You bet I’m excited.

Seeing Steve Spurrier back on the sidelines in an actual coaching role — and not just as an ambassador or whatever title someone wants to give him — is going to sell tickets and get viewers.

That’s why when the new Alliance of American Football announced Spurrier as its first coach, it made complete and total sense. Spurrier can still do everything he wants in college football while handling all of his new spring-time obligations in Orlando. He’ll be a master promoter for this new league, and he’ll instantly give it more credibility than it would have had with any other “free agent coach.”

Steve Spurrier retired with 208 wins as an SEC coach. Only Bear Bryant (292) has more.

But before it even starts, let’s not link the 72-year-old coach to any actual openings in the SEC. Does that sound premature? Well, I know how these things work, especially with Spurrier.

Picture this. Spurrier leads Orlando to a successful first year in the AAL. As usual, a few SEC coaches are on the hot seat by October of 2019 (Spurrier will be 74 by then). A reporter asks the ever-available HBC if he has any interest in returning to the SEC if the right opportunity were to become available. Spurrier answers with a “well, you never say never.”

I hope that never happens.

Credit: Catalina Fragoso-USA TODAY Sports

Don’t get me wrong. Spurrier to the SEC is like barbecue to a tailgate. One without the other seems empty. The day that Spurrier no longer is a staple in the conference will be a sad one.

But it’ll be even sadder if Spurrier’s name starts surfacing as a pipe dream coaching candidate a la Jon Gruden. I shouldn’t have to explain why that dream is dead.

Everyone knows that Spurrier ran out of gas when he stepped down as South Carolina’s coach in the middle of the 2015 season. Call me crazy, but I’m saying there’s a zero percent chance that Spurrier suddenly found that energy in the past 2.5 years. And by “energy,” I mean the desire to work the year-round recruiting cycle and constantly-increasing time demands that come with being a head coach in the SEC (or anywhere, really).

That’s not news. But even if for some crazy reason Spurrier entertained the idea of it, what athletic director is going to make a 6-year investment in Spurrier? That wouldn’t work well in the recruiting world. Shoot, Dabo Swinney convinced a 5-star recruit that 53-year-old Urban Meyer was “on the back end of his career.”

What would Swinney say about a 74-year-old Spurrier? That he’s already got his tombstone picked out?

It’d be too easy. That’s why the idea of Spurrier returning to the SEC even getting off the ground is silly. It doesn’t appeal to him anymore. What does appeal to him — at least as a head coach — is the AAL. Spurrier explained why he was attracted to the “new challenge.”

“The new rules, I really like. Two and a half hour games, 30 seconds between plays, and so forth — the fans want to see that,” he said. “In life, we all need a challenge. I’m fortunate. My university has me as a consultant and ambassador in Florida, and I’m really grateful for that, but this is a chance to get a bunch of guys to coach and try to win a championship. Heck, there’s going to be a winner in April, and whoever does is going to be celebrating.”

I have no doubt that Spurrier is going to provide us with more great moments. Maybe he’ll get some redemption after his dropped ball in South Carolina’s spring game and we’ll see him make a nice grab on the sidelines of an AAL game. You can also bet that his postgame press conferences will be must-see stuff, win or lose.

Let’s leave it at that, though.

Spurrier is the winningest coach at Florida (122) and South Carolina (86).

Spurrier’s post-SEC coaching life of Dr. Pepper commercials, radio shows, ambassador-ing and showing up wherever the heck he wants is plenty entertaining. We don’t need to speculate if the Hall of Fame coach is going to try and give it one more go after the way he went out at South Carolina. That chapter is closed.

The new chapter in Spurrier’s life is the AAL. It will satisfy his itch to coach football without preventing him from doing everything else he wants to do.

As an Orlando resident, I’m excited to see how this experiment works out. There’s no doubt that Spurrier will be the face of the league and that he’ll get football fans like myself interested in the AAL. If all goes well, he’ll lead one of the league’s top teams just like he did in the USFL a few decades ago.

Spurrier missed the challenge of coaching, and people missed seeing Spurrier coaching. Soon enough, that glorious reunion will take place.

Just don’t hold out hope that another reunion is around the corner.