- Chiefs, Jaguars, Panthers, whoever -- would absolutely destroy Alabama. This year’s Alabama team is loaded with talent, but “loaded with talent” in college football means the Crimson Tide have maybe 30 players who will be good enough to play in the NFL some day. Every NFL team has 53 players who are good enough to play in the NFL right now.
Spurrier of all people should know this. After all, he won a national championship at Florida with Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel running his offense. Then Spurrier tried to run the same offense with the same quarterback in the NFL with the Redskins. At the next level, Wuerffel was terrible, Spurrier’s offense was terrible and the Redskins were terrible. There’s an enormous gulf between college football and the NFL.
A game between an NFL team and a college team would be a game of men against boys. We can celebrate great college football teams for what they are, but pretending they’d have any chance of beating any NFL team is preposterous.