To me the argument is similar to the Tiger Phil argument. I know some knowledgeable PGA people that say Phil is more talented than Tiger (not that Tiger isn't talented but less than Phil) but the drop off from Phil to Tiger is minor compared to the difference in Tiger's work ethic, mental tenacity, and insanely intense focus.
From what I've seen of Spurrier, and as was mentioned earlier, he's insecure. His mind set seems to be: if I couldn't do it, it A) can't be done legally, or B) the person who did do it has their priorities messed up. He does coaches through the media better than anyone I've seen in a long long time - maybe ever, and people love it (outside of clemson that is) He wasn't paying Nick a compliment regarding recruiting. He's trying to play mind games. It works against Dabo. Dabo tries to fight SOS on SOS's terms. The whole "BAMA better than the Jaguars" thing...SOS knew it would get 2 weeks of media coverage if he talked about it. And SOS seems to only talk about people/teams that are of any consequence to him/ his legacy. Any thing to get a distraction. Is Nick a great coach, anyone that says other wise is silly. Just ask yourself, if you team's coach were let go and Nick were available - would you want him to be your next coach? Of course he's not perfect. He's like the chessmaster that loses to an unconventional street smart kind of player. Chessmaster wins most of the time but has his achilles heel also. SOS is a top 10 coach, some times though his insecurity show. I'm pretty sure also that Nick is about an hour+ from ending his day, and will start tomorrow morning at 6am and end it about 14 hrs later just to make sure that his team doesn't lose to KENTUCKY after one of - if not the- biggest wins ever his home stadium