COMMENTARY : Duke’s Fashionable, Flashy Spurrier Is on Many Wish Lists

If there is a rumor, Steve Spurrier is the subject of it. If there is a job, he is supposedly about to be offered it. Will he stay at Duke or will he go, and to where--Atlanta, Phoenix, Florida? Spurrier has provoked a swirl of hearsay and speculation simply with the come-hither words, “I’ll listen.”

It seems that every team in need of a fix has given Spurrier at least an admiring glance. “Even in Pop Warner,” Duke quarterback Billy Ray said. Named the Atlantic Coast Conference coach of the year twice in a row, ambitious creator of an attention-getting offense, Spurrier has the unmistakable glint of success at Duke, rarely known for its football until his arrival.

Thus far Spurrier has been formally contacted only by alma mater Florida, with another meeting scheduled with Gators representatives in two weeks. They had better hurry, because it appears several other teams may talk to him. The Atlanta Falcons seek a replacement for retired Marion Campbell, the Phoenix Cardinals for fired Gene Stallings, and Joe Walton is said to be on unsteady footing with the New York Jets.

“I’m in a position to listen if other teams or schools want to talk to me,” Spurrier said. “ . . . I’m the Duke coach until something changes. But if there’s an opportunity to do something you think you want to do in life, you listen.”

Spurrier said he is in no hurry to meet the Florida people again, and will not make any decisions until after he coaches Duke through its first bowl game since 1961, the All American against Texas Tech in Birmingham on Dec. 28. Of the other oft-mentioned potential job candidacies, he would only say: “There is a possibility I may talk to other people.”

So the Blue Devils must wait and watch.

Duke Athletic Director Tom Butters has offered Spurrier a comprehensive financial package that would make him the highest-paid ACC coach, and clearly will not let him slip away for lack of effort. Spurrier is the flashiest, most fashionable thing in college football at the moment, and may very well have the substance to back up his growing reputation. In his three years as Duke’s head coach, the Blue Devils have won 20 games; that is compared with the 13 they won in the four previous years before he assumed control of the program.

Spurrier may deserve a higher salary by virtue of the fact that he embodies the three-fold duties of head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. The offense was designed by him, and it has given the Blue Devils their first eight-win season and share of the ACC title since 1962. For the last three years, they have led the conference in total offense and passing. This season they set an all-time ACC record of 501.7 yards a game.

After starting 1-3, the Blue Devils won their last seven straight, including a 21-17 upset of Clemson after trailing by 14-0 at halftime, a game that Spurrier had calculatedly told them they had only a “one-in-a-million chance of winning.” They won their last six games by a margin of at least nine points. “We played better than we know how to really,” Spurrier said. “But it wasn’t any fluke either.”

Spurrier’s offense is designed with one overriding intent: to gain as many yards as possible. All-American receiver Clarkston Hines has caught at least 1,000 yards worth of passes for three years. “It’s swift, it’s intricate,” Hines said. “We have people going all different places.” It’s also balanced: Randy Cuthbert this season became the Blue Devils’ first 1,000-yard rusher since 1972.

“The way (Spurrier) sees it,” Ray said, “If we don’t gain at least 400 yards, it looks bad on him.”

Spurrier naturally speaks to a player’s mentality, as he has the distinction of being the only Heisman Trophy winner to hold an NCAA Division I head coach’s job.

He describes his offensive philosophy in typically casual terms. “If they’ve got eight or nine guys on the line, we’ll throw. If they’ve got a lot of guys in the secondary, we’ll run.” When Ray faced third and long against Clemson, Ray said, “Coach, it’s third and forever.” Spurrier shrugged and said, “Just throw it as far as you can.”

Spurrier’s entry into coaching was unplanned. He spent the uncertain year of 1977 sitting in an armchair in Gainesville, Fla., watching football on television. His career as an NFL quarterback, with San Francisco for nine years and Tampa Bay for one, had ended. Doug Dickey, then the coach at Florida, offered him a job as an assistant, but Dickey was fired the next season. So Spurrier caught on with Pepper Rodgers at Georgia Tech, then Rodgers was fired a year later. So Spurrier went to Duke as an assistant and has remained save for his two years (1983-85) with the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL.

Spurrier, unashamedly upwardly mobile, said the moves gave him a resume. “Looking back on it, that’s what helped my career,” he said. “ . . . You actually need to move as an assistant coach. You develop a track record, people see how players played when you were there. . . . You learn things all the time. I’m still learning.”

Whether Spurrier will move is pure conjecture at this point. His ties to Florida are strong, and some Gators factions view the former quarterback who took them to the Sugar and Orange bowls as a uniting influence in the wake of a wide-ranging NCAA investigation. But reportedly Athletic Director Bill Arnsparger is among those who seem less enthusiastic.

The Blue Devils and Gators must contend with Spurrier’s obvious attractiveness to the NFL, and the fact that many say he does not care for the recruiting necessary in college coaching. In his two seasons with Tampa Bay, he amassed a record of 35-19 and went to the USFL playoffs twice.

Spurrier has been candid with Duke players and officials about his intention to listen to other offers. When Florida Coach Galen Hall resigned in October, Spurrier told them not to be surprised if his name surfaced as a candidate. “They knew I’d be talking to people after the season,” he said. “But I told them I’ll coach them as hard as I can. It didn’t bother us.”

So the Blue Devils have a certain realism. “He never promised to coach here for the rest of his life,” one official said. Yet there is also a sentiment among them that if Spurrier does depart, they would rather see him take an NFL job than one at another college.

“The way I see it, it’s a compliment. People are saying they respect his ability,” Hines said.