The Florida football program is again charting a new coaching course.
As speculation began to swell over the weekend, reports surfaced Sunday that UF was set to fire Jim McElwain as its head football coach. Early Sunday evening, the university confirmed as much as it was officially announced that UF and McElwain had (ahem) “mutually agreed to part ways.”
“We want to thank Coach McElwain for his efforts in leading the Gator football program,” athletic director Scott Stricklin said as part of a very short and blunt statement on the development.
Not long after official word of his demise became public knowledge, McElwain released a statement on his personal Twitter account.
— Jim McElwain (@CoachMcElwain) October 29, 2017
In his first two seasons with the Gators, McElwain went 19-8 and won the SEC East each year. UF started the 2017 season 3-1, including 3-0 in conference play, before suffering back-to-back-to-back league losses. The backend of that three-game losing streak was an embarrassing loss to rival Georgia that, combined with the death threats imbroglio, proved too much for the in-over-his-head McElwain to survive.