Florida football: 15 greatest quarterbacks in Gators history
By John Buhler
Steve Spurrier is Florida football. He is the greatest head coach in school history, the first Heisman Trophy winner at Florida and easily the first transcendent quarterback to star for the Gators. Spurrier was born in Miami Beach, but grew up in Johnson City, Tennessee. Despite being an elite high school player, the University of Tennessee didn’t recruit him because the Volunteers ran the wing-T offense. That would end up being the Vols’ loss and the Gators’ gain.
Spurrier made his way down to Gainesville in 1963, but wasn’t allowed to play for the varsity team as a freshman due to the NCAA rules at the time. He would get playing as a true sophomore in 1964, but his numbers weren’t anything special. But that would all change in 1965.
As a junior, Spurrier completed 51.3 percent of his passes for 1,893 yards, 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He would be named a First-Team All-American in 1965, but everybody in Florida knows about his iconic 1966 NCAA season as a senior. This is when the legend of Spurrier really began.
Spurrier won the 1966 Heisman Trophy, the Walter Camp Memorial Trophy, was named SEC Player of the Year and was a First-Team All-American for the second consecutive season. He completed 61.5 percent of his passes for 2,012 yards, 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Spurrier had a knack for fourth quarter come-from-behind victories. This includes his most memorable game against Auburn in 1966, where he marched the Florida offense down the field before waiving the kicker off to attempt and make a 40-yard game-winning field goal.
After leaving Gainesville, Spurrier would be a first-round pick by the San Francisco 49ers in the 1967 NFL Draft. He spent a decade in the league primarily as the 49ers’ backup quarterback and punter. In his final NFL season, he would quarterback the expansion 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers to an 0-14 record. Spurrier would then enter the coaching world and become one of the greatest college coaches of all time.
He is seen as the greatest head coach at both the University of Florida and the University of South Carolina. Spurrier even had great success at Duke University before taking over the Florida program in 1990. He has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame both as a player and as a head coach. Simply put, Spurrier has the most impactful legacy of any man associated with Gators football in any capacity.