Florida Gators fire coach Jim McElwain in third season after 3-4 start

By Adam Silverstein
October 29, 2017
Florida Gators fire coach Jim McElwain in third season after 3-4 start
Football

Image Credit: ESPN Images

The Florida Gators pulled the plug on Sunday. The Jim McElwain era is officially over. The 24th coach in Florida football history has been ousted less than 24 hours after UF suffered its worst loss to rival Georgia since 1982, a source confirmed to OnlyGators.com on Sunday afternoon. UF announced the parties mutually agreed to part ways early Sunday night.

The process unfolded rather slowly on Sunday as Florida is asking McElwain to negotiate a buyout less than the $12.76 million due him if fired without cause. Discussions with athletic director Scott Stricklin and other members of the administration are ongoing and a settlement has not been finalized. UF reportedly believes it has reason enough to split with McElwain on a for-cause basis over unsubstantiated comments he made about death threats on Monday.

“We want to thank Coach McElwain for his efforts in leading the Gator football program,” said Stricklin. “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.”

Defensive coordinator Randy Shannon will serve as the Gators’ interim coach over the final four games of the season.

McElwain, who became the first coach in league history to advance to the SEC Championship Game in his first two seasons with a team and was named 2015 SEC Coach of the Year, finishes 22-12 (16-8 SEC) with better winning percentages than his predecessor.

Despite those accolades, McElwain’s Gators looked even less fit to compete against top competition on a national stage. Florida was 0-6 with blowout losses to the three best teams it played under McElwain’s tenure in Alabama, Florida State and Michigan. UF was 4-8 against ranked opponents and 13-9 in games decided by more than a touchdown.

“Look, we haven’t been good on offense. I get it,” McElwain said after Saturday’s loss, his third straight. “We’ve won a few games, but we haven’t won enough, haven’t won a championship. That’s real. That’s life. That is this business. And I take full responsibility for all of it.”

Though they have one of the best specialist duos in the nation, the Gators’ special teams fell off a cliff. Due to lacking recruiting, Florida was ill-prepared to replace the bevy of talented defenders recruited by Will Muschamp who either left early for the NFL or graduated.

Compounding a 109th-ranked scoring offense this season is a 66th-ranked scoring defense, Florida’s worst-ranked defensive unit since at least 2000. While the Gators’ offense struggled over the last seven years, prior to 2017 they were always able to hang their hat on shutting opponents down defensively.

Beyond on-field performance, McElwain’s tenure has been wrought with dysfunction, including controversy over the way McElwain publicly berated running back Kelvin Taylor for a hand gesture, hand-wringing following the suspension and subsequent transfer of quarterback Will Grier, and questions about program discipline as nine players are presently serving indefinite suspensions for credit card fraud.

Furthermore, McElwain repeatedly clashed with UF administration. Though many of his demands — such as a larger indoor practice facility and improvements to the program’s infrastructure — were legitimate, he often painted the Gators in a bad light as either cheap or needing to be forced to make necessary changes. The final straw came this past week when McElwain made a claim during a press conference that the team had been subject to death threats only to not follow up when the administration requested more information so it could ensure the safety of its coaches, players and their families.

Florida decided it needed to do immediately what had to be done eventually and cut ties with McElwain midway through the season — a year earlier than the program rid itself of Muschamp in 2014 but nearly the same time it parted ways with Ron Zook in 2004.

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