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‘Try something different’: Spurrier offers advice as Florida hits bye week

IMG_6615by: Blake Alderman09/23/25Blake_Alderman

The first quarter of the college football season has been brutal for the Florida Gators. Sitting at 1-3, Florida has dropped three straight games to USF, LSU, and Miami. The latest setback against the Hurricanes once again highlighted the offense’s woes, as the Gators managed just 141 total yards, with only 32 yards coming across their first six drives. It marks the program’s worst start since 1986.

Steve Spurrier gives his takeaways on Florida’s latest loss

Following yet another frustrating defeat, former Florida head coach Steve Spurrier weighed in on the Gators’ offensive struggles during the latest episode of ‘Another Dooley Noted Podcast‘.

“I don’t want to blame it all on the offensive line,” Spurrier said. “Could [DJ Lagway] have thrown the ball quicker? If you’re in the gun, it’s three steps, hitch, and throw. If there’s three steps, hitch, run around a little bit, you’re going to get sacked. I don’t know if he had anybody open. I don’t know exactly all the details. What I’m trying to say is, sometimes the quarterback needs to get rid of the ball on time instead of running around back in the pocket.”

While critical of the offense, Spurrier made a point to once again credit Florida’s defense — and even slipped in a trademark jab.

“Our defense has played well. Played very well. I guess the next thing we need to learn is how to score on defense since the offense doesn’t score much.”

Spurrier offers advice with the Florida Gators on a BYE week

Florida enters its bye week with no shortage of questions to answer ahead of back-to-back showdowns against No. 10 Texas and No. 9 Texas A&M. The Gators also stumbled early last season, but improved noticeably after their first open date. With another opportunity to reset, Spurrier was asked what advice he’d give this year’s squad.

“The only suggestion, like I said earlier, is try something different,” Spurrier said. “I’m certainly not telling Billy [Napier] and his guys what to do, but if it’s not going very well, try something different. Whatever that may be is up to him. Do we need different guys playing? That’s up to the coaches.”

In his conversation with Pat Dooley, Spurrier also pointed to the impact a mobile quarterback can have on an offense.

“The style now, not everywhere, but quarterbacks need to be able to run a bit,” Spurrier said. “I look back at our time at South Carolina, Connor Shaw, he’s the winningest QB in history there. He was a runner and passer. I still remember calling plays, quarterback sweep, fake a bunch of stuff, and pull a guy. When that quarterback can run, that adds an extra player that the defense has to account for.”

Staying positive moving forward

Spurrier made it clear the Florida Gators need to raise their level of play, but he also chose to keep his outlook optimistic with plenty of season left.

“Hopefully, we can get that improved here. I mean, we still have a winning season [on the table], although we got the Texas teams coming. We need to play better on offense, of course. Defense was pretty good. I think everybody gave them at least a ‘B’ rating for how we played defense. Unfortunately, we didn’t score enough to beat those guys.”

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