Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist
Every year, on a couple of occasions, the media members who cover University of Alabama football get a chance to visit with the team's offensive and defensive coordinators, interviews that are usually fresh and fun. Both the current coordinators, Lane Kiffin on offense and Kirby Smart on defense, were excellent in their press conferences last year.
Jim McElwain was the same way. The UA press corps always looked forward to talking to McElwain during his years in Tuscaloosa, sure they would get a couple of funny anecdotes and an off-the-cuff chuckle or two interspersed with information about how the backup tight ends were looking.
It was a different Jim McElwain at the podium during the opening session of SEC Media Days on Monday. McElwain was still smiling and cordial, but the new head coach at Florida also seemed determined to play things close to the vest. He used the SEC-approved catchwords that will dominate the next four days - he is "excited" and looks forward to the "challenge" with his new team, which has "worked hard."
But there was only the slightest hint of the old McElwain insouciance.
That doesn't mean McElwain doesn't still march to the beat of a different drummer. There were still no socks to accompany the head coaching-appropriate suit. He ranked about spending a week this summer in the backcountry of his native Montana, bathing in mountain lakes because there was no shower available.
There are several reasons why he might have been a bit subdued on Monday. First, he's had three years as a head coach at Colorado State and one of the many lessons he learned there was you act differently in the big office. In those coordinator press conferences at Alabama, he could always deflect a difficult question with "you'd better ask Coach," meaning Nick Saban, of course.
Those days are over. Another factor is that the big interview room at the Hyatt Regency is hardly conducive to chummy chatter, not with 400 (mostly unrecognizable) media members. Most important of all, McElwain probably wants to win a few games before sounding like he is anything other than serious.
Some Florida media members see some of his policies - UF freshmen are now off-limits to the media, for instance - as stemming directly from Saban.
"There's nobody better to be like, right?" McElwain responded.
Admitting that, the analogy seems stretched. Saban can be testy, but he is almost always forthcoming. McElwain, in his first year with a very big job ahead, is having to balance being positive - something the Florida program needed - with creating expectations that will be hard to fulfill. McElwain inherited an uncertain situation at quarterback (welcome to the SEC) and alarming thinness on the offensive line, where UF ended the spring with six healthy bodies. Freshman and transfers have boosted that number up to a more tenable 16 now - but, again, that's freshmen and transfers.
Every program in modern-day college football has its ups and downs, whether it is Alabama or USC, Notre Dame or Oklahoma. The question is whether a coach - or a series of coaches - can turn the "down" around quickly. What Florida wants to avoid is a long stretch of semi-relevancy. See Nebraska for an example, or Miami. There are more resources at Florida than at those schools, but a positive turnaround will at least take a couple of years. At that point, say at the 2018 Media Days, it will be interesting to see if McElwain has the same demeanor.
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1782642
TideSports.com Columnist
Every year, on a couple of occasions, the media members who cover University of Alabama football get a chance to visit with the team's offensive and defensive coordinators, interviews that are usually fresh and fun. Both the current coordinators, Lane Kiffin on offense and Kirby Smart on defense, were excellent in their press conferences last year.
Jim McElwain was the same way. The UA press corps always looked forward to talking to McElwain during his years in Tuscaloosa, sure they would get a couple of funny anecdotes and an off-the-cuff chuckle or two interspersed with information about how the backup tight ends were looking.
It was a different Jim McElwain at the podium during the opening session of SEC Media Days on Monday. McElwain was still smiling and cordial, but the new head coach at Florida also seemed determined to play things close to the vest. He used the SEC-approved catchwords that will dominate the next four days - he is "excited" and looks forward to the "challenge" with his new team, which has "worked hard."
But there was only the slightest hint of the old McElwain insouciance.
That doesn't mean McElwain doesn't still march to the beat of a different drummer. There were still no socks to accompany the head coaching-appropriate suit. He ranked about spending a week this summer in the backcountry of his native Montana, bathing in mountain lakes because there was no shower available.
There are several reasons why he might have been a bit subdued on Monday. First, he's had three years as a head coach at Colorado State and one of the many lessons he learned there was you act differently in the big office. In those coordinator press conferences at Alabama, he could always deflect a difficult question with "you'd better ask Coach," meaning Nick Saban, of course.
Those days are over. Another factor is that the big interview room at the Hyatt Regency is hardly conducive to chummy chatter, not with 400 (mostly unrecognizable) media members. Most important of all, McElwain probably wants to win a few games before sounding like he is anything other than serious.
Some Florida media members see some of his policies - UF freshmen are now off-limits to the media, for instance - as stemming directly from Saban.
"There's nobody better to be like, right?" McElwain responded.
Admitting that, the analogy seems stretched. Saban can be testy, but he is almost always forthcoming. McElwain, in his first year with a very big job ahead, is having to balance being positive - something the Florida program needed - with creating expectations that will be hard to fulfill. McElwain inherited an uncertain situation at quarterback (welcome to the SEC) and alarming thinness on the offensive line, where UF ended the spring with six healthy bodies. Freshman and transfers have boosted that number up to a more tenable 16 now - but, again, that's freshmen and transfers.
Every program in modern-day college football has its ups and downs, whether it is Alabama or USC, Notre Dame or Oklahoma. The question is whether a coach - or a series of coaches - can turn the "down" around quickly. What Florida wants to avoid is a long stretch of semi-relevancy. See Nebraska for an example, or Miami. There are more resources at Florida than at those schools, but a positive turnaround will at least take a couple of years. At that point, say at the 2018 Media Days, it will be interesting to see if McElwain has the same demeanor.
https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1782642
