In case there was any confusion, Spurrier clarifies future coaching plans

Former South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier was honored by another one of his former programs Saturday. The HBC was recognized by Duke during the Blue Devils game against Pittsburgh.

Spurrier was honored on the field at Wallace Wade Stadium for his upcoming induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, as a coach. The Heisman Trophy winner has already been enshrined for his accomplishments as a player.

While speaking to the media, Spurrier was asked if he’ll ever return to coaching. Spurrier hasn’t roamed the sidelines as the HBC since resigning resigning as the Gamecocks football coach midway through the 2015 season.

Spurrier made it clear he won’t be putting his trademark visor and headset back on as a head coach – ever.

“I don’t want to be a head coach. There’s too much involved with the head coach,” Spurrier said Saturday, leaving open the possibility of coaching quarterbacks on some level. “If it’s a high school, or junior, well they don’t have junior highs anymore. Just high school, or somewhere there to coach quarterbacks and pitch the ball around. That might be something, something I want to do again. It would just have to be the right situation.”

Spurrier coached collegiality for 26 years at Duke, Florida and South Carolina, compiling a 228-89-2 record. He won the 1996 national championship as the Gators’ coach.

Spurrier led the Gamecocks to their only SEC East title, three consecutive 11-win seasons and was 86-49 in 10 1/2 years at the school.

Spurrier coached the Blue Devils from 1987 to 1989, when Duke and Virginia were ACC co-champions. Spurrier posted a 20-13-1 record at Duke, which hasn’t won an ACC title since he left for Florida.

Spurrier said too much has changed in college football since he got started in coaching in the 1980s. Although he helped revolutionize the game, especially during his tenure at Florida in the 1990s, time waits for no man. Not even the HBC.

“Major college ball, these guys, they work 11 months of the year now,” said Spurrier, who was known to enjoy as much time on the golf course as the film room. “It’s so different than it was, in the 90s, and even in the 2000s as far as the total amount of hours these guys work.”

Spurrier, who won the 1966 Heisman Trophy as Florida’s quarterback, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986. He’s the fourth person to be elected to the Hall as both a player and a coach.

After all of those years in locker rooms and on the gridiron, it’s understandable Spurrier feels a void. But he’s not looking to fill it by returning to coaching.

“The only part I miss is the quarterbacks, the offense, the team, the players, that kind of stuff,” Spurrier said. “I did it for 30 years and that’s pretty good, that’s long enough. … It’s time to do something else.”

One thing Spurrier is doing is joining the media to offer his thoughts on college football. Spurrier appears on satellite radio three times per week to talk college football.

He also serves as an ambassador for Florida, where he won a Heisman Trophy as a player and a national championship as a coach. Spurrier had been hired as an “ambassador” in Columbia, but ultimately returned to Florida.

He still feels allegiance to all three colleges where he coached. Even he admits it can be strange at times.

“I call Duke we and I call South Carolina we, and Florida we,” Spurrier said. “I guess that would look strange, I got three schools out there. That’s just the way it happened.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2017 at 3:41 PM with the headline "In case there was any confusion, Spurrier clarifies future coaching plans."