Jim McElwain exceed expectations during his first season as Florida’s head coach. The Gators weren’t expected to contend in the SEC East, let alone win their division.
But McElwain’s team did just that with a 10-4 finish in 2015, which included a 6-0 record against SEC East opponents. That was enough to earn a $750,000 pay raise last week, which boosts his salary from $3.5 million to $4.25 million.
“We recognized early in Coach Mac’s tenure that he totally changed the vibe around football for The Gator Nation and in the building,” athletic director Jeremy Foley said in a statement. “From the moment he set foot on this campus, he has steadily put into place his blueprint for the football program. His efforts have been relentless.”
Florida had its flaws, but managed to take advantage of a weak division and finish on top of the standings. Despite losing its last three consecutive games and being outscored 97-24 by Florida State, Alabama and Michigan, the Gators’ season was a huge success that few saw coming.
Florida was picked to finish fifth in the SEC East during SEC Media Days and received just one vote for the SEC Champion poll — less than Georgia and Tennessee. Many believed that McElwain, a former Alabama coordinator before taking over as head coach at Colorado State in 2012, inherited an offense that wouldn’t make an immediate transition to his system.
While Florida did rank in the lower-tier of the conference in scoring offense (11th), total offense (12th) and rushing offense (13th), it improved from 12th to eighth in passing offense, which could have been higher had starter Will Grier avoided a season-long suspension in October that led him to transfer this offseason.
McElwain’s sample size of success is small, but there’s no denying that he deserved a pay raise for his early success with the Gators.
There is some reason to be skeptical of his potential given that he won with a loaded defense and Will Muschamp’s recruits. Despite all his other shortcomings as a head coach, there’s little debate that Muschamp is a great recruiter. Having said that, McElwain out-coached all of the other SEC East coaches in head-to-head matchups in his debut season, including former Georgia coach Mark Richt, who had a $4 million salary in 2015 and Tennessee’s Butch Jones, who also received a raise this offseason. Jones has never won the SEC East division title while at Tennessee.
Considering the Vols and Bulldogs were the only true threat to Florida’s division title reign, it only makes sense for McElwain to receive a similar pay to the coaches he defeated en route to finishing in first place.
Year two will be a huge factor in McElwain’s legacy in Gainesville. Sure, his debut season was a success we shouldn’t be ready to call him a great coach just yet. Even still, his raise was earned based on what he’s done so far and how he compared to his colleagues in 2015.
McElwain can earn his raise and then some with another successful season at Florida. But he’s definitely done enough to earn a big pay day this offseason.
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