page_title: Steve Spurrier
section_title: Florida (1990–2001)
hierarchical_section_title: Steve Spurrier / Coaching career / Head coach / Florida (1990–2001)
caption_attribution_description: English: Steve Spurrier at fan day while coaching the Florida Gators, 1999
context_page_description: Stephen Orr Spurrier is a former American football player and coach often referred to by his nickname, the "Head Ball Coach". Steve Spurrier was born in Miami Beach, Florida and grew up in Tennessee, where he was a multi-sport all-state athlete at Science Hill High School in Johnson City. He attended the University of Florida, where he won the 1966 Heisman Trophy as a college football quarterback with the Florida Gators. The San Francisco 49ers picked him in the first round of the 1967 NFL draft, and he spent a decade playing professionally in the National Football League, mainly as a backup quarterback and punter. Spurrier was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a player in 1986.
  After retiring as a player, Spurrier went into coaching and spent several years as an assistant at several college programs, including at Duke University, 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 United States Football League in 1983.
context_section_description: In December 1989, Spurrier accepted an offer to return to the University of Florida as the Gators' "head ball coach." He had privately expressed interest in the job in early October, when Florida coach Galen Hall was fired mid-season for his alleged involvement in an NCAA rules violation and prominent Gator boosters reached out to Spurrier. However, he delayed any further discussion at that time to concentrate on coaching Duke. After the Blue Devils clinched the ACC championship in their last regular season game, Spurrier met with University of Florida president Robert Bryan and athletic director Bill Arnsparger, and he agreed in principle to return to Florida on December 12.
  Spurrier asked to delay an official announcement until both Florida and Duke had played in their respective bowl games. As rumors swirled, however, Spurrier broke the news to his Duke team on December 27, the night before they played in the 1989 All-American Bowl. They played poorly and lost, and Spurrier later decided that he should have waited to tell his team until after the game, and that when it came to coaching jobs, "it's best to make your decision and move on quickly". Spurrier was officially announced as Florida's new football coach on December 31, 1989.
  During his introductory press conference on New Year's Eve 1989, Spurrier said that he wanted to immediately change several things, including bringing back blue jerseys (Florida had switched from traditional blue to orange in 1979 under Charley Pell), bringing back natural grass to Florida Field (artificial turf had been installed in the early 1970s), and putting Miami back on the schedule (the schools' annual series had ended after the 1987 game). He stressed the need to beat traditional rivals Auburn, Georgia, and Florida State, against whom Florida had gone 0-9 over the previous three seasons. Finally, he worked to convince Gator players and fans alike that it was possible to win championships at Florida, which had still never won an officially recognized conference title in 83 years of football. To that effect, he put together a booklet called "The Gator Mentality", in which is collected coaching tips and theories that he used himself along with inspirational quotes he shared with his players.
  Spurrier inherited a team under NCAA investigation for the second time in five years. He successfully steered the program away from the previous scandals and led the Gators to the best record in the SEC in his first year, though they were declared ineligible for the league title due to NCAA probation handed down during the season. Building on the success of Spurrier's first year, Florida finally captured their first officially recognized SEC title in 1991. Under Spurrier, the Gators represented the SEC East in the first five SEC Championship Games, winning four of them.  The 1996 team captured the Gators' first-ever National Championship with a 52–20 win over Florida State in the Sugar Bowl, avenging the Gators' sole regular season loss in which Florida State upset Florida 24–21 in Tallahassee.
  Spurrier's finest moment as a coach may have been the Gators' 1997 game against the previously undefeated and national title game-bound Florida State Seminoles.  Spurrier used a two-quarterback offense, rotating quarterbacks Doug Johnson and Noah Brindise in and out of the game, confusing the Florida State defense and its veteran coordinator, Mickey Andrews, and giving Spurrier more time to counsel his quarterbacks on the sidelines without having to use time-outs.  Florida upset the heavily favored Seminoles 32–29.
  Significantly, Spurrier is credited with changing the way the SEC played football.  Spurrier employed a pass-oriented offense (known in the sports media as the "Fun 'n' Gun") in contrast to the ball-control, rush-oriented offenses that were traditionally played in the SEC.  His innovative offensive schemes forced many coaches in the SEC to change their offensive and defensive play-calling.
  While his offensive style used a more wide open passing game than the SEC was accustomed to, Spurrier was al
caption: Steve Spurrier on Fan Day, 1999
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