Did Steve Spurrier ever lose to a no-name team while at Florida? What about Joe Paterno...did he?

Answer 1

Paterno never coached at Florida. But at Penn State, he has had some bad losses in the last five years.

To whoever gave me a thumbs down - its not my fault the question is poorly worded.

Answer 2

Yeah, FSU. :-)

Seriously, the worst teams to beat Spurrier at Florida were Kentucky and Mississippi State, but I don't think even a bad SEC school qualifies as "no-name." Aside from the Seminoles, the only non-SEC team to beat Florida in a regular season game during the Spurrier Era was Syracuse in 1991. So I would say no to the first part of your question.

Similarly, Paterno has lost to some pretty weak teams, but the only ones I see that weren't in major conferences or major independents would be Cincinnati in 1983, Brigham Young in 1992, and Toledo in 2000. These are all technically mid-majors, but this is not on a par with losing to a I-AA school or even, say, a Sun Belt Conference school. IMO, the answer is again, no.