Foley Impressed by McElwain Early in Search, Quickly Made Him a Primary Target
Friday, December 5, 2014 | Football, Scott Carter
Photo gallery of new Gators coach Jim McElwain landing in Gainesville on Friday afternoon.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jeremy Foley had never met Jim McElwain until late Tuesday afternoon.
On Saturday morning at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the University of Florida athletic director will introduce McElwain as the 25th head coach in Gators football history.
How did the hiring come to fruition? What was it like for some of the private negotiations to play out in public view? And why McElwain?
An upbeat Foley answered those questions and more during an interview Friday morning in his office as he prepared to welcome McElwain to town later this evening.
Two phone calls with McElwain will remain vivid for Foley – one on Sunday afternoon and the other on Thursday morning.
After spending two weeks with his internal staff researching candidates and vetting information from an array of sources, Foley's search to replace Will Muschamp sped up considerably when Foley returned home late Saturday night from Tallahassee following Florida's loss at Florida State.
By that time Foley had already targeted McElwain, who completed his third season at Colorado State on Friday, as a primary candidate.
“We identified him early and he rose to the top early,” Foley said. “He really did.”
With Colorado State's regular season complete, Foley called interim CSU athletic director John Morris late Saturday to inform him he wanted to talk to McElwain about the Gators' opening.
Foley later texted McElwain to let him know he would like to gauge his interest Sunday. McElwain called Foley and during a brief conversation, the two scheduled a phone call for Sunday afternoon to discuss the possibility of McElwain coming to Florida.
During that in-depth conversation is when Foley started to believe that Florida's next coach was on the other line somewhere in Fort Collins, Colo. Back in Gainesville, a note Foley had written to himself at one point rang true: If you find the right guy you go get him.
“One of the criteria we look for when we hire coaches – and I've learned this the hard way during my career – obviously the X's and O's and the integrity and the character and the ability to win and recruit and develop young men and women, all of those things [are important],” Foley said. “But you also got to really want to be here. This can't be a leverage play or somebody poking around. I wanted to ascertain that up front. Do you really, really want this potential opportunity?”
What was McElwain's answer?
“He made it very evident that this was an opportunity that he would be honored to have,” Foley said.
New Gators coach Jim McElwain landed in Gainesville late Friday afternoon. (Photo: Tim Casey)
Foley scheduled a meeting on Tuesday afternoon in Colorado with McElwain and his wife, Karen, at their home. He spent part of Monday meeting with his administrative staff to finalize the trip and key elements of their presentation and interview with the McElwains.
And early Tuesday afternoon Foley and University Athletic Association representatives Lynda Tealer, Steve McClain, Mike Hill and Chip Howard lifted off in Gainesville aboard a private jet for Fort Collins to begin discussions with perhaps a future colleague.
As they made the cross-country flight social media began to explode with the plane's flight schedule, which led to countless news stories on the Internet about Florida's interest in McElwain, adding an unexpected element to the drama of your typical college football coaching search.
When the Florida contingent arrived in Colorado, news media was there to capture the landing and then follow the group to McElwain's home.
In his 23rd year as Florida's athletic director, Foley remained focused on the reason the group made the trip.
“I've played this game before. You try to do it under the radar,'' he said. “The last time we did it, when we hired Will, it was under the radar. When I hired Urban [Meyer] people didn't know where I was because the world was different. I even took the same plane to visit Urban but the world is different. At some point it's like 'really?' And at some point it's kind of comical. And also, they have a job to do and so do we. You can't get distracted by it and nobody was.
“I've got five people I want to sit down with this coach. I've got five people I want their opinion. When it's a collective decision we have a better chance at making the right decision. It is what it is for it to play out publicly. At the end of the day it didn't impact the search at all. It all worked out and that's what is important to the University of Florida.”
Once Foley and his staff arrived at McElwain's home, it didn't take long for the 52-year-old McElwain, a 30-year coaching veteran who elevated his status in the industry with four highly successful seasons as Alabama's offensive coordinator from 2008-11, to make his case.
He wanted the job.
Once both sides felt like their major questions had been answered, that's when the attention turned to the final details, most notably a $7.5 million buyout in McElwain's contract. The information Florida received from well-informed sources was that the buyout was negotiable.
And then during the UF contingent's stay, media reports surfaced that Colorado State President Tony Frank might not be so willing to reduce or eliminate the clause in McElwain's contract extension he signed in June.
When Foley boarded the flight back to Gainesville on Wednesday afternoon, he wanted to hire McElwain but knew there were some financial hurdles that still had to be navigated.
“We had a very productive day out there meeting him and his wife,'' Foley said. “The uncertainty was difficult. I wanted to get it going and so did he. I got up on Thursday morning early and we got some additional information and that was the first time it looked like all the pieces were falling into place. It wasn't done yet, but I remember coming to work and I was feeling very, very good – the best I had felt the whole search that this was going to get done.”
Within a couple of hours after Foley arrived at his office Thursday morning, news broke that McElwain had reached a deal with Colorado State on the final portion of the buyout. He was free to officially become Florida's head coach.
Foley and his staff celebrated the news. They got their guy.
“It's kind of a little bit like high-stakes poker because if he says no, and the whole world knows that Jim McElwain says no and the whole world knows I'm there,'' Foley said. “But if you do your research, which we did, and you feel comfortable and you're getting the feedback you want and you trust that the interest he said he had is legit, you go get him. And that's what we did.
“We just start vetting people. We found out about as many coaches as we could. You also have to anticipate how many might be interested. Some agents reach out to you. So you go through that process of who may fit. The more I found out about Mac, I was convinced that he would be a fit here.”
When Foley began his search, he spoke about several qualities that were important.
McElwain seems to have them all. He has been a head coach, he has had success offensively, he has competed and won on the game's biggest stage, he is familiar with the Southeastern Conference, the Florida program, and he passed the character and integrity tests. McElwain has also recruited the state of Florida over the years.
Foley watched some Colorado State games to also get a better feel of McElwain on the sideline and how his teams played. Everything added up.
Now, about that second call with McElwain that Foley will remember for a long time. It came shortly after an agreement was reached with Colorado State for McElwain to trade in his Rams green for some Florida orange and blue.
“That was a very good phone call,'' Foley said. “He said, 'I need to get to work.' So we're obviously bringing him here and he's going to get to work. He was pumped. His wife is pumped and we are all pumped inside this building. I think outside it's the same way. A lot of people are excited about the hire and that's good. It's good for the Gator Nation.
“I think it's a perfect fit. Now we just need to go win some ballgames and I'm confident that he will.”
