Nobody will miss Steve Spurrier more than sports writers, as the recently retired coaching legend could fill up a notebook faster than he could toss a visor.

After a playing career that included a Heisman Trophy at Florida in 1966 and a 10-year stint in the NFL, the Miami Beach native first put a whistle around his neck as the quarterbacks coach at his alma mater in 1978. He is arguably the greatest coach at three FBS programs — Duke (1987-89), Florida (1990-2001), South Carolina (2005-15) — and also patrolled sidelines in the USFL (Tampa Bay Bandits) and NFL (Washington Redskins).

Four times Spurrier was the SEC Coach of the Year while with the Gators (1990-91, 1994-96), and he earned the honor twice more while with the Gamecocks (2005, 2010).

He was just as funny and charming as he was brash and cocky, which made it a challenge for even the most passionate North Carolina, Florida State or Clemson fan — or Tennessee or Georgia or … the list goes on and on — to despise him. And now that he is on a golf course somewhere instead of perhaps preparing for a 22nd bowl game, we know college football will never be the same without the Head Ball Coach.

Here are Spurrier’s 50 best quotes of all time, although there are probably 50 more on the cutting-room floor due to space limitations.

On why he’s so outspoken
“I’m not one to say ‘no comment’ whether I am right or wrong, but especially if I am right.”

On Mack Brown’s claim that Spurrier disrespected North Carolina’s stadium
“Why? I’ve got a better record on that field than he does.”

On his high-flying passing attack at Florida
“The guy who said defense wins championships hasn’t watched us a lot.”

On the recruiting trail
“In 12 years at Florida, I don’t think we ever signed a kid from the state of Alabama. Of course, we found out later that the scholarships they were giving out at Alabama were worth a whole lot more than ours.”

On Florida State’s Foot Locker scandal
“You know what FSU stands for, don’t you? Free Shoes University.”

On how his interpretation of The Bible differs from that of Danny Wuerffel
“He’s like a New Testament person. He gets slapped upside the face and turns the other cheek and says, ‘Lord, forgive them, for they know not what they’re doing.’ I’m probably more of an Old Testament guy. You spear our guy in the earhole, we think we’re supposed to spear you in the earhole. That’s kind of where we’re a little different.”

On Georgia winning every offseason
“Why is it that during recruiting season they sign all the great players, but when it comes time to play the game we have all the great players? I don’t understand that. What happens to them?”

On having Georgia on the schedule early in the season
“I sort of always liked playing them that second game because you could always count on them having two or three key players suspended.”

On whether or not he liked his chances against Georgia
“Is Ray Goff still coaching there?”

On a fire at the Auburn football dorm that burned 20 books
“The real tragedy was that 15 hadn’t been colored yet.”

On Tennessee’s bowl prospects after not being able to beat Florida
“You can’t spell Citrus without U-T.”

On Peyton Manning’s goals at the collegiate level
“I know why Peyton came back for his senior year. He wanted to be a three-time star of the Citrus Bowl.”

On Ron Zook taking over for him at Florida
“He told me I’m a tough act to follow. I told him that’s why he got hired. Some of those coaches that had really great jobs, they didn’t want to touch it.”

On his failed stint with the Redskins
“Obviously, my last two years in the NFL were not much fun at all.”

On the league that shall not be named
“It was a lot more fun hanging around the SEC than it was the other league I was in a couple of years.”

On the weekly grind that is life in the pros
“There are no Vanderbilts in the NFL.”

On taking the coaching job at South Carolina
“I didn’t say we are going to win a lot. But we are going to play like winners, and we’ve got a plan in place to teach our guys how to play like winners and play like a champion.”

On the Gamecocks having high expectations
“I really believe everything is here for us to be very successful.”

On the kind of team South Carolina fans can expect to see
“What I’ve been telling everyone that loves Carolina football is that we are going to put a team out there that, number one, is in good shape. We’re going to be fit, we are going to be able to play the whole game and we’re not going to poop out.”

On the difference between college football and the pros
“The fun thing about here is that no one says, ‘That doesn’t work in the NFL.’ I haven’t heard that here.”

On college players vs. pro players
“Well, we can’t trade ‘em. So I guess we have to coach ‘em.”

On being true to himself
“All I can say is that I’m going to try to coach the way I’ve coached in the past. And if it ends up not being good enough, then so be it.”

On rumors that he was a candidate to return to Florida
“If I went back there, I’d be doing something I’d already done.”

On the perceived value of experience
“I don’t really believe that how many years you’ve had in the league determines how well your players play. Coaching is coaching.”

