Steve Spurrier sounds off on the craziness of college football in 2026
Steve Spurrier is 80 years old, living in Florida, doing whatever an “Ambassador” at the University of Florida does. And, yes, that is a real job — legit enough that he has a school email that starts with “HBC@.”
Yes, the Head Ball Coach is still around college athletics. He seems fine with that, so long as there’s a 10-foot pole between him and a headset.
Which, in a way, is odd for someone who became a coaching legend by taking the jobs that no one wanted at the places where winning seemed impossible.
“I like jobs where you’ve got nowhere to go but up,” Spurrier said Monday.
At Duke, (1987-89), he took a downtrodden program to its first bowl game in 30 years. At his alma mater, Florida (1990-2001), he led the Gators to their first 10-win season in year two and made them first-time national champions five years later.
His biggest challenge, though, was probably his last. In 2005, he took over from Lou Holtz a South Carolina football program that came with a warning: “Nobody wins there,” Spurrier said people told him. And, aside from Joe Morrison in 1984, they were right.
But in 11 seasons, Spurrier went 86-49 and jolted life into the program. South Carolina won 11 games in three straight seasons (2011-13), finishing each time in the Top 10 of the AP Poll.
It is for that stint leading the Gamecocks that recently earned Spurrier a spot in the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame — which includes the top sporting figures in the Palmetto State, not just USC.
And, boy, Spurrier seems more than glad that his coaching career has come and gone.
“Well,” he said with his quintessential Southern twang, “I’m glad I’m not in it right now because I don’t know that I would have liked that. … You’ve gotta jump in there and get all your millionaire or billionaire alumni and say, ‘We need a bunch of money to pay these guys.’”
Even more: Coaches today change over their rosters every year. Heck, Spurrier pointed out, Florida — under new coach Jon Sumrall — and South Carolina are both going to bring in over 25 guys from the transfer portal this offseason.
Yet Spurrier understands that embracing the new wrinkles of college football is the only way to win. When asked for his thoughts on Ole Miss signing a player who was already signed and taking classes at Clemson, Spurrier started getting on Tigers coach Dabo Swinney.
“I thought by now somebody would have told Dabo, ‘Dabo, there ain’t no rules anymore,’” Spurrier said. “I don’t know if they’re ever gonna enforce any rules now or not.”
He continued: “You can complain, but I don’t know how (much) good it’s gonna do. There’s no rules.”
