Regardless of Saturday's outcome in the Georgia Dome, Jim McElwain has already earned his gold star in his first year at Florida. A program that stumbled through the previous five years has won 10 games and went 7-1 in SEC play to earn a spot in the SEC championship game.
Say what you will about how bad the SEC Eastern Division was, but in his first year as a head coach in the SEC, McElwain swept a division that at some point this season housed Steve Spurrier (228 wins), Mark Richt (145) and Gary Pinkel (191). His Gators beat those schools by a combined score of 72-20.