Florida Football: 5 reasons the Malik Zaire era may never begin
By Ryan McNeill
4. Chip Kelly to take over in 2018?
Oh, the ghost of Chip Kelly.
It looks like Kelly will be a candidate for all of the big name openings after this season and Florida may be one of those openings if McElwain doesn’t get Florida close to playing for a National Championship.
The problem is Florida may be better served building the program for a big push in 2018 when five-star recruit Justin Fields can take over the program. Having the threat of a coach like Kelly lurking only muddies up the picture and can cause a coach to do what they need to survive instead of what a program needs to thrive.
The “problem” for Florida adding Zaire is that McElwain will be tempted to win now in order to keep his job in Florida, even if it’s not in the best interest of Florida’s program long-term. Instead of letting some of his young quarterbacks earn the starting job and get much-needed reps this summer in practice, Zaire will likely slide into the starting role and gobble up all of those practice and game reps.
It will be interesting to see if McElwain secures another few seasons in Florida or if he does what’s best for the program in the long-term. Always a trick thing to navigate for any coach.