The Florida Gators’ search for their new head coach is over.
Jim McElwain, former head coach of Colorado State University’s football team, will be Will Muschamp’s successor after another disappointing season for the Gators.
Muschamp was 28-21 after four seasons as head coach and was the center of severe media criticism over the past two years. After winning the SEC coach of the year in 2012, the Gators finished 4-8 in 2013, their worst record since 1979. This season, similar to the last, did not meet the expectations of the Gator nation.
Via: Bleacher Report
Although the Gators trounced archrival Georgia, their heart-breaking losses to LSU, South Carolina and Florida State highlighted this year’s campaign. All three of those losses were by five points or less and they were all avoidable. Athletic Director Jeremy Foley could not casually stand by and watch this legendary program suffer. It was time for a change.
In comes Jim McElwain.
Having SEC experience from his offensive coordinator days in Alabama, McElwain seemed to be the right fit to help catapult this Gators squad out of shambles and back into the national spotlight. The man has two national championship rings and helped a struggling Colorado State program muscle its way into the national rankings. Gator nation wants to win; and Jim McElwain knows how to do just that.
Before McElwain’s arrival at Colorado State in 2012, the Rams had won only nine games in three seasons. But through his new system, trustee coaching staff and stellar recruiters, CSU has won 16 out of its last 20 and finished the 2014 regular season 10-2. McElwain was also named Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year.
Via: 94.3 Loudwire
The level of improvement McElwain was able to attain at Colorado State was enough for Foley to take a trip all the way to Colorado Springs to sit down with McElwain and pick his brain. Shortly thereafter, McElwain was hired.
I don’t know about the rest of Gator nation, but the fact that Foley made his decision so quickly after his trip makes me think that this guy is the real deal. He was a coach at a middle-tier program, but that’s not the point. He took that Colorado State’s disastrous team and made it nationally relevant. What do you think he’ll be able to do with a program like Florida’s?
For the time being, we’ll have to occupy ourselves with Gator basketball, which is a whole other fiasco that I need not rant about at this point in time. But the anticipation for next football season is palpable. The future is bright for this talented Gator football team.
Best-case scenario: McElwain leads us back to the top of the SEC and the Gators become national championship contenders. Worst-case scenario: we get more of the same. But hey, we’re used to that by now.
Go Gators!
Feature photo courtesy of: Orlando Sentinel
