COLUMBIA, S.C. — He will never say never and he left open the possibility of perhaps taking one final coaching job but in all likelihood, Steve Spurrier has hung up his headsets.
The all-time winningest coach at Florida and South Carolina is 74 years of age and still has a job at his alma mater. Spurrier is an ambassador and consultant for the University of Florida athletics department, a position he has held since July of 2016.
"I'm probably done coaching. I'm in my 70s now and had a wonderful career," Spurrier said.
"I am probably finished, fortunately I'm still working at my alma mater, the University of Florida, sort of an ambassador/consultant. Got an office there so I'm staying busy I can assure you of that."
That "wonderful career" includes the 1996 national championship at Florida, an ACC championship at Duke and six SEC championships in Gainesville. He also led the Gamecock program to the 2010 SEC Eastern Division title, a first for the program. While at South Carolina, he led the program to three consecutive 11-win seasons, Previously, the most wins in a single season for the program had been 10.
Six games into the 2015 season, Spurrier had that highly publicized announcement that he was stepping down. At the time, he did not rule out a return to coaching and that proved to be the case.
Spurrier was the head coach of the Orlando Apollos in the Alliance of American Football, a spring professional football league which began competing in February of 2019 but folded after eight games last spring. The HBC, always the competitor, noted that with his team having a league best 7-1 record, it would go down as the AAF champion.
Last month, Spurrier faced off against former Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer in the Polynesian Bowl which took place in Hawaii and featured elite high school players. Spurrier's team was victorious 20-13.
Spurrier may still take those one-game assignments off and on but unless the right opportunity comes along and his balky back improves, the HBC is likely through patrolling the sidelines.