Steve Spurrier To Remain at South Carolina: 'I’m Good To Go'

Steve Spurrier did his best Arnold impersonation – telling the media and the members of the South Carolina athletic department that he would be back on the sidelines, coaching the Gamecocks in 2015.

Whether his staff remains intact for the 2015 season still remains to be seen.

After a 6-6 season where the Gamecocks were picked in the preseason to finish in the top 10, it looked at times during the season that a very frustrated Spurrier might hang up his visor and retire to Crescent Beach, Florida with his wife.

Now, that is not the case – for at least for one year.

“I’m in. I’m in,” Spurrier said on gogamecocks.com. “We had some down times and some of this, that and the other, but we’ve got a lot of good players on the way.”

The Gamecocks, who started the season ranked No. 9 in the country after three consecutive 11-win seasons, just completed a 6-6 regular season with a 35-17 loss to No. 19 Clemson.

Spurrier is 83-45 in 10 seasons with the Gamecocks. He is 225-85-2 in 25 years of collegiate coaching. Speculation about his future has increased since he told The State on Nov. 4 than “the plan” was to return but then avoided being more specific about the subject.

On Monday, he was ready to make a firmer commitment.

“I’m good to go,” he said. “I just made about 21 recruiting calls. This is a good situation, and I think we can turn it around quickly. I hope so.”

The recruits may have been the reason that swayed Spurrier to come back for another season.

Spurrier has not suffered a losing season since 1987 while he was at Duke.

As of now, Spurrier believes he will coach at least through the 2016 season.

“Give me two or three more,” he said. “I used to say four or five, now I’m down to two or three. I mean, I could get in a car wreck, but I’m definitely planning on being back.”

Spurrier doesn’t plan at the moment to fire any of his assistant coaches, he told The State, although he said there could be a staff reorganization in the coming months.

“All our coaches are out recruiting. All of coaches are under contract,” he said. “Some of them may get a job somewhere else, you never know, and we’ll go from there. We are probably pretty flexible right now a little bit on the staff, but I believe that almost all of our guys will be back.”

Defensive coordinator Lorenzo Ward, defensive line coach Deke Adams and linebackers coach Kirk Botkin have come under particular fire due to the defense’s struggles this season. The Gamecocks finished the regular season No. 12 in the SEC in points allowed (31.2 per game) and No. 13 in yards allowed (433.6).

There has been talk that the defensive staff is under fire and that Spurrier could find another leader of the defense, which may include former Florida head coach Will Muschamp.

Spurrier’s Gamecocks beat Florida, which led to Muschamp resigning at the end of the regular season.