The Head Ball Coach is hanging up his visor effective immediately, FootballScoop can confirm. Sports Illustrated first reported the news Monday evening.
An interim head coach will be named Tuesday morning at 8:30 ET.
A true original in every sense of the word, Spurrier won a Heisman Trophy as a Florida quarterback in 1966, then returned to his alma mater in 1990 and turned the Gators into a juggernaut. His Fun 'n' Gun system was ahead of its time, plowing through SEC defenses to the tune of eight top 10 finishes in a dozen seasons, a school-record 122 wins and a national championship in 1996.
After a brief stint with the NFL's Washington Redskins, Spurrier returned to the college game at South Carolina in 2005 and took to the Gamecocks to heights previously unreached, peaking with an unprecedented SEC East championship in 2010 and three straight 11-2 seasons from 2011-13.
That peak saw a steep drop off, though. South Carolina slid to a 6-6 regular season in 2014, though Spurrier insisted an Independence Bowl victory over Miami had re-energized him. After an offseason spent picking fights with Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia (this is the Head Ball Coach we're talking about), South Carolina sputtered to a 2-4 start with blowout losses to Georgia and LSU. Two Sundays ago, Scott wrote that this felt like this would happen now. He did not want to be right.
With possible setbacks to Vanderbilt, Florida and Clemson on the horizon, it appears Spurrier decided to call it a day. And for that, we are all worse for it.
South Carolina becomes the fifth FBS program to make a head coaching change this season - and fourth this week, following Illinois (announced in August), North Texas (Saturday night), Maryland (Sunday) and USC (earlier today). As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
From Dan Wetzel:
