Before SEC, Spurrier made his name at Duke

Steve Spurrier explained the timing of his resignation as South Carolina’s coach Tuesday, six games into the college football season.

“Sometimes you run your course and you’ve had your run and you’re ready to pass it to the next guy,” Spurrier said at his press conference, which ESPN aired live from Columbia, S.C.

Few coaches had as many “runs” as Spurrier, who leaves the game as the winningest coach at both Florida and South Carolina.

Spurrier led Florida to the 1996 national title and six SEC championships, and then had three straight 11-win seasons with the Gamecocks.

Before he found success in the SEC, Spurrier made his name at Duke. Spurrier led the Blue Devils to a share of the ACC title in 1989, his third and final season in Durham.

The Devils went 8-4 that year, including a 6-1 mark in the ACC, and tied for the ACC crown with Virginia. Spurrier is the only Triangle coach in the last 30 years to win an ACC title.

Spurrier, 70, has always remembered his tenure at Duke fondly. He was also an assistant coach for the Blue Devils for three years in the early 1980s before his stint in the United States Football League.

Before he came back to Durham last year to commemorate the team’s ACC championship, Spurrier said he was thankful for his opportunity at Duke.

“I had some good teams there,” Spurrier said last August. “I tell everybody that whatever kind of coach I am, I learned it at Duke University, and I mean that sincerely.”

Spurrier’s first Duke team went 5-6, but the tone was set for the next two seasons. The wide-open approach on offense, featuring All-American receiver Clarkston Hines, was well ahead of its time.

Spurrier’s innovative offense produced the ACC’s top passer in his first two seasons, with quarterback Anthony Dilweg winning conference player of the year honors in 1988.

Duke hadn’t won more than six games in a season since 1962 before Spurrier led them to a 7-3-1 record in 1988.

The Devils hadn’t won the ACC title since 1962 and hadn’t been to a bowl game since 1960 until Spurrier knocked down both barriers in ’89.

His last ACC game, a 41-0 win at North Carolina, was immortalized in a photograph of Spurrier and his Duke players posing in front of the Kenan Stadium scoreboard.

Spurrier left for Florida after the ’89 season and spent 12 seasons at his alma mater, winning 122 games before a brief stint in the NFL with the Washington Redskins.

Spurrier returned to the SEC at South Carolina in 2005 and built the Gamecocks into a top 10 program.

Few things gave Spurrier greater pleasure than beating UNC. He returned to Chapel Hill in 2007, for the first time since the 41-0 rout, and South Carolina handled UNC, 21-15.

“I didn’t want to lose up here,” Spurrier said after the game. “I’m happy for the Dukies and the South Carolina people. I felt like I was coaching for both of them today.”

Spurrier would beat the Tar Heels again in 2013 in Columbia and in the season-opener this year in Charlotte, giving him a career 6-0 record. But the Gamecocks have struggled in SEC play, losing at home to Kentucky and by 32 to Georgia, another one of his usual annual victims.

With a home game with Vanderbilt on deck, and then an open date, Spurrier went to South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner on Sunday and told him he was done.

“It’s time for me to get out of the way and let somebody else have a go at it,” Spurrier said.

This story was originally published October 13, 2015 at 1:31 PM with the headline "Before SEC, Spurrier made his name at Duke."