Baby, baby, baby: OU assistant awaits triplets, title.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

MIAMI _ You can't blame Oklahoma receivers coach Steve Spurrier Jr. for being jumpy and distracted.

Any minute, the cellphone that never leaves his side could ring. A pediatrician in Norman, Okla., could be on the other end, telling him his wife Melissa has gone into labor. When and if that call comes, Spurrier will board a waiting private plane and fly back to Oklahoma for the birth of his first children _ triplets. A boy, a girl and "a surprise."

And you thought Spurrier was nervous because of the top-ranked Sooners' national championship game against Florida State on Wednesday.

"They think they can hold her off for two to four more weeks," he said during Sunday's Orange Bowl media day as he held an appropriate fruit (an orange) in his right hand. "She's doing well. I talk to her about six or seven times a day. It's been much tougher on her than on me."

Melissa, who is a pediatric nurse, has been bedridden since she went into premature labor six weeks ago. She was due to deliver in mid-February.

"If I can pull out a national championship and triplets in the same month, I may retire," said Spurrier, the son of the Florida coach. "I don't know if it will get any better than that."

Caught on tape