GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The hugs were brief and the hoots were low. Florida’s football team slowly jogged to its band and student section, some helmets held high. "Welcome to Atlanta" played in the background of "S-E-C!" chants erupting through the stands. But for the most part, the Swamp was subdued after Florida’s 9-7 win against Vanderbilt.

There were no reckless chants of "We want Bama," and 10 seconds into his postgame news conference, coach Jim McElwain apologized for the Gators’ agonizing victory being a "tough one to sit through."

This was how Florida celebrated clinching the SEC East for the first time since 2009.

"Let’s face it, we stole one," McElwain said before playfully pleading with bodyguard and Florida Highway Patrol trooper Calvin Long not to arrest him for the Gators’ thievery Saturday.

Florida players celebrate with kicker Austin Hardin after he made the game-winning field goal against Vanderbilt on Saturday. Rob Foldy/Getty Images

Not many offensive clips from their four-turnover mess will make the 2015 highlight reel for the 11th-ranked Gators (8-1, 6-1 SEC), but for as bad as Florida’s schizophrenic offense was, the outcome was outstanding for a team that didn't seem capable of being in this position.

As the two-plus months of the season have shown us, Florida doesn’t own much flash with an offense that runs hot and cold. It’s missing starting quarterback Will Grier, who was suspended for the season after testing positive for a substance banned by the NCAA. The offensive line is relatively young and inexperienced. The skill players aren’t exactly elite overall.

However, this is a lunch-pail team with excellent resolve. With a suffocating defense that has forced a SEC-best 19 turnovers and heads-up special-teams play, the Gators don’t have to be pretty. They just have to scratch and claw. Whether it’s orchestrating a heart-stopping, 14-point comeback with five minutes to go against Tennessee, forcing turnover after turnover against Georgia or having its enigmatic kicker save it against Vandy, the Gators are a ragtag group living off heart, toughness and a little luck.

"This is just a prime example of how the rest of our games are going to be this season," linebacker Jarrad Davis said. "Basically, the way I see it is we have to pick up all the pennies that we see on the ground. I walk around Gainesville and I pick up pennies off the ground -- they always add up.

"That’s just how precious this is right now."

***

To get on the road to Atlanta, Jeremy Foley had to say goodbye to a friend.

The longtime Florida athletic director struggled mightily with having to fire Will Muschamp before the 2014 season ended. Even though Muschamp’s four-year tenure (28-21) could best be described as mediocre, Foley was very close with Mushcamp and parting ways was gut-wrenching.

But when you’re in the business of winning and creating an enjoyable athletic experience for a fan base used to the spoils of victory, you have to make tough decisions.

Jim McElwain instilled in the Gators the belief that making it to the SEC Championship Game this season was a reasonable expectation. John Raoux/AP Photo

"The University of Florida has tremendous pride in its football program and we just weren’t where we used to be, we weren’t where we wanted to be, we weren’t where we expected to be, and that’s in the hunt every single year," Foley said.

Foley started paying attention to other coaches in the sport after last season’s embarrassing, 42-13 Homecoming loss to Missouri in mid-October. That heightened in earnest in late November after Florida’s home loss to South Carolina, which ultimately cost Muschamp everything. Foley and other administrators vetted a handful of coaches and focused on a main set of coaching prerequisites, including having an offensive mind, head coach experience, strong recruiting ties in the Southeast and experience in football’s elite levels.

Every time Foley circled back through names, McElwain, who was in his third year of reconstructing Colorado State’s program after four years as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, always showed up.

"As you kept checking the boxes," Foley said, "Mac just kept checking every box."

After a day-long December interview in Fort Collins, Colorado, Foley, known for successfully plucking talent from smaller ponds, had his guy.

"Jeremy Foley brought him in for a reason and it’s worked out great for us," senior offensive lineman Trip Thurman said.

***

Florida’s transformation has been more mental than anything for a roster mostly constructed of last season's 7-5 team. You see it in that furious fourth-quarter comeback against Tennessee and in the 38-10 domination of then-No. 3 Ole Miss a week later. It was obvious when the Gators outmuscled a more talented Georgia team 27-3 and when they needed 20 yards to set up Austin Hardin's Atlanta-clinching kick against Vandy.

This team thrives on how its top-six defense plays (allowing 288.8 yards and 14.6 points per game), but it also feeds off its own Atlanta expectations. That sounds silly on the outside, but McElwain etched A-T-L-A-N-T-A into his players’ brains on Day 1 last December. He created a machine that figured its only enemy was itself. The expectations inside McElwain's locker room were lofty because of a belief that they were attainable.

"Everybody keeps saying Atlanta, but we trying to get past Atlanta," quarterback Treon Harris said. "We’re trying to get into the national championship game."

That might sound outlandish with the way this team has fought through recent games, but it’s the mindset of this group. This team lives in the moment and wills its way to victory, no matter how ugly things look.

Somehow, it's working for a team that went from lost the past four years, to looking down at East front-runners Georgia and Tennessee and up at the Interstate 75 path to Atlanta.

"When you’re on a championship run; let’s call it what it is, we’re on a championship run. Sometimes there’s games like this and champions figure out ways to win them," McElwain said. "And you know what, these guys are the SEC East champs.

"These guys were excited in the locker room, yet very tempered because they know there’s a lot of unfinished business, and that was good to see."