Florida hires Jim McElwain: Heat is already on new Gators coach

Published Dec. 4, 2014 11:15 a.m. ET

Stewart Mandel

Following two-plus days of bizarrely public and prolonged negotiations, Florida AD Jeremy Foley has landed his man, Colorado State coach Jim McElwain, and the natural reaction both in Gainesville and across the sport will be: Was he worth it?

Foley already had to pay $6.3 million to make Will Muschamp go away, and according to Florida's press release it will pay Colorado State $5 million ($2 million of it for a guaranteed game) to buy out McElwain's contract. Foley is therefore investing more than $11 million before he even pays the first dime of his new coach’s salary. Suffice to say, he’s got a lot riding on a 52-year-old mid-major coach with three years’ head coaching experience

Was it worth it? We’ll find out over the next few years. On the surface, though, McElwain fits exactly the profile Foley previously said he was seeking.

On the day Foley announced Muschamp’s departure, the AD laid out his two most important criteria for his eventual replacement -- a proven college head coach who “has been successful on the offensive side of the ball.”

Two-and-a-half weeks later, done and done.

With McElwain, Florida is bringing in a coach who in three years’ time turned Colorado State from a three-win team three years running to a nationally ranked 10-2 team with wins over two Power 5 opponents. It’s also bringing in an offensive mind that this season groomed Rams quarterback Garrett Grayson into the nation’s second highest-rated passer while also producing a 1,254-yard rusher in former Alabama backup Dee Hart. Before that he won two BCS national championships as the Tide’s offensive coordinator.

And yet, reaction across the sport this week to McElwain’s impending hire was that people are largely underwhelmed. Having known for more than a year he’d likely have to make a coaching change, and having once stolen star-in-the-making Urban Meyer out from under Notre Dame’s nose, the best Foley could do was this? Really?

That skepticism may be more an indictment of Foley than McElwain. While long regarded as one of the sport’s most competent athletic directors -- the envy of his profession back when football and men’s basketball combined for four national titles from 2006-08 -- Foley’s football hiring record outside of Meyer leads to easy second-guessing. He plucked the ill-fated Ron Zook from obscurity to replace the revered Steve Spurrier. He went all in on Muschamp only to get four years of unwatchable offenses. And he gravitated to McElwain only after swinging and missing on Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze.

The truth is no one knows whether McElwain will prove a savior or a dud, in part because most of us know so little about him. As a coordinator under Saban, he only spoke to the media twice a year at preseason and bowl media days. At Colorado State, he largely operated in anonymity outside of Mountain West territory.

Personally, I think he has the makings of a very good SEC head coach. If all goes well he’ll engender himself to Florida fans with a laid-back swagger and a productive offense.

But, boy, will he and Foley be facing some serious pressure.

Florida fans don’t take well to losses or excuses, and with good reason. There are a few places in the country better equipped to win big, as both Spurrier and Meyer did. And McElwain is not walking into a massive rebuilding job. The Gators have talent, particularly on defense. They showed a pulse at times on offense this season, though McElwain will need to find himself a quarterback.

But most favorably of all, Florida is in the SEC East, a division Missouri has managed to win in consecutive seasons with a roster full of largely unheralded recruits. Georgia has underachieved. Tennessee is still rebuilding. South Carolina may have hit its ceiling. There’s no reason Florida shouldn’t contend for division titles on a regular basis, and by extension compete for SEC championships and playoff berths.

That’s the bar McElwain will be held to. And for all the money and trouble it took to secure him, Florida fans will therefore be expecting a considerable return on that investment.

Stewart Mandel is a senior college sports columnist for FOXSports.com. He covered college football and basketball for 15 years at Sports Illustrated. His new book, “The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the College Football Playoff,” is now available on Amazon. You can follow him on Twitter @slmandel. Send emails and Mailbag questions to Stewart.Mandel@fox.com.