In his first year as head coach Jim McElwain led the Florida Gators to a 10-win season and the SEC Championship game. More importantly, he made his boss very happy.
“We never put wins and losses expectations on our coaches, we just want them to get the program moving in that direction,” Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley said on Saturday. “[You would] be hard pressed to say it’s not moving in the right direction.”
McElwain was dealt a rough hand. In his first spring camp he had to deal with trying to design an entire camp around the fact that he was given just six, and soon five after Rod Johnson’s injury, scholarship offensive linemen.