McElwain still mystery for Gator fans

Jim McElwain was a key member of the dynamite and demolition crew that caused the downfall of the Florida Gators football powerhouse.

Now he has been put in charge of repairing what he once wrecked.

McElwain, hired from Colorado State on Thursday as the new coach of the Gators, was the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2009 when the Crimson Tide crushed Coach Urban Meyer, quarterback Tim Tebow and the undefeated Gators 32-13 in the SEC Championship Game. McElwain’s Alabama offense rolled up 490 yards that day and stomped a Florida defense that was ranked No. 4 in the nation.

Tebow, in his final college season, cried after the game. Meyer quit. Florida football hasn’t been the same since.

After enduring four boring, snoring years under offensively challenged Will Muschamp, Athletic Director Jeremy Foley made it clear when Muschamp was fired a few weeks ago that the new coach must bring some offensive flair and excitement back to Gainesville.

Gator fans once flocked to The Swamp to revel in Steve Spurrier’s “Fun-N-Gun” offense, but in recent years there has been a mass exodus of fans who simply grew weary of enduring Muschamp’s “Grunt-NPunt” philosophy.

Now the Gators have decided to go from one Saban disciple to another.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Maybe Foley’s thought process was this: “OK, I hired Muschamp, a former Saban defensive coordinator, and he was a bust. So maybe the trick is to hire McElwain, a former Saban offensive coordinator.”

Hey, it worked for Florida State when the Seminoles replaced Bobby Bowden with Jimbo Fisher, another former offensive coordinator under Saban — the Jedi master of college football.

Can McElwain work the same kind of magic in Gainesville that Fisher has worked in Tallahassee? Foley must think so, but, again, Foley thought Muschamp would, too.

Of course, Foley wasn’t alone. Many believed Muschamp was college coaching’s next rock star. Which just goes to show that coaching hirings and firings are, in many ways, a crapshoot.

Foley, one of the most respected ADs in the country, whiffed on the hirings of Muschamp and Ron Zook but hit grand slams with Meyer and Billy Donovan, the men’s basketball coach. The Magic once fired Doc Rivers, now one of the top coaches in the NBA. The Cleveland Browns once canned Bill Belichick, perhaps the greatest coach in NFL history.

Unfortunately in today’s off-the-cuff Twitterverse, media and fans are already making instantaneous judgments and running Internet polls on whether McElwain is a good hire or a bad one. There are some who believe Foley should have tried to land a sexier, splashier name from a bigger, better program.

I don’t necessarily agree. As I keep saying, the two greatest Gators coaches of all time — Spurrier (from Duke) and Meyer (from Utah) — didn’t come from high-profile programs.

McElwain, 52, took over at Colorado State in 2012 and inherited a program coming off three consecutive 3-9 seasons. After going 4-8 in his first year, the Rams went 8-6 last year and are 10-2 in his third season. He was named the Mountain West Conference’s coach of the year Tuesday after transforming the Rams into an offensive juggernaut.

Colorado State averages 498 yards per game (13th-best in the nation) and has the nation’s second-most efficient quarterback in Garrett Grayson and the top receiver in yards per game (149.1) and touchdowns (17) in Rashard Higgins.

We know McElwain has been a good offensive coordinator at the most prestigious program in college football. We also know he’s been a good head coach at a much lesser program. What we don’t know is if he can be what Gator Nation demands — a great head coach at a major program in the toughest conference in college football.

With all due respect, it doesn’t matter today what you or I think of this hire. It doesn’t matter whether the hire is sexy or dull. It doesn’t matter whether the new coach comes from Mountain West or the Missouri Valley.

All that matters is whether Jim McElwain can win and win big at the University of Florida.

Everything else is just noise in the system.