By Mike Lopresti
Gannett News Service

They are curious, waiting to see if Steve Spurrier takes the NFL by storm, or if Fun 'N' Gun crashes into the wall on Sundays.

Not just the fans are watching the Washington Redskins. And not just the media. But also the men of football. Former opponents, future opponents. Coaches who have been where he is now.

Bill Walsh has been there. A Stanford man before he became the West Coast offense guru at San Francisco for all those Super Bowls.

"I know this," Walsh said. "He'll be in war. Everybody in the NFL is in a survival mode. Everybody will be playing him as tough as he's been played."

Dick Vermeil has been there. Before he was a Super Bowl coach at St. Louis and Philadelphia, he was at UCLA.

"The difference is every Sunday you're playing Florida State, or better," he said. "I found that out. I thought we were pretty smart (at UCLA). We looked at the schedule and saw our wins. Now all of a sudden you go to the Philadelphia Eagles, who haven't won in 10 years, and we found out what it was like to coach at Oregon State.

"George Allen's over there (across the field). Don Coryell's over there. That tests you, and then you find out if you can coach."

Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews has been there, eyeball to eyeball with Spurrier's thick play book.

"His standards are high. That's how you win," Andrews said. "You motivate. You teach. You demand it be done right.

"I don't have any doubts it'll work for Steve. It'll work because he's going to see that it does."

Gerry DiNardo has been there, an SEC conference rival with Spurrier while at LSU.

"I don't follow professional football all that much, but I'm going to follow the Redskins," said DiNardo, the new coach at Indiana. "Now he won't have better players than nine out of 10 teams he plays. At Florida he had better players almost every Saturday. But then, he didn't have them at Duke and won. So this is the tie-breaker."

Joe Paterno has been there, a hugely successful college coach at Penn State (but 0-1 against Spurrier's Florida), pondering what life might be like in the NFL.

"Watching a Super Bowl sometimes, you're like anybody else. You'd like to be in it," he said. "But I've never had any real incentive to leave college football.

"I like Steve. A lot of people take him too seriously. If his players are good enough, he'll do well. He's a smart guy. What doesn't work tomorrow, he'll change so it does work next time. I think he'll get it done."

Lou Holtz has been there, a shining college career interrupted by a disastrous stint with the New York Jets that lasted only 13 games in 1976.

"Those of you who say he will not win in the NFL, you're going to look bad," said Holtz. "He will win in the NFL the same as he did in the (SEC) conference.

"I'll tell you, he's arrogant. He's arrogant, but that's what makes him. His players carry that arrogance."

Walsh may have the best insight, for he was very much like Spurrier; an offensive innovator brought in from college to revive an NFL team. It took him only three seasons to get the 49ers to the Super Bowl.

"With the plays you call and the way you practice, there isn't much change," Walsh said. "The critical difference is taking players in their own direction as to their skills. It's very important to remember a player in the NFL is a professional. He just doesn't respond spontaneously to every direction. He's got a mind of his own."

Walsh mentioned other areas that will make their demands on Spurrier, and ultimately decide if he rises or falls. What will he do, for instance, against the defensive ends of the NFL who are so hard to block? They can quickly take the Fun out of the Gun.

Then there is the expertise of NFL defensive coaching staffs:

"There will be some (coordinators) thinking, 'Wait until he sees what we have in mind,' " Walsh said. "He may have seen (the schemes) but he's never had to deal with them day to day from expertly managed and coached teams."

Or the schedule:

"Each week is a team comparable to you, just as motivated as you are, who could possibly beat you. Now every week is total war. That's where the real test will be.

"Losses can compound themselves. George Seifert had the best coaching record in NFL history, and lost 15 straight games last year."

Or the scrutiny of being the new whiz on the block:

"The expectations are awfully high. He could be building a good team but have a losing record and people will have a hard time with it.

"It's not just going to be a cakewalk, and he knows that. I'm not sure the media knows it."

And so they will pay attention to the Redskins from afar, with the understanding of men who have been in the same foxhole.

"He'll get them to understand the system," Andrews said. "That's why there's a bunch of Florida people there. They can help teach the others.

"If he's there five years, I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I would put money on him."

Said Holtz, "The difference is how do you gain that talent? In college you go out there and recruit. He'd get 25 first-round draft picks a year if he could recruit."

Said Vermeil, "I've been on his practice field (at Florida) probably 10 times. I've been in his film studies. I've been in his office. ... No question he can coach in the National Football League, and be very good at it.

"But it will be a much bigger challenge than winning at Florida, because Florida always had better players."

The first official results are due next month. The first third-and-long of the regular season. The first thrown visor. The first hard day.

"I'm very curious," Walsh said. "He's not just an organizational or ceremonial kind of coach. He's on the field coaching football, and I appreciate that more than anything.

"I've thoroughly enjoyed his style. Whether that will work in its entirety, who is to say? I'm sure some of it will. I can't say all those innovations will work. We'll find out which ones."

© COPYRIGHT 2002 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.