Foley Headed To Ft. Collins - Jim McElwain to be hired

[Gator98MD]

OK guys I'm taking a break. My wife and job probably hate me lately. Lol.

no, this is not allowed.

 

[williston_gator]

no, this is not allowed.

OK one more.
@ZachAbolverdi: Per @FootballScoop, Jim McElwain has told his team he plans to accept the #UF job. #Gators

 

[Gator98MD]

OK one more.
@ZachAbolverdi: Per @FootballScoop, Jim McElwain has told his team he plans to accept the #UF job. #Gators

thats what im talking about baby!!! Williston is the MVP of this coaching search!!!

 

[Coach9]

OnlyGators.com ‏@onlygators 4m4 minutes ago Per @FootballScoop, Jim McElwain has informed Colorado State players he's heading to Florida. Ticker: http://bit.ly/UFcoach

 

[soflagator]

OK one more.
@ZachAbolverdi: Per @FootballScoop, Jim McElwain has told his team he plans to accept the #UF job. #Gators

Based on Zach's track record, I fully expect McElwain is getting a giant green Ram tattooed on his back as we speak.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

Based on Zach's track record, I fully expect McElwain is getting a giant green Ram tattooed on his back as we speak.

:hehehe:

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

If this guy stayed behind to personally tell his players and staff that he was leaving, then I like him even more than I already did.

 

[TheDouglas78]

note: quotes are snipped.

I actually like McElwain a bit better than Freeze, so I'm not going to go too too far overboard on this. But...



Barring a mid-year death, new coaches usually are hired when things are not rosy. For football, it usually takes a year or two to stabilize and recruit, so that Year Three is when you hope to see meaningful progress. By that standard, Old Miss and Hugh Freeze are exactly on-track with a strong season and some major wins this year. That makes the decision to hire him at Ole Miss, and his tenure so far, successful from my point of view.

If you want to look at record alone in determining success of a 3rd year coach, that's your prerogative.

Just for fun, here's a comparison with another so-called up-n-coming coach:

Freeze @ Ole Miss
Yr 1 - conf 3-5 (37.5%) - overall 7-6 (53.8%)
Yr 2 - conf 3-5 (37.5%) - overall 8-5 (61.5%)
Yr 3 - conf 5-3 (62.5%) - overall 9-3 (75%)

Other coach
Yr 1 - conf (31.3%) - overall (43.3%)
Yr 2 - conf (37.5%) - overall (48.3%)
Yr 3 - conf (62.5%) - overall (71.0%)

Freeze matches or betters this other coach's record in every year. The benchmark coach went on to have a pretty good (?successful) career later on at the same school, winning 71.8% of his games over 19 years, including two national championships. His name is William Donovan, better known as Billy.

Do I think Freeze will become another Billy Donovan? No, not many do. But Freeze's trajectory is similar so far. Repeat, SO FAR. Climbing to the very tippy-top is exceedingly difficult. If it were easy, all the Cavemen would be becoming coaches, and they'd all have perfect 12-0 records.

(Interestingly, applying Billy's Florida record career of 71.8% to a 12 game football season comes out at about 3.5 losses per season on average.)

So comparing a Football coach who is coaching at a place where there has been some success to a basketball coach who moved into a true baren wasteland for baskeball. Apples and Oranges. Apples and Oranges.
If you lose two games in NCAA Football you out of National Title consideration, you loss the same percentage in basketball you are still a top 4 seed in the tournament. So your comparison inaccurate and invalid. Next you will tell me how you are going to compare it to a feild hocket team. Not the same, and neither are the standards. So would you like to comeback with a relevant argument or a similar argument. David Cutcliffe went 10-3 with Ole Miss and Houston Nutt went 9-4 twice with Ole Miss. So please bring something that is simiar. Both walked into bad situations with the same school and worse resources.

You not thinking this through in the right context. There's a 1/2 million Accords for sale, all basically identical. And a dozen other vehicle models that really aren't a great deal different, other than the marketing/brand veneer that's been applied. Normal cars are close to being a commodity. In contrast, there's only a handful of top candidates for Tier 1 college football openings. You can rationalize the "economic value" of a coach all you want. But the reality is that the market price for top openings is NOT set by a rational and totally dispassionate analysis of historic ("proven") performance, the market price is set by the MOST IRRATIONAL actor with a fat wallet.

