Duke Coach Not Expected Back in ’90

Duke football Coach Steve Spurrier has been candid about his job prospects, apparently to the point that an assistant and several of his players have said they don’t expect him back next year.

Assistant Coach Rod Broadway and three players say Spurrier told them that he wouldn’t return to coach the Blue Devils in 1990.

“What you talk to the team about, you try to leave there,” Spurrier told the Durham Morning Herald when informed that players had confirmed his comments. “I don’t tell them what to tell the press. That’s up to them. It’s a free society. Freedom of speech we go by.

“How do you know I told them that? You’re just getting information from someone else,” Spurrier said. “You know I can’t talk about this.”

Broadway confirmed it, however.

“He just said he wouldn’t be at Duke,” assistant Broadway told the newspaper. “He didn’t say where he’d be.”

Spurrier is to lead Duke against Texas Tech tonight in the All American Bowl at Birmingham, Ala. He has said he will not make an announcement about his future plans until Duke and the University of Florida have completed their bowl games.

Florida, which has offered Spurrier the head coaching job, plays in the Freedom Bowl on Saturday.

“Most of te players knew what was going on, and there wasn’t much sense in trying to keep something a secret that wasn’t a secret,” defensive tackle Anthony Allen told the newspaper.

Since Duke’s regular season ended Nov. 18, Spurrier has been interviewed for coaching vacancies at Florida and with the Atlanta Falcons and Phoenix Cardinals of the NFL.