"I love it! I love it!"
That's what Dabo Swinney had to say when he was asked at Tuesday's Prowl & Growl event in Columbia what his thoughts were when he heard Steve Spurrier was returning to the coaching profession. The all-time winningest coach at Florida and USC was recently named the head coach of the Orlando franchise of the Alliance of American Football.
Swinney said he and Spurrier spoke recently and he's not surprised that the HBC is returning to the sidelines.
"It's exciting. That's a good fit obviously,": Swinney said.
"He's down there in that area. Not surprised at all.
"And I loved what he said. They're going to give a trophy out in April, so they're going to play to win and I think that's great. That's classic Coach Spurrier. It's going to be fun and sounds like it's going to be a neat league."
Swinney says he is excited about the new AAF because it opens more doors for players to continue their careers after college.
"Right now, there's not many options to play football after college," Swinney said.
"If you don't make the NFL and very few do, where do you go? I mean, there's not many options. Even the CFL (Canadian Football League) is hard because you have to have a certain amount of Canadians and things like that. So, this I think is great because again, there's going to be a trophy, it's an opportunity for guys who want to play football to have a chance to continue to play and develop."
The new AAF is scheduled to begin play in February of 2019 after the Super Bowl in Atlanta.
The league will have a 10-week regular season and a four-team playoff. CBS will air two primetime AAF games on its broadcast network in 2019, with the CBS Sports Network carrying the bulk of the games.