McElwain, Gators Set to Seek Their Identity
Monday, August 31, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- As the dawn of a new age of Florida football inches closer, Gators everywhere are anxiously anticipating just what is in store for the Jim McElwain era.
McElwain, included.
“We're really excited,” McElwain said Monday, in anticipation of his UF debut Saturday night when UF hosts New Mexico State in the 2015 opener at Florida Field. “I'm looking forward to seeing what our identity is going to be.”
Since arriving from Colorado State last December, McElwain has spent nine months trying to remold the program, following a four-year record of 29-21 under former coach Will Muschamp. With just 11 victories over the past two seasons, McElwain and his staff have sought to instill a culture of discipline and commitment to excellence, the likes of which he learned during a four-year stint as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Alabama.
And yet, the offensive-famished fans who turn out at “The Swamp” this weekend will want to see the type of fireworks McElwain ignited at his previous stops; the kind that made UF athletic director Jeremy Foley jet to Fort Collins, Colo., and make the hire in the first place.
“As hungry as they are,” McElwain said. “I'm twice as hungry to see them get after it.”
McElwain and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier are on record saying the quarterback duel between redshirt freshman Will Grier and sophomore incumbent Treon Harris, after spring practices, summer workouts and a full training camp, remains a dead heat. That means the two will have to separate themselves in live game action. They'll also have to do so behind a thoroughly untested offensive line -- senior guard Trip Thurman is the lone player with any career starts (10) in FBS competition -- with offensive tackle Martez Ivey, the five-star true freshman, recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery last week.
Look for the Grier/Harris duo to lean on junior tailback Kelvin Taylor (1,073 career rushing yards, 10 TDs) and a receiving corps that doesn't have a lot on its collective resume beyond junior wideout Demarcus Robinson (58 career catches, 833 yards, 7 TDs) and tight end Jake McGee (71 catches, 769 yards, 7 TDs all at Virginia).
In other words, there are opportunities for the taking.
Defensively, the Gators are expected to trot out one of the best units in the country. After ranking 15th in total defense last season, UF has a new coordinator in Geoff Collins, who worked wonders at Mississippi State, and found himself a loaded side of the ball, led by cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III and defensive end Jonathan Bullard.
Even senior linebacker Antonio Morrison, who suffered a devastating knee injury in UF”s bowl game last January, is expected to be ready to go after what the UF coaches and health staff have dubbed a remarkable recovery. Of Florida's front-line players, only junior safety Keanu Neal (leg) is questionable for the game.
“I hope everybody is fired up, ready to go. If you're not, maybe you might be in the wrong spot,” McGee said Monday. “Game week, just getting [here] yesterday and starting the install, you sort of put camp behind you. It's here now. If you're not fired up and ready to go, it might not be the thing for you.”
McGee is a sixth-year senior who transferred from UVa in '14, only to break his leg in the season opener last year. He's never caught a pass as a Gator, so he still has much to prove to a lot of people, but the same could be said for a bevy of players on that side of the ball.
McElwain, in fact, made that very point. If there are playmakers on the offense, it's time for them to show themselves.
“One of the things we stress is putting the ball down the field vertically and not worry as much horizontally,” McElwain said, a statement that surely plays to UF fans who for the last four years saw more than their share of 4-yard dig or out routes on third-and-7. “We will definitely take our shots, there is no doubt about that.”
But who takes advantage and becomes the beneficiary of those shots?
Take junior wideout Ahmad Fulwood, for example.
The former Jacksonville prep star has flashed at times at practice and during games the last two seasons. Fulwood had an electrifying 86-yard touchdown reception in UF's win over East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl. He also disappeared at times, hence just 12 catches in '14 and six games with none. Some of that certainly was on the conservative nature of the previous offensive system.
But some wasn't.
McElwain put it pretty plainly.
“I would like to see him play 6-foot-4 rather than 5-8 at times. Go up and get the ball. Be aggressive in the air and don't take 'no' for an answer,” the coach said of Fulwood. “There are a lot of things we need to do to establish that [receivers] group from the standpoint of an aggressive nature in which you play the position.”
That kind of expectation and accountability is being applied across the board, in all phases of the game, and every player -- regardless of position -- has been put on notice.
The Gators, despite the obvious strength on one side of the ball versus the work-in-progress status of the other, no longer go into games looking just to lean on their defense to keep them in games, finish games and win games.
“Obviously, Muschamp being a defensive coach, I'm not going to say he didn't worry about the offense too much, but it was kind of put second to his defense,” Thurman said Monday. “The way Coach Mac has done it is kind of implemented in both groups. In being an offensive mind, he likes to have his guys going full-speed, 100 percent of the time. I just think there's a more heightened level on the offensive side of the ball than in the past.”
It's enough to make one excited, even a little anxious, about the days ahead. McElwain surely is. The new-look Gators have a date with destiny Saturday night. A date with their identity, too.
Whatever it turns out to be.
