Five Takeaways: McElwain adds signature win to his resume at Florida

1. Sure, Florida's 38-10 rout of then-No. 3 Ole Miss at home in 2015 was huge at the time, but Jim McElwain earned the biggest signature win of his Florida career Saturday.

That win over Ole Miss came when Will Grier, who is no longer with the program, was Florida's starting quarterback - and up to Saturday remained the Gators' lone win against an AP Top 25 opponent. Florida entered its matchup with LSU 1-5 under McElwain against ranked teams and not owning a victory against a ranked road opponent.

As I pointed out in my advance for Saturday's game, this game was a crucial one in defining the direction of the Gators football program under McElwain. Florida built up a reputation before Saturday of beating up on the weaker opponents and struggling against the tougher ones. It put that notion to rest this weekend, behind a thrilling goal-line stand to clinch the victory.

"The future's bright for the Gators," McElwain said. "And it's no small feat to go to that championship game back to back. I think that's what we're doing, which is pretty cool. And I just can't tell you how proud I am of our players, our staff and happy for the Gator fans, you know, that, you know, don't think we're very good, but all we do is end up back in Atlanta, right?"

Reaching Atlanta in your first two seasons on the job is pretty historic stuff, considering no other SEC coach has ever pulled off the feat before, but for McElwain, the fact that his team was able to earn a signature road win against a quality opponent speaks louder to the national audience considering how weak the rest of the SEC East has been this year.