Florida Football News: New HC Jim McElwain on Nick Saban's influence, taking control of the Gators

New Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain isn't shy about giving credit to his former boss, Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban, when it comes to how McElwain runs things in his own locker room.

"We can write a book on [what I learned from Saban]. I just can’t tell you how fortunate I was to work for him and just learning the organizational part of the whole structure, everything that touches the desk of the head football coach, making sure that there aren’t separate agendas throughout the building,” McElwain said.

McElwain worked under Saban as Alabama's offensive coordinator from 2008-11, helping lead the Tide to a 48-6 record over that span before taking over at Colorado State for the 2012-14 seasons.

Now, faced with the task of lifting the Gators to heights currently occupied by his former coach's squad, McElwain is waiting until after the program's bowl game to really get to work.

"I’ve been out at practice," he said. "I’ve spoken with kids. I haven’t had the individual sit-downs. Really, what I’ve felt going in is they deserve – and those coaches that are there that worked their tail off to get them in that bowl game – they deserve the opportunity to finish this season and close that chapter out. And you know what? We’ll start to write a new chapter here when they get back from Birmingham.

“We’ll have a team meeting on [January 5th] and then again on [January 6th] and start to kind of build our relationships and our trust and give them the guidance that we need moving forward to get us a lot of wins in the SEC.

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