12:51 p.m. Steve Spurrier is in the room. Not in the physical sense, though; there's a large monitor that displays the name and picture of each coach for their press conference, and Spurrier's is up right now. Still waiting for the man himself.

1:02 p.m. "We've hopefully got better coaches. 6-6 is mediocrity at its best."

1:04 p.m. "We feel like Ellis and better players, we're gonna play better defense." It'd be hard to do worse.

1:06 p.m. Another 6-6 mention. Way you can tell something is eating at Spurrier: he repeats it often.

1:07 p.m. The play-calling question. "It just got last year that nowadays it's a little different than the early '90s." He didn't have play sheet back then. "I just felt like he's ready to do the principle play-caller. ... It'll be a team effort. ... If it goes bad, I did it. If it goes well, he did it."

1:10 p.m. Spurrier's optimistic about Lecorn, but also points out the TEs can back up McKinley if necessary. "We're a little bit of a tight-end team. ... Jared Cook and Weslye (Saunders) are two big-time pass-receiving tight ends."

1:13 p.m. "We're not that far away from being a pretty good team." He also doesn't buy the injury excuse for the defense, but he reiterates again that he doesn't blame previous coaches. By which he means Tyrone Nix. By which he means he does blame Nix. "It wasn't like we were stellar till the injuries."

Not blaming Nix. It's just his fault.

1:15 p.m. Spurrier hears that the OLs look like NFL linemen in the weight room. "Yeah, in the weight room, he does look like one, until the ball snaps, (then) he's not quite doing it."

1:17 p.m. The patience quesiton. In a few years, "we should do some good. ... We're looking forward to seeing what happens the next three, four years."

1:19 p.m. Stephen Garcia has "done just about all they asked for."

1:20 p.m. "Obviously we were dead wrong in think our team was capable" of winning the SEC. "Of course, we did beat Georgia, No. 2 team in the country." Poke.

1:27 p.m. "When VanGorder left, two hours later I had a ball coach." Translation: Screw you, too.

1:30 p.m. On recruiting: "It's like going after girls I guess, got to get the best you can."

1:34 p.m. Spurrier has gotten more laughter than any other coach so far. Maybe even more than TTIIMM TTEEBBOOWW.

1:36 p.m. Back to Beecher. No need for the who's quarterback question. "We're tired of that and I'm tired of it. ... He doesn't have to worry about one interception." Over/under on that promise lasting: First interception of the year.

1:37 p.m. Spurrier's done. Now the players.