How Soon Will Jim McElwain Turn Florida Around?

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Ever since Florida hired Jim McElwain from Colorado State, there have seem to be a fair buzz around the Gainesville area. Since the Gator offense could never find any kind of rhythm under Will Muschamp, the fans and many others demanded they find an offensive minded coach. The fans and boosters got their wish. Since he had turned Colorado State around the last couple of years, he seems to give them plenty of hope that they will turn around soon. But how soon are we talking about? Being at Colorado State for three years, he had only two winning seasons. He has an overall record of 22-16 and 14-10 in the Mountain West Conference. Although he started out at 4-8 his first year in 2012, he slowly began to improve his win column to 8-6 in 2013 and 10-2 just last season.

He has pretty much overhauled the entire coaching staff including bringing those from inside and formerly from the SEC. Geoff Collins was defensive coordinator at Mississippi State and took the same position at Florida. Doug Nussmeier who was once offensive coordinator at Alabama, took the reins at Michigan before he, former head coach Brady Hoke and the entire staff were sent packing. Randy Shannon, who is a Florida native, was linebackers coach under Bret Beliema at Arkansas the last two seasons before heading home. I can’t help but think that maybe he will turn things around the first year. The main question would be how fast can he get the Gator offense going? The Gator Nation grew quickly impatient when the offense and mounting injuries took to building over Muschamp’s head. Even the hiring of offensive coordinator Kurt Roper from Duke never seemed to help much.

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The main question is will Treon Harris be the starting quarterback next season? McElwain helped develop a solid quarterback in Garrett Grayson and made Rashard Higgins the top wide receiver for Colorado State. Several players who came in with Muschamp pretty much left with him, leaving pretty much a whole new slate for Jim McElwain to start over on, but this time with experienced players. The defense wasn’t much of a problem, but with a new defensive coordinator, it remains to be seen how they will perform. He will have five quarterbacks heading into their Spring game on April 11th along with 13 wide receivers. With RB Matt Jones headed to the NFL Draft, Kelvin Taylor will lead the rushing attack at the start of the Spring. Adam Lane and Brandon Powell look to be number two and three on the depth chart.

With Jeff Driskel headed to Louisiana Tech for graduate school, Treon Harris is most likely the front runner to be starting quarterback, just so he stays out of trouble this season. Wide receiver  Demarcus Robinson is most likely the main go to guy at wide receiver with 810 yards and seven touchdowns last season. If I’m looking at the 2014 stats right, not a single tight end caught one ball this year, which is extremely disturbing. Jake McGee earned a sixth year of eligibility after suffering a broken leg at the start of last season, which gives him one last chance to make an impact and stay totally healthy. The way he started his first year at Colorado State makes me wonder if he won’t start over that way again, even with a new team. Florida is used to winning and winning quickly. it would be extremely hard to ask the Florida faithful to be patient. It would be like asking a bull to wait his turn to gore you. Even if he don’t deliver the first year, he should have all that he needs in place to content for the SEC East. I sense that he will get them on top of the their division again. It just leaves one simple question. When?