ORLANDO, Fla. _ It's official: Steve Spurrier, the Florida Gators' legendary Head Ball Coach, is now the new ball coach of the just-announced Orlando team in the new Alliance of American Football.
Spurrier told the Orlando Sentinel a few days ago that a deal may be in the works with the new pro league, and on Saturday, Spurrier was announced as the very first coach of the very first team in the Alliance. The story was first reported by CBS News.
There is no name for Orlando's team yet, but games are planned to be played at UCF's Spectrum Stadium. Season-ticket seat deposits will go on sale beginning at 4 p.m. on April 17 at aaf.com. Ticket pricing and seating will be announced this summer.
The inaugural 10-week season is scheduled to begin Feb. 9, 2019. The marquee opening game and the championship game will be televised on CBS and there will be a Game of the Week on CBS Sports Network.
Other cities and coaches in the eight-team league will be rolled out in the next few days. Rosters are to be filled with a regional draft of players in each team's geographic area.
"We want to get some of those UCF players," Spurrier told the Sentinel. "Hopefully, we can play nearly as well (in Spectrum Stadium) as that national championship UCF team!"
"Our plan is to get some Gators, some Knights and a lot of other in-state players and SEC-type players," Spurrier added.
Spurrier, of course, is one of the most exciting coaches in the history of college football. When he was at UF during the 1990s, his legendary Fun 'N Gun offense revolutionized the Southeastern Conference.
He stepped down as the head coach of South Carolina in 2015 and has been serving as a consultant and ambassador at UF in the interim. He says will continue in that role at UF, but will take a leave of absence to fulfill his coaching duties in the Alliance. He has signed a one-year contract with the new league and says he will decide on a year-to-year basis if he wants to continue coaching.
Even when he left South Carolina, Spurrier, 72, never closed the door on returning to coaching. At his farewell news conference as head coach of the Gamecocks, he stressed that he was "resigning" and not "retiring." It was clear when he talked to the Sentinel earlier this month that he had the itch to return to coaching.
The Head Ball Coach expounded on The Paul Finebaum Show earlier this week on the SEC Network, where he said UF's offensive woes over the last few years had given him the urge to return.
"My close friends have said, 'You ought to go for that thing. You need a challenge in life,'" Spurrier told Finebaum. "Yeah, I miss the challenge. I think maybe watching the Gator offense the last couple years has given me the itch to try and do that again."
One reason, Spurrier told the Sentinel he is intrigued about the Alliance of American Football (AAF) is that it seems to be well-funded, already has a CBS TV contract and is backed by industry heavyweights such as Charlie Ebersol and Bill Polian.
"We focused on cities who were looking for more football," Ebersol said in a news release. "Orlando has already proven to be a passionate, loyal and engaged fan base that loves the game, yet they don't have a professional football team to call their own."
