Florida denies report school is buying out Jim McElwain

The Florida Gators say they aren’t preparing to buy out head coach Jim McElwain despite rumors to the contrary on Saturday morning.

College football has seen a trend of head coaches being fired early into their tenures in recent years, particularly in the cutthroat SEC.

The next victim of the intense pressure in the conference might be Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain, as the Gators are gearing up to hire a new football coach according to reports on Saturday morning. Boosters were told to pool money in preparation to hire a new coach, which would include buying out McElwain’s $12 million contract.

McElwain has led the Gators to a 22-11 victory in two and a half years since taking over for Will Muschamp prior to the 2015 season. Florida is off to a rough 3-3 start in 2017, but firing McElwain would seem harsh after the Gators won SEC Easts titles in each of his first two seasons.

A few hours later, the Gators denied any reports saying they were ready to fire McElwain, per athletic director Scott Stricklin.

It’s easy to see why there might be some frustration with McElwain even with the team piling up nine plus wins in each of his first two years. Florida’s offense has remained awful despite McElwain’s background as a coordinator, and a 3-3 start in a down SEC coupled with multiple suspensions in the credit card fraud scandal is not a good look.

Things could be even worse for the Gators, as they are two plays away from potentially being 1-5. Florida beat a bad Tennessee team on a last-second Hail Mary, and had to come from behind to keep its three-decade winning streak against Kentucky alive with a touchdown in the final minute.

Even so, it seems silly that the Gators would fire McElwain this early in his career given all the success they’ve had through two years. McElwain has brought in strong recruiting classes, and it’s hard to do much better than two SEC East titles in two years even if the Gators were destroyed by Alabama in both title games.

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Rival Tennessee is still paying for firing successful head coach Phillip Fulmer, and LSU could see a similar decline after dismissing Les Miles. The pressure should increase on McElwain given the poor start to 2017, but firing him would be a huge mistake.