McElwain’s bad offense got Spurrier back into coaching

Former Florida Gators coach Jim McElwain’s offense was so bad that it turned out to at least be good for something.

Florida’s offense has been so horrid over the last few years that it made the iconic Steve Spurrier restless and eager to start calling ball plays once again.

Spurrier, college football’s legendary Head Ball Coach, announced Saturday he is returning to the sidelines as the coach of Orlando’s new professional football team in 2019 in part because of the frustration of watching UF’s bumbling mishmash of offensive confusion.

“Sitting up there watching how inept the Gator offense was, it got me to thinking that maybe I’m wasting whatever coaching ability I have,” Spurrier told me Saturday after being announced as the very first coach of the very first team in the new Alliance of American Football. “I did not want to return to college coaching and this is an ideal situation for me. I get to coach again and I’m coaching in Florida — a place I’ve always loved. I certainly wouldn’t be doing it if the team were located somewhere else.

“I love being a part of a team; I miss that,” added Spurrier, who will take a leave of absence from his consulting/ambassador job at UF to fulfill his coaching obligations. “I miss helping a bunch of players try to win a championship. Believe me, we’re gonna try our best to score a bunch of points down there in O-Town and win the first championship of the Alliance of American Football.”

The games will be played at UCF’s Spectrum Stadium, where Spurrier said, “Hopefully we can play nearly as well as that national championship UCF team!”

In other words, the stadium that houses an offense known as UCFast in the fall will host Spurrier’s vaunted Fun ’N’ Gun offense in the spring. Memo to UCF athletics director Danny White: The scoreboard software at the Spec may need to be upgraded.

Spurrier’s former players certainly aren’t surprised he is returning to the sideline. In fact, some of them, including former UF quarterback Noah Brindise, tried to talk Spurrier into returning to the Gators as the head coach after McElwain got fired.

Even though he’s a young 72, Spurrier wanted no part of jumping back into the college football pressure cooker, but he badly wanted to scratch that perpetual coaching itch. This is the perfect outlet: A spring league with a 10-week season where a premium will be put on offense and scoring points.

“It’s his passion; it’s what he loves to do,” said Shane Matthews, Spurrier’s first quarterback at UF. “He cannot stay away from calling ball plays.”

The age-old question is: Will this league work in Orlando, which has been home to numerous defunct pro football leagues dating back decades? We’ve had the Rage and the Renegades, the Panthers and the Predators, the Thunder and the Tuskers. (Hey, Bianchi, don’t forget the Blazers!) … Oh yeah, and the Blazers, too. Ironically, Spurrier has been involved with three expansion pro football franchises in the State of Florida. He quarterbacked the Tampa Bay Bucs during their expansion year in 1976, he coached the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL and now the Orlando team in the Alliance.

“I don’t know if I’ll make that fourth new league or not,” Spurrier cracked.

Hiring Spurrier, one of the most popular and charismatic coaches in the history of college football, certainly gives this new Orlando team a better chance than the old Orlando teams. Spurrier says one of the reasons he believes the new league is “set up for success” is because it is being started by industry heavyweights such as Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian.

Spurrier also believes the quality of play will satisfy fans considering there are only about 1,700 players in the NFL and more than 73,000 that play college football. In other sports, like basketball, baseball and soccer, there are other professional leagues worldwide where talented players can go; in football that’s not the case.

“We’re going to put a highquality product out there because we have a high-quality group of players to choose from,” Spurrier said. “There are a lot of good ball players who don’t have any place to play. Well, come play with us.”

Said former UCF quarterback Jeff Godfrey, who worked out for NFL scouts at the Knights’ Pro Day last week: “I would love to come back and play in Orlando. It would be like coming home again.”

Spurrier also believes the new rules and the speed of the game will be attractive to fans who don’t have the time or patience to sit through a four-hour football game.

Officials of the new football league, much like those who run more established leagues in all sports, are well aware that American sports fans, particularly younger fans, don’t have the attention span they once did.

“I love the new rules in the Alliance,” Spurrier said. “The games are going to be 2 ½ hours with a 30-second clock in between plays. There’s not going to be a lot of dead time. Our motto is, ‘Let’s get going, let’s run some ball plays, let’s score some points.’ ”

This sounds like it could be fun. A lot of fun. A lot of Fun ’N’ Gun. Thank you, Jim McElwain, for giving Orlando sports fans a chance to witness the final act in the immortal legacy of the Head Ball Coach.

Mike Bianchi