(Grant Halverson/Getty Images)

Steve Spurrier is retiring as coach of the University of South Carolina football team and the move is effective immediately, according to ESPN.

Thayer Evans of Sports Illustrated was the first to report that Spurrier was to retire.

The move comes in his 26th season as a college football head coach. He won a championship with the University of Florida in 1996.

The Gamecocks were off to a rough start, winning just two of their first six games. This will mark the first time since his first season as a head coach, with Duke in 1987, that he finished the season with a losing record.

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