Florida Gators icon Steve Spurrier dishes on Peyton Manning's recruitment, Anthony Richardson's ability and NIL

Steve Spurrier: All-American player. Legendary coach. College football icon.

Spurrier, who won the Heisman Trophy as Florida quarterback in 1966 and later led the Gators to the national championship while going 122–27–1 as coach, is all of that and so much more, especially to Gator fans.

Today, the man who turns 78 next week is the school’s athletic “Ambassador.”

But he will always be known to many in Gator Country as this: the head ball coach.

Gators Online caught up with Spurrier this week to discuss a wide range of subjects, from the nostalgic to the current.

TOPIC 1: Spurrier’s great 1-liners ….

“Usually somebody told me those little corny jokes and I said all of them during the offseason. People think I was talking like that during the season. No, I wasn’t talking like that during the season. I did approximately 21 or 22 Gator clubs every spring/summer. And, they want to hear something funny. So, you can’t spell Citrus without a UT in it and things like that. Somebody would tell me that on the way to the meeting and I’d say, ‘I think I’ll use that tonight and the Gators will get a kick out of it.’

Bobby Bowden used to tell his corny Gator jokes when he did the Seminole Club meetings in the offseason. I’d rather be known for winning seven SEC championships and 83 percent of our games and going 68-5 at home — things like that. I’d rather be known for that than the corny one-liners that we threw out during the offseason.”

TOPIC 2: Who he was most thrilled to play a round of golf with …

“Probably Willie Mays. I played with Willie Mays one day. It was the golf course John Brodie belonged to. It was called Sharon Heights in the Palo Alto area down near Stanford. And Willie and a friend of his came. And myself and a guy who was a member there, we played with Willie and his friend. So that was fun. As a youngster growing up, he was right there with my favorite baseball player. The ‘Say Hey Kid.'”

TOPIC 3: These are the wins that really stand out …

“Lots of times I look back on the key games that started the run. The key game was Duke vs. Clemson in 1989. We came into that game with a 1-3 record. Now, all three (losses) were road games. At Duke, we played five home games and six road games every year. The AD wanted to get a paycheck and we made more paying on the road than we did at home.

But Clemson came in 4-0 and I think No. 7 in the nation and of course we were not ranked — were a 20 or 21-point underdog. And we’re down 14-0 at the half. But we’d had an emotional get-tougher Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We really believed we had a chance to beat these guys.

And our guys were playing as hard as they could. We got a big break right in the middle of the third quarter. We threw about a 50-yard interception and their guy caught it and ran backwards a little bit — and decided to change directions. Field directions. And he dropped the ball. And we got it on their 20-yard line. Went in and scored. Got it back, scored again and now it’s 14-14. They kicked a long field goal but we scored with about four or five minutes left in the game and held them to win 21-17. And after we beat them, won all the rest of the games.

We won five straight ACC games, we found a running back, and our quarterbacks played very well and our defense played pretty doggone well, too. That started it and then I got a chance to get the Florida job. If we don’t beat Clemson I don’t think I’d ever have gotten the Florida job. They weren’t going to hire me unless we did something heroic like 8-3 and ACC champs. So that got me the Florida job.

And then, that Alabama game — the second game we played (in 1990) — up there.

We’re down 10-0 at the half. I remember, one of our players, Jerry Odom, he said in the past if we were down 10-0 on the road everybody would look at each other like, we don’t have a chance. But for some reason even at halftime we said, ‘Hey, like coach says, just keep playing and something good can happen.’ And we ended up beating them 17-13. And then we went on and won the SEC that year and then won it five of the next six years. That Alabama game had to be the key one right there. That’s the one that got us kick-started.”

TOPIC 4: The losses that keep Steve Spurrier up at night …

“Yeah, I don’t like the ’98 Tennessee or FSU losses. Both of them were on the road. I mean, stuff happened. We lost to Tennessee by three points. And in the FSU game, we had an interception go through our hands. Their reciever caught it and ran for a touchdown. Then, we hit the quarterback and he fumbled in his own end zone. Our guy fell on it but he didn’t get his hands on it. And a couple of their linemen fell on him and the ball comes squirting out. So instead of seven we got two. Stuff happened. We got beat. Our ’98 team was right there about as good as all the rest.

