Steve Spurrier: Florida would've won multiple national titles if expanded playoff existed during his tenure

Steve Spurrier enjoyed plenty of success at Florida, both as a player and a coach. He won the 1966 Heisman Trophy as a Gator and 30 years later led his alma mater to a national title as head coach.

And during his 12-year run as the head coach, Spurrier never posted fewer than nine wins and coached his teams to 10 or more wins in nine of his 12 seasons there. But for all the success, Spurrier only won the one national title, going 12-1 in 1996.

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Had there been an expanded playoff, Spurrier suspects the Gators could’ve challenged for more championships.

“I sort of like it,” Spurrier said of the 12-team College Football Playoff. “I felt we should always have maybe eight teams playing off for the national championship. Because obviously the schedules are so important on who gets in the final two, the final four and all that. So, anyway, I know we had some of the best teams, really all 12 years I was here and if it had an eight-team playoff, I think we would’ve won more than one national championship.”

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Had there been even an eight-team playoff, Spurrier’s Gators likely would’ve been frequently in the field. In eight of the 12 seasons Spurrier was the head coach, Florida finished the season ranked inside the Top 8 of the AP Poll. They had five seasons finishing in the Top 5, excluding the national championship campaign in 1996.

It’s hard to say Spurrier’s conviction that he’d have won a few more national titles is a certainty, had there been an expanded playoff. But it’s probably safe to assume the Gators would’ve been right in the running, and ready to pounce in the postseason.

Spurrier thinks Florida has all the ingredients to be successful

From his run of winning seasons to hoisting a national championship trophy, he’s seen and done it firsthand.

And while there’s been no shortage of change to college sports since Spurrier last coached the Gators, he still thinks the pieces are in place for the Gators to thrive on the gridiron. He explained his thinking on The Paul Finebaum Show on Friday in Gainesville.

“Three losing seasons in a row, first time since the 1940s. None of us were here in the 40s,” Spurrier said. “We’ve got everything here to be successful. We’ve got ballplayers in our state, of course you go all over the country, now. And we’ve got the fans, we’ve got the stadium. And I think we’ve got the coaches and the facilities are as good as anybody. So it’s all here and we need to put it all together.”

The question of putting together has, arguably, been where it’s fallen short for the Gators of late. And head coach Billy Napier, entering his third year with an 11-14 overall record, certainly would benefit from not only a win this weekend, but getting the Gators back to a more consistently successful spot — one Spurrier thinks shouldn’t be too hard to find.