After his NFL playing career, Spurrier went into coaching and spent five years as a college assistant at Florida, Georgia Tech, and Duke where he began to develop his innovative offensive system while serving as the Blue Devils’ offensive coordinator in the early 1980s. He was hired to his first head coaching job by the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL in 1983 and led the team to two playoff appearances in three seasons before the league folded.
Spurrier returned to the college ranks in 1987, serving as the Head Football Coach at Duke (3 seasons), Florida, (12 seasons), and South Carolina (10.5 seasons). , amassing 122 total wins and an 82% career winning percentage at South Carolina. Between his stints at Florida and South Carolina, he led the NFL’s Washington Redskins for two seasons. Spurrier retired from coaching in 2015 and became an ambassador and consultant for the University of Florida. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2017.
Spurrier retired from coaching during the 2015 season in his 11th season at South Carolina. He finished his career with a record of 228-89-2 (.718) as a collegiate head coach.
Career Coaching Highlights:
- 2-time ACC Coach of the Year
- ACC Champion (1989)
- The winningest Head Football Coach at two (2) Power 5 universities (Florida and South Carolina).
- Coached Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel while winning the 1996 NCAA National Championship.
- The only college football coach to beat Georgia 16 times.
- He was 53-0 against non-Power 5 teams.
- Florida was ranked in the AP for 200 consecutive weeks during his tenure.
- At Florida, he won more SEC Championships (7) than home games lost (5) at the Swamp.
- 7 time SEC Coach of the Year – Florida (5) and South Carolina (2).