And then the 2001 Tennessee game — we lost 34-32 at home. And that team, we beat our SEC opponents by I want to say an average of 27 or 28 points. But we had two close games and we lost both of them. That team finished third in the nation but it felt like we didn’t win anything. We went 10-2 again.”

TOPIC 5: Spurrier’s thoughts on the NIL world and whether he’d like coaching today …

“Ohhh no … no. I’m glad I don’t have to mess with it. I sort of wish they would have a law or rule that you can’t give them any money up front. But after they get to your school, they can make their own deals. You know, you can provide them, with, ‘Talk to these people if you like .. they’re in position to do a deal with you. Or if you have an agent, have him call them or whatever.’ But giving money up front, I think the players nowadays they can take the money up front and then decide they don’t want to go to that school, transfer somewhere else.

They don’t have to give the money back. So it’s sort of a mess but that’s the way it is right now. I guess the coaches have to learn to live with it. There was a big article in the local paper today about Florida Victorious — an organization trying to raise money. If all you boosters would put in money, send it in so we can give it to the athletes. And most all schools are doing it now so we’ve got to keep up I guess.”

TOPIC 6: The traits Spurrier looked for when recruiting a quarterback …

“I guess you look at lots of things, but mostly maybe his leadership ability. Obviously, he’s got to be an excellent passer — a good passer. You can improve passers by teaching fundamentals if the ball comes out of his hands … we used to tell all the quarterbacks, ‘Only God can give you the ability for the ball to come out of your hand with a nice spiral and accuracy and all that kind of stuff.’ But the footwork and ball position, shoulders, head position — all that kind of stuff, you can coach players that have talent to be better. So, probably the character, the leadership and obviously he’s got to be a good passer also.”

TOPIC 7: Was there one quarterback recruit he really wanted that got away?

“Nah, not really. I remember, our coach that was recruiting Peyton Manning. He came in one morning and said, ‘Coach, Peyton committed to Tennessee last night.’ I looked at him and I said, “You know what, Tennessee is probably the best place for him to go.” We had Danny Wuerffel and Eric Kresser already there (after) being redshirted.

And Peyton knew that also. His dad even said Tennessee was the best opportunity for him. I said, ‘You’re right.’ Of course we were recruiting him. He picked the best school. He really did because he picked the best situation. If he’d have come to our place, you know what, Danny Wuerffel would probably never gotten a chance to play. Because he wouldn’t have transferred. That’s not the kind of guy he is. He made his commitment to us and I doubt that he would transfer.”

TOPIC 8: The Gators QB who didn’t play for him that he would want to coach …

“Anthony Richardson. I said watching Anthony Richardson play the last couple of years I would like to have attempted to coach him. At times, he looked like he was lost. At other times, he looked like Lamar Jackson and Tom Brady. He looked like a million dollars and more at times. And at times, hey why’d you do that? Why’d you throw the ball out in the flat to the defensive back who ran for a touchdown. He did that twice. Gee, what happened? What are you thinking? I would have loved to coach him.

TOPIC 9: How would Steve Spurrier have coached Steve Spurrier the player?

“Oh, I would have been a lot tougher on me. I wish I had someone yelling at me and screaming at me most of the time. Not in college so much, but in pro ball. In pro ball, I went to San Francisco to be behind John Brodie. I did that for seven years. Maybe your give a damn or your attitude knowing you’re not going to play probably affected me a little bit. I got a chance to play in ’72 a lot. But that was about it. But actually, being a backup quarterback I was able to last 10 years. So, pension money at age 65 for a 10-year veteran is really good.”

TOPIC 10: The future of Florida football …

“I haven’t been to many (practices) lately. I’ve been to one or two of Billy Napier’s. They had a scrimmage a couple weeks ago. I watched most of it. Time will tell. Time will tell. Obviously, we struggled last year, 6-7. Struggled the year before, 6-7. So we need to get better. We need to get better — there’s no question about it. I think we’re on the right track, but time will tell.”