Florida football fired Jim McElwain as their head coach on Sunday. Who might the Gators land as McElwain’s replacement moving forward?
Despite going 19-8 and winning two SEC East titles in his first two seasons as the head coach of the Florida Gators, Jim McElwain never seemed to gain the trust of the program. Even before the turmoil surrounding the alleged death threats issued to McElwain’s staff, there were rumblings that this could be his last year in Gainesville.
On Sunday morning, the Gators made it official as they let the third-year coach go. After hitting and missing on Will Muschamp, Florida must now renew its coaching search yet again. As one of the premier programs in the country, the Gators could get a jump on the competition and take their time finding the right fit to move things forward.
In recent hires, Florida has tried several avenues. With McElwain, the Gators tried to reprise the home-run hire that they had landed from the mid-major ranks when Urban Meyer came to Gainesville from Utah. They have also tried to land hot commodities at coordinator with the selection of both Ron Zook and Will Muschamp.
The results have been mixed. Who, then, might they choose to target in their current coaching search? Keep reading for five candidates the Gators could target to take over the program.
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.
Dino Babers has worked his magic over the past few years at Syracuse, turning the Orange into a regular spoiler in the ACC ranks. He has followed the pattern established by Urban Meyer before he came to Florida, and would fit the bill of looking for a coach that can turn around the offensive fortunes of the Gators.
Syracuse is the third stop for Babers in his head coaching career. He worked for nearly a quarter-century as a position coach at schools all across the country before finally landing his chance to lead a program at FCS Eastern Illinois. In his two seasons with the Panthers, Babers led the Ohio Valley Conference powerhouse to the FCS playoffs in both 2012 and 2013.
That success landed him a chance in the FBS ranks with Bowling Green, where Meyer also first made his name, and the MAC has historically been a cradle of coaches. He won the MAC East both seasons with the Falcons, and claimed the conference title in 2015 in a 34-14 blowout of Northern Illinois. Babers parlayed that success into a Power Five gig with with Syracuse, and he continues to impress despite playing against better competition.
Last year, Syracuse went just 4-8, the first time Babers posted a losing record as a head coach. But the Orange pulled off a massive upset of Virginia Tech in 2016, and this year Syracuse is on path to reach a bowl game for the first time since 2013. They took down defending national champion Clemson, and his work playing up to the competition could get Babers a look from the Florida brass.
What Matt Campbell has done at Iowa State is going to earn him a lot of calls this offseason as programs look for a guy who can rebuild effectively. Campbell turned around a Cyclones program that has suffered the longest active conference title drought among FBS schools. After taking down Oklahoma and TCU from the ranks of the unbeaten in October, Campbell’s name is launching up coaching candidate lists.
Like Babers, Campbell got his FBS head coaching start in the MAC. Before arriving in Ames, Campbell led Toledo to a trio of nine-win seasons in his four years patrolling the sidelines at the Glass Bowl. In his last two years with the Rockets, Campbell took them to the MAC title game in 2014 and 2015.
That record earned him a chance to take over an Iowa State program that hasn’t gone bowling since 2012. His first year at the helm went about as well as could be expected, as the Cyclones finished 3-9. But there were signs that things were turning around in Ames, as Iowa State nearly pulled off upsets of Baylor, Oklahoma State, and Kansas State along the way.
That momentum has paid off in 2017, as the Cyclones are now bowl eligible before the month of November and sitting atop the Big 12 standings. Having proven that he can achieve results at lower-tier programs, Campbell could reenergize one of the sleeping giants of college football if Florida decides to take a chance on him.
Dan Mullen has worked wonders in Starkville, turning Mississippi State into a regular dark-horse candidate in the SEC West. Mullen had a 5-7 season in his first year leading the Bulldogs in 2009. Since then, though, he has taken Mississippi State to seven straight bowl games. In a division that features teams like Alabama, Auburn, and LSU, merely becoming bowl eligible with such consistency is a feat unto itself.
But Mullen hasn’t been content just to reach the postseason every year. Working with players like Dak Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald at quarterback, Mullen has finished in the top 15 of the AP Top 25 in both 2010 and 2014 and even landed the Bulldogs at No. 1 in the inaugural College Football Playoff back in 2014.
Mullen would come with several advantages, first and foremost his experience coaching in the blast furnace that is the SEC. There is no risk that Mullen would be overmatched by his opponents in conference play, as he has already proven capable of leading a historical afterthought to success in the league.
He also has the advantage of understanding the culture in Gainesville. Before landing at Mississippi State, Mullen spent eight seasons working under Urban Meyer at Bowling Green, Utah, and Florida. He was the offensive coordinator for the two most recent BCS championships won by the Gators, and would be an enticing choice to lead them back to prominence.
Another name with ties to the Gators is former Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops. He surprisingly stepped down as the coach of the Sooners this offseason and has made every indication that he is retired for good from the sidelines. But we have seen the lure of college football pull back coaches in the past, and Stoops might not be immune to that pull if the Gators come calling.
He doesn’t match the profile of looking for an offensive coach, but Stoops still has the pedigree that Florida might look for after hitting and missing on unproven commodities like McElwain and Muschamp. Stoops served for three years as the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach under Steve Spurrier before landing his gig in Norman.
In his only stop as a head coach, Stoops proved more than capable of resurrecting a powerhouse that had fallen on hard times. Under Stoops, Oklahoma won 10 Big 12 titles in 18 seasons and played for four national championships. That he only won one of those four opportunities is often used as a knock against Stoops, but no head coach enjoyed more consistent success at the top of the national ranks during the BCS era.
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Whether he can be lured out of retirement is another question, especially given the rebuilding project that needs to take place in Gainesville. But Florida would be wise to at least take a chance on the former defensive guru that helped lead them to the school’s first national title back in 1996.