Steve Spurrier is officially returning to coaching

Former Florida and South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier is returning to the game of football. Spurrier, 72, will be the head coach of the Orlando franchise in the new Alliance of American Football professional football league.

The league is slated to debut on February 9, 2019 on CBS.

“It’s a fine line between who makes a team wand who doesn’t in the NFL. We don’t have a minor league of professional football,” Spurrier said on CBS. “Those players get a chance to continue playing even if they don’t play at the highest level, and then maybe someday they play well enough to go to the highest level.”

Spurrier said he really liked some of the new rules the league has created, which includes games that last two-and-a-half hours with 30 seconds in between plays.

“In life, we all need a challenge,” Spurrier said.

Spurrier will coach in a league co-founded by TV producer Charlie Ebersol and ex-NFL general manager Bill Polian. Former All-pro wide receiver Hines Ward will be the executive of player relations for the eight-team league that will play a 10-game regular season.

Spurrier returns to football after resigning as Gamecocks head coach on October 12, 2015 in the middle of his 11th season with the team. In all, the 1966 Heisman Trophy Winner spent 26 years as a college head coach, winning 228 games, seven conference titles and the 1996 national championship between stops at Duke, Florida and South Carolina.

Spurrier also served as a head coach in the USFL with the Tampa Bay Bandits and in the NFL with the Washington Redskins.

Spurrier has served as an ambassador at Florida since he left the Gamecocks and plans to continue in that role. He will take a break in spring 2019 when the season begins.

This story was originally published April 7, 2018 at 10:05 AM with the headline "Steve Spurrier is officially returning to coaching."