Below is a chart of offense, defense and total production of the University of Florida Gators football program during McElwain's tenure as head football coach, along with who would be the lowest ranked team during this time period (in purple) and the average team (sky blue). As you may notice, Florida's offense has dropped dramatically under his brief tenure. All rankings in this blog come from my Complex Invasion College Football Production Model. More details about the program under McElwain are after the chart below, including a link to his employment contract are below.
Jim McElwain [2015 - 2017]
2015
The Gators were 10-2 during the regular season under McElwain's first year at the helm of the football program (bowl eligible), and lost the SEC conference title game to #7 ranked Alabama (15-29), and were defeated by #24 ranked Michigan in their post-season bowl game by a score of (7-41). Florida played against a "tougher" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was between one and two standard deviations below the "league" average SOS. The Gators best game again was their victory over #6 ranked Mississippi (38-10) and their worst loss was to #16 ranked in-state rival Florida State (2-27). Florida had the #48 ranked team in total production with the #80 ranked offense and the #15 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2016
Florida finished the regular season at 8-3 under McElwain's second year at the helm of the football program (bowl eligible), and again lost the SEC title game to #1 ranked Alabama (54-16) but defeated #41 Iowa (30-3) in their post-season bowl game to finish 9-4 overall. The Gators played against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS, meaning that their SOS was plus or minus one standard deviation of the "league" average SOS. The Gators best game again was their victory over #7 ranked LSU (16-10) and their worst loss was to #85 ranked Arkansas (31-10). Florida had the #34 ranked team in total production with the #102 ranked offense and the #5 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2017*
At the time of McElwain's departure, the Gators were 3-4 overall, playing against an "average" strength of schedule (SOS) as compared to the "league" average SOS. The Gators best win was against #79 currently ranked Kentucky by a score of (28-27) and their worst loss was to #60 currently ranked Texas A&M by a score of (17-19). In other words, all of Florida's victories were over below average teams and all their losses were to above average teams. Florida had the #86 ranked team in total production, with the #122 ranked offense and the #29 ranked defense from the Complex Invasion College Football Production Model.
2017 NCAA FBS Head Coach Changes
Minnesota and Tracy Claeys
California and Sonny Dykes
Oklahoma and Bob Stoops
Mississippi (Ole Miss) and Hugh Freeze
UTEP and Sean Kugler
Oregon State and Gary Andersen
Georgia Southern and Tyson Summers