Spurrier’s history, personality boost AAF on, off field

Steve Spurrier, 73, was coaching in the United States Football League several years before any of his current Orlando Apollos players were even born.

But his ancient football wisdom isn’t what has made him important to his 5-1 team or the Alliance of American Football. It’s his youthful-like enthusiasm.

“He brings excitement, every day to practice, and has a great energy about him,” quarterback Garrett Gilbert said.

Engaging personality. Creative playcalling. Spirited conversation. Overflowing competitiveness. Nothing has changed for the man who launched his coaching career as Florida’s quarterback and receivers coach in 1978.

“I’m coaching the same way I did when I was 37,” Spurrier said.

He says that’s because he is serving as the quarterback coach and offensive coordinator as well as head coach, just as he did at Duke and Florida.

“I’m the play-caller, which means I’m coaching the way I did in the late 1980s and 1990s,” he said.

His presence has given the Apollos the AAF’s most entertaining offense. They average a league-best 27.6 points per game. Leading Spurrier’s Fun-NGun offense, Gilbert has passed for 1,625 yards, or 436 yards more than anyone else in the AAF.

Spurrier has always been known for trick plays, and he rolls them out weekly. Gilbert has even caught a touchdown on an option pass this season. “A lot of coaches come up with trick plays, but he’s going to call them at key moments,” Gilbert said. “He’s very creative.”

Apollos general manager Tim Ruskell, who has known Spurrier since their USFL days, said, “(Spurrier) is just as competitive today as he was in those USFL days.”

“He loves doing this,” Ruskell said. “He writes down plays wherever he is. He thinks up plays watching other games. He thinks up plays on the field. It’s part of his DNA.”

One of Spurrier’s strengths is there’s nothing he hasn’t seen. But another strength is he is always fresh.

“He doesn’t make it life or death. He wants players to enjoy what they are doing,” Ruskell said. “He’s not that guy who plans out every day until the last second.”

Ruskell said Spurrier has given credibility to his team and the league.

“People enjoy his style of coaching,” Ruskell said. “You see plays that come out of nowhere. He calls them at the right time and they always seem to work. It’s not just the same ol’ run up the middle. People love that.”

Besides coaching the Apollos to the league’s best record, Spurrier has been important to marketing the league. One of the league’s strengths is its collection of quality coaches, including Mike Singletary, Rick Neuheisel and Mike Martz. But Spurrier has a large following because he was a head coach with the USFL’s Tampa Bay Bandits, Duke, Florida, the Redskins and South Carolina.

“He’s an iconic figure, especially in Florida, but also nationally,” Ruskell said.

Spurrier had been working as an ambassador at Florida since he left South Carolina in 2015. But he was always open to a return to coaching, maybe because he didn’t like how things ended at South Carolina.

“The way I left was no good, no fun, not the way anyone envisions ending their career,” he said. “I had a team that I had assembled that had disgruntled players, disgruntled coaches, and I was doing a lousy job. Probably deserved to be fired. But it was time for me to move on and let them get started in a new direction.”

While watching games at Florida, he began to feel like he still had quality coaching in him. He was thankful when the AAF opportunity presented itself.

“My wife (Jerri) was more thrilled even than I was,” Spurrier said. The couple has been married 53 years.