FORT COLLINS — A contingent of officials from the University of Florida, including athletic director Jeremy Foley and associate AD Lynda Tealer, met late into Tuesday night with Colorado State football coach Jim McElwain and his wife, Karen, at their home northeast of Fort Collins.

McElwain has emerged as the leading candidate for the head coaching job at Florida, solidified further after Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze, who also drew interest from Florida, agreed to a lucrative contract extension Tuesday morning. McElwain and Foley spoke about the coaching vacancy Saturday, The Denver Post confirmed.

Sources told Yahoo Sports a deal was close to done and it was not expected the $7.5 million buyout would be negotiated down significantly.

A private jet carrying Foley and Tealer landed at Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport in Loveland shortly after 3 p.m. A white Suburban vehicle went onto the tarmac, the Florida contingent climbed in, and they arrived at McElwain’s home at 3:53 p.m. From then until 8 p.m., no one left the house and McElwain and his wife were spotted with the Foley contingent at various junctures.

Florida is looking to replace Will Muschamp, who was fired Nov. 16 in the final weeks of his fourth season.

The plane left Jacksonville, Fla., and made a brief stop in Joplin, Mo., before coming to the airport.

McElwain, 52, led the Rams to a 10-2 record this year, his third at CSU, and was named the Mountain West coach of the year Tuesday. He has a buyout in his contract, and Florida has already paid $6.3 million to Muschamp to show him the door. McElwain’s base salary was $1.5 million this season under a new five-year replacement contract that went into effect this season and features annual one-year rollovers that can be triggered by either McElwain or CSU.

The contract includes an “extenuating circumstances” clause that could apply if McElwain signals his intention to terminate the contract “without cause,” opening the way for discussions about reducing the buyout. But the contract specifies that CSU is under no obligation to lessen the amount of the buyout, which technically would be McElwain’s responsibility but would be presumed to be paid by Florida.

CSU president Tony Frank, who presumably would be involved in any of discussions along those lines, was not present at the McElwain home.

McElwain took over a program that had gone 3-8 in three consecutive seasons. In his three years, the Rams improved to 4-8, 8-6 and 10-2.

The Rams lost their regular-season finale Friday at Air Force on a last-second field goal. CSU, which spent several weeks this season ranked in the top 25 in The Associated Press and USA Today coaches polls, will learn Sunday which bowl game it will play in.

Terry Frei: tfrei @denverpost.com or twitter.com/TFrei