Spurrier fired up about strong WR lineup on Apollo roster
Orlando Apollos coach Steve Spurrier is a legendary offensive guru.
He was a Heisman-winning quarterback and he’s generally coaxed the most out of quarterbacks he’s mentored.
As the Apollos kicked off their preseason training camp in San Antonio, Texas, Spurrier was naturally asked about the quality of quarterback group. He touched on his signalcallers before quickly acknowledging the group he was most excited to see in action this season.
“Looking forward also to these wide receivers,” Spurrier said. “We had a bunch of guys that could really run fast and catch the ball and trying to get them to learn exactly how we run patterns and so forth.”
Spurrier hired Willie Jackson to be his wide receivers coach, marking the first they’ve ever been on a coaching staff together.
“I coached him as a player and he was one of the best wide receivers I ever coached,” Spurrier said of Jackson. “So hopefully he can impart his knowledge to these players and get them running routes close to the way he ran them.
“They will get open if they listen to Willie Jackson.”
The group includes a few familiar faces for UCF fans.
Former Knights Jeff Godfrey and Rannell Hall made the latest cut ahead of training camp and are listed as Apollos receivers.
Godfrey was a quarterback at UCF and aspired to play the position at the professional level, but the 5-foot-11 athlete has always been open to doing whatever it takes to earn snaps. He switched to playing receiver and performed well his senior year as quarterback Blake Bortles ran the Knights’ offense.
Former Gators Chris Thompson, Frankie Hammond and Louis Murphy Jr. and FSU's Marvin Bracy-Williams add to the Apollos’ speedy and athletic receiver corps.
Expect Spurrier to go with a modern playbook that puts the ball in playmakers’ hands as often as possible.
“Everything changes and if you can’t keep up, you are going to get left behind,” he said. “And those teams that are struggling now, and you know who they are, they haven’t caught up to speed with what’s happening with that ball going all over the place, guys going in motion all kind of that stuff.
“So we hopefully will have 2019 offense ready for the fans there in Orlando.”