You right there are more accords than coaches. So your argument is that the market should be set by irrationalization, instead of the market. With Freeze's rumored raise to $4 Million dollars it places him #12 out of 128 FBS coaches. Do you believe he is the #12 best coach in all of College Football. Has he shown or accomplished as much as #11 Gary Patterson? Won a National Title like Steve Spurrier who took a worse program with less resources and has had three 11-2 seasons? I could go through the list, but you get the point. What makes him worth 4.5 to 5.5 that people are saying he is worth, and has he shown he is worth it. I would say no. He is a middling resume in the SEC (see his record) and hasn't won anything.

Just like you can't prove that Freeze is not a top 5 available coach. Ole Miss apparently thought he was an attractive prospect to others, they just bumped his salary quite a bit.

The pool of top-notch, "almost sure thing" coaches ready to move up to elite programs is small every year.

Well at least 5 of the coaches above him at his new pay have National Title rings, and 8 of them have BCS victorys in the last decade. Most in the three years he has been coaching. I would say all of them are higher than him on the coaching "tier" system.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Dude, the world is a better place these days. How is disagreeing with you that Freeze is an up and comer, whining? You basically said he was Ron Zook and I think that's pretty far out there. No worries...

Look at his win/loss record.. who does it look like..... I already listed it off twice, won't do it again.

 

[MidwestChomp]

OK one more.
@ZachAbolverdi: Per @FootballScoop, Jim McElwain has told his team he plans to accept the #UF job. #Gators

I thought you were taking a break? Couldn't stay away?

Classy move by Jimmy Mac if that's what he did. Many times you hear about players finding out their coach is leaving via media outlets.

 

[Ray Finkle]

If this guy stayed behind to personally tell his players and staff that he was leaving, then I like him even more than I already did.

I like that Kiffin "they'll figure it out" style better

 

[GatorBenji]

Based on Zach's track record, I fully expect McElwain is getting a giant green Ram tattooed on his back as we speak.

LMAO

 

[Coach9]

The earlier tweet about his assistant coaches really not knowing what was going on seems that they weren't really being quizzed about wanting to make the move to Florida. So those reports of some Gator coaches being retained looks to hold water at this point.

 

[ATXGator]

From twitter... has told his players and is planning to are two different things...


Matt L. Stephens ‏@MattStephens 3m3 minutes agoFort Collins, CO
Again, any report that McElwain has told his players he's leaving is incorrect.

 

[soflagator]

From twitter... has told his players and is planning to are two different things...


Matt L. Stephens ‏@MattStephens 3m3 minutes agoFort Collins, CO
Again, any report that McElwain has told his players he's leaving is incorrect.

Par for the course.

 

[Alagator]

If Michigan gets Patterson, then I think JF failed. Now before everyone jumps all over me listen to what I am saying. "Big Mac" might be a better coach, but like I said before why are we signing the first thing we look at? I think we should pump the breaks and wait a week before we sign ANYONE. IMHO.

I'm pretty sure he's been building a folder of potential candidates since this time last year. It's not like he just pulled up google and typed in "Coach" and started the search 48 hours ago. Pretty sure there's been unofficial talks going on with agents and coaches "people" for months now.

 

[Coach9]

Par for the course.

Zach you done with the bowl?

 

[Alagator]

How long will it take a neophyte head coach to build a winning program in the most powerful conference on the Planet, the SEC? .

Don't know but if Butch Jones ever turns that sh!t hole around I'm sure you'll be the first to tell us.

 

[TheDouglas78]

I'm pretty sure he's been building a folder of potential candidates since this time last year. It's not like he just pulled up google and typed in "Coach" and started the search 48 hours ago. Pretty sure there's been unofficial talks going on with agents and coaches "people" for months now.

He kicks the tires every year since what happened in 2002, so he isn't left in the same position as we were in 2002. After last season, there has been a number of agents contacted.

 

[lrtx1]

Get the man hired already, we are dangerously thin at head ball coach. Come to think of it we've been dangerously thin there for the last 4 years.