With McElwain out, Scott Stricklin wants to make Florida fun again
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* McElwain issues statement after parting with Florida
* Florida announces mutual parting with Jim McElwain
* Farrell: McElwain era ends with a thud
* Florida four-star commit talks South Carolina visit
* ALLEY: Players React to the News
* Atlanta out of reach, McElwain reaches end of line
* Uncensored Sound Off: Harsh reaction to latest loss
* Four thoughts as McElwain heads out the door
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The search for Florida’s 26th head football coach will begin Monday. Athletic director Scott Stricklin made his mission clear: Make Florida Football Fun Again.
"Being in this league for 25 years, when Florida has been really good, from a distance it has looked really fun and I want it to be really fun,” Stricklin said. “Our fans, they deserve it to be really fun. I want our players and student-athletes to have a lot of fun, like this is a rewarding experience to come here and get a degree from a top-10 public university and to play at one of the storied football programs in the country.
“That's got to be rewarding and fun. I want it to be fun for our staff. I don't know exactly what that means from an Xs and Os standpoint but usually good leaders make everybody want to come and be excited to work together and that ends up being a lot of fun."
Many words could describe the product on the field under McElwain. Fun was rarely, if ever, one of them. Through seven games in 2017, Florida only has five passing touchdowns, a far cry from the days of Fun ‘N’ Gun where quarterbacks sometimes threw five touchdown passes in one game.
The Gators were unable to register a passing touchdown in Saturday's 42-7 loss to Georgia. On the field struggles, however, were only part of the reason behind the split between McElwain and Florida.
"You know, this is more than just wins and losses, and I'll just leave it at that,” Stricklin said.
It was widely reported that McElwain’s death threats comments last week played a significant role in the mutual parting. According to college football reporter Brett McMurphy, McElwain’s failure to provide details of the threats to the University Athletic Association may have been a violation of the standards clause of his contract. The athletic department likely felt that McElwain had either made the university potentially liable or had lied about the threats.
Stricklin declined to go into details about his conversations with McElwain, but indicated the death threat comments played a factor.
“Monday created a different story line and caused a lot of distractions,” Stricklin said. “It's hard to speculate on what would have happened had last week not occurred. It's hard to speculate on that piece."
Now, Stricklin is keeping an open mind when it comes to finding McElwain’s replacement.
“Just somebody that you wanna work with, that’s a good guy, that you want representing your program, I don’t have anything beyond that,” Stricklin said. “I think anytime that you’re starting your relationship, you’re looking for something that’s a quote unquote fit.
“Whether that’s personality wise or a belief structure from the standpoint of what’s important to him and where their priorities are professionally, I think all that plays into it. Beyond that I don’t know if there’s anything that is a profile there from a personality standpoint.”
That fit will ideally be found before the 72-hour early signing period, which starts on Dec. 20.
“What’s unique this year is that we have an early signing day period,” Stricklin said. “In a perfect world you would have someone in place in time to positively affect the ability to sign players for the early signing period. However, we are going to make the best long-term decision for the University of Florida.”
The McElwain staff had 17 players committed in a class which currently ranks No. 10. The previous staff had hoped to sign a handful of those pledges early.
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