Just one year into the job, and Jim McElwain already sits atop his division in at least one category.
Friday, Florida revealed that McElwain received a $750,000 raise that was effective Feb. 1. McElwain received no extension as part of the amended contract, and his current deal is still scheduled to run through the 2020 season.
The bump in pay comes after McElwain’s first season in Gainesville in which the Gators went 10-4 and won the SEC East.
“We recognized early in Coach Mac’s tenure that he totally changed the vibe around football for The Gator Nation and in the building,” said UF athletic director Jeremy Foley. “Dr. Fuchs and I first talked about this in mid-October -- we didn’t want to make it about winning one game or advancing to the SEC Championship Game.
“We wanted to make a change because of the direction of the program and his leadership. From the moment he set foot on this campus, he has steadily put into place his blueprint for the football program. His efforts have been relentless. We are very grateful to have him and his family in Gainesville.”
The raise pushes McElwain’s salary to $4.25 million in 2016, a total that’s tops among head coaches in the SEC East. McElwain surged ahead of Tennessee’s Butch Jones, who was given a new contract in December of last year that will pay him $4.1 million in 2016. Both of the coaches in the division who earned $4 million-plus last year are gone, having either retired (South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier) or forcibly moved on (Georgia’s Mark Richt, now at Miami).
In 2015, four SEC West coaches -- Alabama’s Nick Saban ($7.1 million), Texas A&M’s Kevin Sumlin ($5 million), LSU’s Les Miles ($4.4 million) and Ole Miss’ Hugh Freeze ($4.3 million) -- pulled in more salary than McElwain’s new total.