Jim McElwain is built for business of winning football at Florida

Dan Wolken | USA TODAY Sports

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The little boy went to the fireplace to warm himself before school, and what happened so quickly and with so little warning would change Jim McElwain's outlook on life and his career forever.

Hi son, Jerret, had gotten too close to the flames; the back of his shirt catching fire and spreading from there. McElwain, in the midst of a three-year stint as Louisville's wide receivers coach that helped him break into big-time football, was, of course, in the office.

"Even when I got the call, as a coach you're thinking, 'Hey, put your foot in a bucket and tape it up and let's go,' " McElwain told USA TODAY Sports. "Then reality hits you."

For the McElwains, reality was a week in ICU, another 2½ months in the burn unit at a Louisville children's hospital, three more months of recovery and the scary realization that it could have been worse without the good fortune of a next-door neighbor who happened to be an off-duty fireman.

"It's really what changed my whole demeanor on this profession," McElwain said. "To see your own suffering and what he had to go through, to see those bandage changes for so long. … You realize third-and-6 maybe isn't the most important thing in life."

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A dozen years later, Jerret is a healthy 19-year old student at Alabama and Jim McElwain is now about to embark on the professional opportunity of a lifetime as the latest coach tasked with fixing Florida football.

And as much as McElwain has carried that memory with him, as much as he has valued his relationships and tried not to let the thirst for victories consume him, his new job came with a cold reminder that this is, after all, a business.

In the days that followed McElwain's very public courtship with Florida — a process filled with purposeful media leaks to help convince Colorado State to lower his $7 million contract buyout — he knew he would have to leave behind most of those who helped him become the coach Florida wanted in the first place.

Of the 10 assistants who helped McElwain turn Colorado State from a bottom-rung program into a Mountain West contender, only two were asked to come with him to Florida: running backs coach Tim Skipper and strength and conditioning coach Mike Kent.

It was a decision, McElwain said, that tore him up and made him consider staying at Colorado State. On some level, it didn't seem fair that his personal success would ultimately lead to eight coaches being out of jobs.

"It's probably the hardest thing you go through as a coach," McElwain said.

But it was also the very decision that indicates he'll have what it takes to win in the ruthless SEC.

McElwain, who saw up close what this league was like in his four years as Alabama's offensive coordinator, knew he had to bring in some heavy hitters, particularly in recruiting. He grabbed Doug Nussmeier, who replaced him at Alabama, as his offensive coordinator. He poached high-energy Geoff Collins off a breakthrough year as Mississippi State's defensive coordinator. He lured Chris Rumph from Texas for the defensive line and former Miami head coach Randy Shannon as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

It's a staff deep with recruiting ties in the state of Florida and experience in the SEC, which does not guarantee McElwain will be more successful than his predecessor Will Muschamp. But at least it gives him a chance.

"Getting that part right is huge," McElwain said. "You only get one chance to get it right. I'm not saying (the Colorado State staff) wouldn't be successful here. Had it been a job on the West Coast, maybe the staff wouldn't have changed much. It's hard. Certain guys took it differently. Some understood. Those guys are great coaches and have landed on their feet."

That's not true in every case. Four former McElwain assistants were retained by new Colorado State coach Mike Bobo, one took a job at Central Michigan and another at New Mexico. Greg Lupfer, who coached the Rams' defensive line, is still looking for work, though it should be noted that his reputation took a hit when he directed a homophobic slur at Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday during the 2013 New Mexico Bowl, earning a two-week suspension.

Lupfer, through his agent Will Harris, declined to comment. Harris, however, said Lupfer certainly would have liked to follow McElwain to Florida.

"We were fully aware of the fact he may not get offered," Harris said. "We know the nature of the business."

The only former Colorado State coach who upgraded his position was offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin, who landed the same position on Gary Andersen's new staff at Oregon State.

"(McElwain) told all those guys he was going to wait for several weeks and then make a decision," said Baldwin, who was named CSU's interim coach for the Las Vegas Bowl after McElwain accepted the Florida job on Dec. 4. "They were hoping I'd get (the CSU job) for families' sake. I was worried about them because I'd been with them the whole time. There's a reason why you win: It's the staff. We had great people on the staff. I think most of them knew that they probably didn't have the opportunity to go with him. I think some of them hoped they would."

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College coaches understand that their jobs are year-to-year, that not winning enough games can lead to unemployment. This was the rare case, however, where a coaching staff was the victim of being too successful.

Either way, it's a brutal profession, something they know all too well at Florida.

McElwain will be the fourth Gators coach in the last 14 years, an era in which two failed tenures sandwiched Urban Meyer's pair of national championships.

Right now, some of this feels thrown together. McElwain's staff, as strong as it looks on paper, has never really worked together and is still trying to develop chemistry. The Gators are low on talent and depth in some key areas, particularly on the offensive line. Three different offensive coordinators and philosophies in Muschamp's four years left the program with mismatched parts in recruiting and no foundation of identity for players to grab onto.

McElwain acknowledges that Florida's style of play in Year 1 could look much different than it does in, say, Year 4. Thus, it's unclear what Florida is going to be in the short term, and this isn't a job with a history of patience for the long term.

"We were talking this morning in the staff room about what Coach Mac was doing from a situational standpoint last year with his team in practice is way different than what we're going to be able to do," Nussmeier said. "We're teaching at a different level than what you're coaching at when you have players in your system for several years. We spend a lot of time in the meeting room making sure we're all on the same page so when we leave the meeting room we're all talking the same language to the players so they have one direction."

For all of McElwain's obvious virtues, there was risk in hiring him. When athletics director Jeremy Foley hired Meyer off a perfect season at Utah, he seemed like a sure thing. McElwain is 22-16 as a head coach and a guy who took a long time to get in position for his big break: A decade as an assistant at his alma mater Eastern Washington and five at Montana State before catching on with John L. Smith at Louisville and then Michigan State.

Only in 2007 when McElwain led Fresno State's offense to 33 points per game — drawing the attention of Nick Saban — did his ascent to big-time head coach truly begin.

Along the way, life and near-tragedy taught McElwain that there were more important things than his career trajectory. And yet, as he gets ready for the most public and high-pressure years of his professional life, there is undoubtedly an urgency to make those third-and-sixes count.

"There's only a handful of these jobs," McElwain said. "When you just poll the United States and say give me the top five football programs in the country there's a pretty good chance university of Florida is going to be in there. That opportunity doesn't come around very often."​

Contributing: Paul Myerberg

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