Florida had a struggle for a while on Saturday night in The Swamp against East Carolina, although the Gators did come away with a win to improve to 2-0 under new head coach Jim McElwain. McElwain immediately apologized for his team’s performance following the win.
“Embarrassing. We didn’t deserve to win that ball game,” McElwain said. “Our lack of discipline and understanding of how you play the game crept up, and it was embarrassing. We’ve got a long ways to go. It starts with understanding selfish acts hurt the team and will be dealt with. And it’s not how it’s going to be around here anymore.”
If one video captured on the sideline and uploaded to YouTube is any indication, McElwain has no time to waste on his players changing their ways.
McElwain was seen digging into Florida running back Kevin Taylor during a sideline discussion. The irate Mcelwain got in Taylor’s face and ordered him to look at the head coach instead of the ground. McElwain was not pleased with Taylor doing a throat slash gesture on the field after scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“It’s not OK to act that way,” McElwain said in his postgame press conference. “It’s not OK to call attention to yourself, when a selfish act hurts your whole team.”
During the heated lashing out session from the first-year Gators coach, McElwain was heard telling Taylor to “Look at me, down look down, f---ing be a man!” Mcelwain followed that up quickly with a couple of more f-bombs and a B.S. and wrapping it up with a “and you think it’s f---ing OK!” And for good measure, McElwain dropped on more f-bomb before walking away from Taylor.
Look, we know coaches use some foul language, especially if they feel the need to get in a player’s head. McElwain’s brief episode caught by a YouTube user is certainly not the first or last time this will happen. But this being the age we live in, some will scold McElwain for the way he chose to deliver his message.
The video has already been pulled from YouTube due to a copyright claim by XOS Digital Sports.