Richt (62-17, 78.5 percent) currently is sixth on the list and Spurrier is fifth (138-37-1, 78.9 percent). Spurrier has been slowly sliding down the ranks since taking the South Carolina job. He was second all-time behind former Tennessee coach Robert Neyland when he left Florida after the 2001 season, but he is just 16-10 with the Gamecocks.
“I didn’t take this job here to worry about my all-time winning percentage and stuff like that,” Spurrier said. “I took this one because it was a wonderful opportunity to do some things that have never been done before.”
South Carolina, which has never won an SEC Championship, has gone to back-to-back bowls under Spurrier, marking just the fourth time in school history that has happened. The Gamecocks have never been to a bowl game in three consecutive seasons.
“Everything is relative as you know,” Spurrier said. “Here at South Carolina, they actually think I’m winning at a pretty good rate. At Florida, we were pretty huge favorites in almost every game, so it wasn’t all that difficult to win at a high percentage.”
Spurrier remains the league’s winningest coach when only SEC games are counted with a success rate of 81.2 percent. Richt is sixth on that list (70.6 percent). In the six years since Richt arrived in Athens, Georgia has the best record in the SEC.