When Danny Wuerffel spoke, everyone around him listened.
By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published August 28, 2003
GAINESVILLE - Danny Wuerffel came to the University of Florida as a highly regarded prep quarterback from the Panhandle and by the time he left Gainesville, he had become the most decorated player in the school's football history.
Wuerffel finished with 48 records: four NCAA, 12 SEC and 32 school.
He is Florida's all-time leading passer (10,875 yards) and has a school-record 39 touchdown passes in a season. He holds seven of the top 10 single-game passing yardage records in UF history, making him the most outstanding offensive player of the past 20 years.
"Danny had a remarkable four years at Florida," former coach Steve Spurrier said. "It was unbelievable."
His name is synonymous with winning, but his legacy is so much more.
"Danny brought a humbleness and spiritual aura with him," wide receivers coach Dwayne Dixon said. "When you talk about Danny, he had a quiet confidence in himself as well as in the people around him. He tried to project that confidence to the team. He was a leader and he handled tough situations differently than anybody I've ever known at the quarterback position. He just was a player that people listened to.
"He did a lot of things for the community as well as in the church and on the field," Dixon added. "He brought people together."
Humble. Sincere. Soft-spoken. Unflappable in a crisis.
Those are the words most often used by teammates and opponents from 1993-96.
Wuerffel spent his first season with other redshirt players in 1992, watching predecessors Shane Matthews and Terry Dean master the craft of quarterback.
He watched, listened and observed. Ultimately, it made a world of difference, he said.
"I was just fortunate that the first year, before I even started playing, I was able to watch and learn," Wuerffel said. "Even parts of the next two years, I didn't always start and was able to get my feet wet first. I wasn't just forced to play right away. I could learn slowly. That was a big help."
In his senior season, Wuerffel led the Gators to their only national championship, earned the school's second Heisman Trophy award and secured his place among the best to ever play for the Gators.
He did it all without compromising who he was, his coaches and teammates said.
"There are givers and takers in this world, and Danny is a giver," former Florida offensive line coach Jimmy Ray Stephens, who was Wuerffel's coach at Fort Walton Beach High, said in 1996. "I don't think Danny could have an enemy. What Danny is as a person is what makes him a player. He is as quality a character and individual as I've ever been associated with as a coach. There is nothing phony about him."
Wuerffel was a first-team All-American in 1995 and 1996 and a two-time recipient of the O'Brien National Quarterback of the Year award. He finished his career by completing 708 of 1,170 passes and threw 114 touchdowns. His passing efficiency rating of 178.4 set a single-season collegiate record. He was a two-time recipient of the GTE Academic All-American of the Year award for football and the 1996 recipient of the Draddy Award presented to the nation's premier student-athlete.
The success Wuerffel helped create at Florida has forever changed the landscape for the program. Once you've been to the mountaintop, nothing less is acceptable.
And that, Wuerffel said, is the way it should be.
"There are certainly a lot of expectations there now because of what was accomplished in the past," he said. "But each year, it's always exciting to me to see how they do. It's fun to watch."
