The jaws snap shut on Gators’ McElwain
Florida and coach Jim McElwain have agreed to part ways a day after a third consecutive loss and nearly a week after he said his players and their families had received death threats but offered no proof.
Athletic director Scott Stricklin made the announcement Sunday and named defensive coordinator Randy Shannon the team’s interim head coach for the final four games.
The parties are negotiating McElwain’s $12.5 million buyout.
Florida (3-4, 3-3 SEC), which is still paying former head coach Will Muschamp, would like to significantly reduce McElwain’s sum and could use his actions over the past week as leverage.
Regardless of the outcome, McElwain’s tenure will be remembered for failing to fix a floundering offense. Three years ago, McElwain proclaimed he could win with his dog at quarterback. The Gators rank 113th in total offense, in triple digits nationally for the third time in McElwain’s three seasons.
“We want to thank Coach McElwain for his efforts in leading the Gator football program,” Stricklin said in a statement. “We are confident Coach Shannon will provide the proper guidance to the players and rest of staff during this time, and we will begin a national search for the next head coach.”
McElwain went 22-12 with the Gators, including 4-9 against ranked teams, and became the first coach in league history to take a team to the SEC championship game in his first two years. Florida was eliminated from contention in the Eastern Division with a 42-7 loss to Georgia on Saturday. It was Florida’s most lopsided loss in the series since 1982.
McElwain’s downfall was more about relationships than records. His already strained rapport with administrators reached a new low last Monday when he said Florida players and families had received death threats. The bombshell shocked Stricklin, who had not been notified about a potentially harmful situation.
Stricklin met with McElwain later that day, and the head coach rebuffed a request to provide more information about the threats. The athletic department responded with a statement that essentially criticized McElwain for being uncooperative.
The school’s position was basically this: If there were death threats and administrators did nothing about them, the Gators would be legally liable if something horrible happened. If McElwain exaggerated the threats or made them up altogether, then he essentially sullied Florida’s fans without merit.
McElwain made the situation even worse two days later when he said he would provide more details about the death threats “when it becomes unmanageable.”
McElwain seemed resigned to his fate Saturday night.
“I know what I was brought here to do. Look, we haven’t been good on offense, I get it,” he said. “We’ve won a few games, but we haven’t won enough. We haven’t won a championship. That’s real. That’s life. That is this business, and I take full responsibility for all of it.” Georgia at No. 2: Georgia took two first-place votes from topranked Alabama in a major reshuffling of the top 10 in the Associated Press poll.
Every team in the top 10 except idle Alabama changed positions in the poll released Sunday following Ohio State’s last-second victory over Penn State and Iowa State’s win over TCU. The Crimson Tide finished with 59 first-place votes, and Georgia snared two after turning the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party” into that runaway over Florida.
Ohio State moved up three places after rallying to beat then-No. 2 Penn State 39-38, Wisconsin climbed one spot to No. 4 and Notre Dame rounded out the top 5 by moving up four places.
Penn State dropped to No. 7 behind Clemson, followed by Oklahoma, Miami and TCU, which dropped six spots after its 14-7 loss to the Cyclones.
Alabama and Georgia give the SEC the top two spots in the poll for the first time since 2013. The last conference to go 1-2 in the poll was the Big Ten in 2015, when Ohio State and Michigan State sat atop the poll.
Iowa State made the biggest jump in the poll after its victory over TCU, climbing 11 spots to No. 14.
Arizona, one of college football’s biggest surprises, climbed into the poll at No. 23, the Wildcats’ first ranking since 2015, after beating then-No. 15 Washington State 58-37. Arizona (6-2), picked to be among the worst teams in the Pac-12, can take the Pac-12 South lead with a victory at No. 17 USC on Saturday. Briefly: Dartmouth head coach Buddy Teevens, the former Stanford head coach, apologized after assistant coach Dion King punched a press-box window at Harvard Stadium, spreading broken glass on spectators, after his team fumbled a punt against the Crimson. One spectator was reportedly injured . ... Wake Forest receiver Greg Dortch will miss the rest of the season with an abdominal injury. He was hurt during a game in which he made four touchdown catches in a win over Louisville.