McElwain looks like great pick by Gators
Jorlando, fla. » imMcElwain was a key member of the dynamite-and-demolition crew that caused the downfall of Florida’s football powerhouse. Now, ironically, he has been put in charge of repairing what he once wrecked.
McElwain, the Colorado State coach who was hired Thursday to lead the Gators, was the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban at Alabama in 2009 when the Crimson Tide crushed UrbanMeyer, Tim Tebow and the undefeated Gators 32-13 in the Southeastern Conference championship game. McElwain’s Alabama offense rolled up 490 total yards and stampeded a Florida defense that was No. 4 in the nation.
Tebow, in his final collegiate season, cried after that game. Meyer quit. And Florida football hasn’t been the same since.
After enduring four boring, snoring years under offensively challenged coachWill Muschamp, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley made it clear when Muschamp was fired a few weeks ago that the Gators’ new coach must bring more excitement to the Swamp.
Now the Gators have decided to go from one Nick Saban disciple to another.
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 hireMcElwain, a former Saban offensive coordinator!”
Hey, it worked for Florida State when the Seminoles replaced iconic Bobby Bowden with Jimbo Fisher, another former offensive coordinator under Saban— the Jedi Master of college football.
CanMcElwain work the same kind of magic in Gainesville that Jimbo has worked in Tallahassee? Foley must think so, but, then again, Foley thought Muschamp was going to become the next Bob Stoops.
Of course, Foley wasn’t alone. Many believed Muschamp to be college coaching’s next 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 ofMuschamp and Ron Zook but hit grand slams withMeyer and men’s basketball coach Billy Donovan.
Unfortunately in today’s off-the-cuff Twitterverse, media and fans are already making in- stantaneous judgments on whetherMcElwain 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 Gators’ two greatest football coaches of all time — Spurrier (Duke) andMeyer (Utah)— didn’t come from high-profile programs.
McElwain, 52, took over at Colorado State in 2012 and inherited a program that was coming off three consecutive 3-9 seasons. CSU is 10-2 this season, and he was namedMountainWest coach of the year after transforming the Rams into an offensive juggernaut. Colorado State averages 498 yards per game (13th best in the country) 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 knowMcElwain has been a good offensive coordinator at the most prestigious programin college football. We also knowhe’s been a good head coach at amuch lesser program. Butwhat we don’t knowis if he can bewhat GatorNation demands: a great head coach at amajor program in the toughest conference in college football.
McElwain once made Tim Tebow cry, but can he make Gator Nation smile once again?