On the value of education
“We’ve got a support system that gives our players a wonderful opportunity to graduate. If they go to class and give good effort they can graduate from this school, and I believe that’s important when you go out recruiting.”

On refusing to be a workaholic
“So you get two good hours on the field about every day, you get about an hour and a half in the meeting room and that’s pretty much all you need to thoroughly coach your team.”

On his mental approach with players before game day
“We don’t need a lot of cookies on Thursday afternoon before games. No, my background as a coach, we’ve never liked showering the guys with a lot of praise before the game. I don’t know how that helps.”

On being the visiting coach at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
“I think they dislike Florida, to tell you the truth, a lot more than me. A few fans might want to yell some insults at me, which is fine. I’ve heard it all before. Hurl insults. Just don’t hurl bottles, and I’ll be fine.”

On the differences beween him and Dabo Swinney
“He’s from Pluto, and I’m from Mars. Dabo probably thinks there’s only, what, nine planets out there? I think I read where Pluto may not be considered one now.”

On the unoriginal nickname for Clemson’s stadium
“Most of our guys have never been to Death Valley. LSU’s stadium is the Death Valley, isn’t it? Or is there another one? There’s two of them. That’s right. There’s two Death Valleys.”

On Jadeveon Clowney getting a speeding ticket
“I didn’t know Jadeveon’s car that could go that fast. He doesn’t have a pretty car like those FSU guys used to drive.”

On rumored fighting among his players
“If you want to read about some full-blown fights, read about the Tennessee players, not our guys.”

On another trip to Knoxville
“Will be the 14th time I’ve coached in Neyland Stadium. I’ve coached there more than some of their head coaches.”

On expectations at other schools
“In Knoxville, they’re still doing cartwheels because they went 7-6 and won a bowl.”

On sympathy for Hogs fans
“I do feel badly for Arkansas. That’s no fun getting your butt beat at home, homecoming and all that.”

On navigating the schedule in he SEC
“You think I make the schedule? If I made the schedule, Georgia would be playing LSU and we’d be playing Ole Miss.”

On Nick Saban
“If he wants to be the greatest coach or one of the greatest coaches in college football, to me, he has to go somewhere besides Alabama and win because they’ve always won there at Alabama.”

On finally giving Vanderbilt some credit
“They’re not slow guys anymore.”

On taking what Mother Nature gives him
“It was a good first day. We’d be pretty stupid to be out here in the rain and let this day go by. I just think it’s smart to pick the good days instead of the bad ones.”

On trying to get fans to come out for the spring game
“Anybody wants to come out, we appreciate it. We like to have some people in the stands when our guys are playing. We’re going to keep score, offense against defense. The loser has to run. So it’s going to be a score-keeping day.”

On swinging and missing on a recruit
“It is embarrassing, and I apologize because this is a guy we recruited. When you recruit one and they are troublemakers, or appear to be, it makes you feel bad. So we have to do a better job of recruiting the right kind of kids. We’re going to mess up occasionally, like we did with this one guy.”

On how comfortable his starting kicker should be
“We’ll still have competition in the field goal department.”

On coaches from other schools wanting to see how he runs his program
“We’ve had teams that want to come visit us, and what we say is we’ll provide some tape. You can come and watch tape. But as coaches, we don’t sit down and go over every detail with them. I think that’s the way it should be almost everywhere.”

On his NCAA Tournament pool
“I’m picking my old school, Florida, and my buddy, Billy Donovan, to win it all.”

On being a spectator at a golf tournament
“I walked around for about six hours. I think the best way to go is go somewhere and sit. You can’t see much walking around.”

On getting older
“Back in January, they appointed this guy, and he’s 77 years old, and he’s the leader of a billion people in the world. They call him The Pope, and he replaced a guy that was 85 years old. So if he can be the leader of over a billion people worldwide, surely I can get 11 guys on the field.”

On why he lasted as long as he did
“I forgot to get fired, and I’m not gonna cheat. That’s the way you lose your job: You get fired for losing, or you cheat.”

On looking ahead to retirement
“I don’t want to coach too far into my 60s. By then, I’ll be playing golf four or five times a week.”

On his decision to resign as South Carolina’s coach
“I think I was probably the best coach for this job 11 years ago, but not today. … I’ll just be the former Head Ball Coach now. This is the best thing for South Carolina football to start another building process.”

On not being a football coach anymore
“That one Merle Haggard sings, where he goes, ‘What am I gonna do for the rest of my life?’ I started thinking about that. What am I gonna do?”