Steve Spurrier open to helping Florida in coaching search if asked

Steve Spurrier is willing to offer his opinion in the search for the next Florida football coach if university leaders want to hear it. Following the firing of Billy Napier on Sunday, the hunt is underway to find the 30th coach in program history.

Spurrier is the winningest coach in Gators history with a record of 122-27 across a tenure that lasted 12 seasons from 1990-2001. He was asked whether he would be interested in helping with the coaching search on a recent episode of Another Dooley Noted Podcast.

“If asked to help out a little bit, certainly I would try,” he said. “But I don’t have any one particular guy I say, ‘Go hire.’ There’s a lot of good ones out there and whether or not some of these guys have got it made here or want to take a chance and go to Florida. So I don’t know. But if asked to help out or make a suggestion to our AD, I would certainly do that.”

Napier was midway through his fourth season in Gainesville and was 3-4 so far this year. He ends his career at Florida with a 22-23 overall record and one bowl appearance, which he won last year in the Gasparilla Bowl against Tulane.

Florida started off this season with a 1-3 record and it was clear from that point that fans wanted Napier out. There was a brief glimmer of hope after the Gators upset then No. 9 Texas to snap a three-game losing streak, but they lost the following week by a score of 34-17 against Texas A&M.

Even after a narrow 23-21 win against Mississippi State on Saturday, Napier’s fate was sealed as it seems Florida had already made the decision to let him go heading into the upcoming bye week. Now the search is on and Spurrier’s opinion is certainly worth hearing.

The “Head Ball Coach” led Florida to a national championship in the 1996 season as well as six SEC Championships across his 12 seasons in Gainesville. He left for the NFL in 2002 and was the coach of Washington for two seasons before returning to the college game in 2005 as the coach at South Carolina.

There’s been several names mentioned early on as the dust settles with Napier’s firing, but Spurrier doesn’t have a favorite according to his own words. We’ll see whether athletic director Scott Stricklin asks for his input, but there will likely be a lot of different voices involved in the decision.