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Jim McElwain was born in the tiny western outpost of Missoula, Montana, where he grew up and became an all-state quarterback for Sentinel High.
He stayed behind center in college at equally tiny and unknown Eastern Washington, about as far from the hysteria of The Swamp as you could possibly be in the continental United States. McElwain started his coaching career at his alma mater in 1987 as the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach.
Who knew that almost 30 years later he would be serving a rescue mission for a Florida football program that was sagging mightily and searching for a savior. Who knew that his chore now would be to mine the fertile state of Florida for top-notch talent, which is exactly what he has done since arriving.
But there he was in his very first fall in Gainesville, guiding a Gators team ultra-talented on defense and very limited most of the time on offense to an unlikely SEC East title and a date with eventual national champion Alabama in the conference championship game. He was named SEC Coach of the Year for the immediate turnaround after UF had gone a disappointing 28-21 the previous four seasons under Will Muschamp.
It wasn’t all by magic, though some observers sometimes couldn’t believe their eyes. McElwain, the head coach at Colorado State the previous three seasons, needed an immediate infusion of talent, which he procured in short order after being hired in early December of 2014. And despite his distant, far west upbringing, McElwain was quite familiar with what it took to win in the country’s best football conference, having been the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban on two national championship Alabama teams in 2009 and 2011.
That first Bama title team broke Gators’ hearts in the 2009 SEC title game, stopping UF in its bid to repeat as national champs. Today, McElwain is helping soothe hearts in Gainesville after a down period.
The recruiting path to The Swamp was built quickly last winter with a couple of in-state prizes.
A big boon was getting Apopka offensive lineman Martez Ivey to stick with his childhood allegiance to Florida and become a Gator instead of following Muschamp, who had become the defensive coordinator at Auburn. Ivey became a vital piece to a thin and inexperienced UF line in 2015, and he even played out of position at guard.
McElwain also got Baker County defensive end Cece Jefferson, and all Jefferson did was make the ESPN.com Freshman All-American Team and the SEC All-Freshman Team.
Ivey and Jefferson were five-star recruits.
McElwain also grabbed four in-state skill-position players on Signing Day last year, bringing in wide receiver Antonio Callaway, who made an immediate impact, and running backs Jordan Scarlett, Jordan Cronkrite and D’Anfernee McGriff.
“The momentum that we’ve gained has been fantastic,” McElwain said at his Signing Day news conference, according to 247 Sports.
UF’s 2015 class ranked 10th in the SEC and 21st nationally in the 247Sports Composite, but McElwain was able to prevent all of the talent Muschamp recruited from drifting elsewhere.
In short, McElwain was able to make up for lost time. Now time is on McElwain’s side, as he is entrenched at UF, with a shiny SEC East title to show recruits. Being able to talk about UF’s new $17 million indoor practice facility that opened last summer couldn’t hurt those sales pitches either.
“I don’t know what you picked us, but I think a lot of people had us fifth or sixth on this side of the SEC,” McElwain said on The Paul Finebaum Show on the SEC Network earlier this month. “I’m excited about where we are, and that momentum has really helped in recruiting. We’ve got one heck of a class put together.”
And who is near the top of that class? That would be in-state four-star quarterback Feleipe’ Franks, a 6-6, 219-pounder out of Wakulla County High in Crawfordville. He signed with the Gators in late November, after they had booked their ticket to the SEC title game.
Another in-state, four-star gem McElwain is bringing in is the flamboyant Chauncey Gardner, a 6-0 cornerback out of Cocoa who has enrolled at Florida. Gardner participated in the Under Armour All-American Game in Orlando.
Wide receiver Freddie Swain of North Marion High in Citra is yet another four-star Floridian who signed with UF last fall.
McElwain clearly likes his 2016 class, but snatching four-star Tampa Catholic High wide receiver Nate Craig-Myers might make him love it. He is a playmaker, and the Gators didn’t have quite enough playmakers in 2015 to complement their formidable defense.
Craig-Myers is sought after all over the SEC, with Auburn, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Tennessee and Vanderbilt among a glossy national list of schools seeking his services. Craig-Myers would be a coup for a fledgling passing game.
McElwain already could have the man who could save a kicking game that was putrid last season. He’s Eddy Pineiro, the top-rated kicker in the country who committed to Florida in December over the likes of Alabama, who he had previously been committed to, and Miami.
Pineiro, a three-star recruit who attends ASA College, a junior college in North Miami Beach, was a hit on social media after making a 77-yard field goal in practice. He could be exactly what’s needed at Florida, which ranked last in the SEC in field-goal kicking after making only 7 of 17 field-goal attempts.
Pineiro will be a junior as a student, but he chose not to play football at ASA College, so he will have all four years of eligibility left.
After Pineiro made his commitment at a news conference on Dec. 15, McElwain tweeted his now-familiar “#ChompChomp!!!!!!!! #16ATORS.” That’s the message McElwain tweets for every commitment.
Cory Nightingale, a sports copy editor at the Miami Herald, lives for Saturdays. He especially enjoys the pageantry, tradition and history of SEC football.
