Florida Football: 5 candidates to replace Jim McElwain as head coach

The hottest commodity on the coaching market this season is undoubtedly going to be UCF head coach Scott Frost. Since coming to Orlando in 2016 after seven years on the Oregon coaching staff, Frost has engineered a massive turnaround at UCF that has the Knights in contention for a New Year’s Six berth and even a possible College Football Playoff spot in 2017.

After the loss by South Florida in Week 9, UCF is now the clear frontrunner in the American Athletic Conference and the last undefeated team among Group of Five schools. Frost came to Orlando after the Knights had gone 0-12 in 2015, and since then has a 13-7 record in a season and a half in his first-ever head coaching gig.

Florida will certainly take a long look at the guy working his magic a couple hours south down I-75. Frost is a former Nebraska player who has always looked like a future Cornhuskers head coach, but the lure of leading an SEC school could be enough to snatch him away from his current position in the AAC ranks.

Frost would receive a significant bump from his current salary of $2 million per year, and he would come without an onerous buyout. Offense has always been a catalyst for success in Gainesville, and the only question is whether the Gators are willing to take another chance on a Group of Five commodity. It certainly worked with Urban Meyer, but proved a whiff when it came to McElwain.