Anytime a 69-year-old coach goes through a long, tough season, it’s reasonable to wonder if the golf course is going to start looking much more appealing than the film room. Especially if that coach is Steve Spurrier, a guy who already spends a lot of time on the golf course in the first place.
But the Head Ball Coach revealed Monday that he will return in 2015, and you can go ahead and mark him down for 2016 and possibly 2017 as well.
“I’m in. I’m in,” Spurrier told The State. “We had some down times and some of this, that and the other, but we’ve got a lot of good players on the way.”
Spurrier, already a College Football Hall of Famer as a player and the all-time winningest coach at Florida, is the winningest coach in South Carolina history at 83-45 through 10 seasons.
“Give me two or three more,” he said. “I used to say four or five, now I’m down to two or three. I mean, I could get in a car wreck, but I’m definitely planning on being back.”
The 2014 campaign was South Carolina’s worst since 2007, finishing the regular season at 6-6 and losing to Clemson for the first time since 2008.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Spurrier said he wasn’t planning on firing any of his assistants - though that doesn’t mean he won’t encourage some to find employment elsewhere. The Gamecocks ranked 108th nationally in yards per play allowed and 93rd in total defense.
“All our coaches are out recruiting. All of coaches are under contract,” he said. “Some of them may get a job somewhere else, you never know, and we’ll go from there. We are probably pretty flexible right now a little bit on the staff, but I believe that almost all of our guys will be back.”
Spurrier did tell The State he may reorganize his staff, but no changes were likely to occur before National Signing Day in February.
