GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Florida Gators are turning to Steve Spurrier to help fix their football team's floundering offense.
Steve Spurrier Jr., anyway.
Interim coach Billy Gonzales said Wednesday the younger Spurrier, who was hired as an offensive analyst earlier this year, will be more involved with quarterback DJ Lagway when the Gators (3-4, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) face fifth-ranked Georgia (6-1, 4-1) on Nov. 1 in Jacksonville. Both teams have an open date this week.
Gonzales will have Russ Callaway -- the team's offensive coordinator and tight ends coach -- organize the offense alongside quarterbacks coach Ryan O'Hara up in the booth on game day. O'Hara will be on the headset calling plays to Lagway. Spurrier, meanwhile, will be on the sideline working directly with Lagway, a 6-foot-3, 247-pound sophomore.
Gonzales moved into the interim role after Billy Napier was fired Sunday, ending his Florida head coaching tenure seven games into his fourth season and with win-loss records of 22-23 overall and 12-16 in SEC play.
"What we're trying to do right now is tweak a couple things so we can put our players in a better situation to go out and make plays and perform at a higher level," Gonzales said. "We all understand that's what we need to do. So that's the No. 1 goal for us as a coaching staff right now."
Napier's background was on offense, and he was dismissed in large part because he failed to get Florida on track on that side of the ball during his time in Gainesville. The Gators totaled a combined 50 points in losses to LSU, Miami, South Florida and Texas A&M this season, when their scoring (22.43 points per game) ranks 15th in the 16-team SEC.
Taking on the Bulldogs without Napier could show how much of a hindrance he was to an offense that believes it has enough talent to compete in the SEC. Gonzales has made it clear he wants to open things up more and get the ball downfield to receivers, something Lagway showed the ability to do as a freshman -- including against Georgia with a 43-yard touchdown pass to help the Gators build a 10-3 lead before exiting with a hamstring injury in the second quarter of what wound up being a 34-20 win for the Bulldogs last November in Jacksonville.
Part of the plan includes Spurrier, the 54-year-old son of a College Football Hall of Fame player and coach who is a living legend in Gainesville, with the elder Spurrier winning the 1966 Heisman Trophy as Florida's quarterback, then returning to his alma mater as head coach in 1990 to lead the Gators to the a national championship six seasons later and six of the program's eight SEC titles.
Steve Jr., a receiver at Duke from 1989-93 (with his father head coach of the Blue Devils his first year) spent the past two years as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Tulsa after stints at Mississippi State (2020-22), Washington State (2018-19), Western Kentucky (2017) and Oklahoma (2016). Before that, he spent a decade working under his famous father at South Carolina (2005-15), where the elder Spurrier had a second run of SEC success after giving the NFL a try with the Washington Redskins in the 2002-03 seasons.
The younger Spurrier returned in February to Florida, where he was a graduate assistant from 1994-96 before working as a video assistant in 1997 and a special teams coach in 1998 for the Gators.
"Whenever you're around one of the greatest offensive minds in history, it's obviously going to rub off on you as well," Gonzales said. "He's been involved, but now he's going to have more of a role because he's going to be down there on the field with the quarterback looking in his eyes and getting a chance to talk to him and review the film that's being relayed.
"It's going to put us in a great situation to help DJ and the (other) quarterbacks perform on the football field."
Lagway has completed more than 65% of his passes this season (145 of 222) for 1,513 yards with nine touchdowns and nine interceptions while playing behind a shaky offensive line. He has looked better of late as he moves closer to fully recovering from a derailed offseason that included core-muscle surgery, nagging shoulder pain and a strained calf muscle.
"It's been a long journey, and I'm thankful for the good and the bad," Lagway said. "God doesn't make any mistakes. I'm just excited to see where my journey continues and how I can continue to get better."