F me. I can’t believe I’m forced to report on the Florida head coach search. But alas, this is now a thing and so it must be done.
Longtime college sports reporter and guy who looks like he belongs in the Late Night section of your favorite premium channel’s on-demand library Pat Forde is reporting that Colorado St. head coach Jim McElwain is set to become Florida’s next head coach:
Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley and Colorado State head coach Jim McElwain are in the latter stages of negotiating a deal that would make McElwain the next Gators head football coach, sources tell Yahoo Sports.
Foley and a contingent of Florida administrators met with McElwain for several hours at his home in Fort Collins, Colo., on Tuesday night to hammer out the deal, sources said.
One notable characteristic of the negotiations is McElwain’s reported $7.5 million buyout. Sources tell Yahoo that the buyout is in place and will not be significantly negotiated down.
A formal introduction of McElwain could come in Gainesville, Fla., as early as Wednesday.
And Bruce Feldman of FOX Sports:
Florida is close to finalizing a deal with Colorado State’s Jim McElwain to make him the Gators’ next head coach, a source told FOX Sports Tuesday night.
And thus should end the Chip Kelly to [insert school] rumors… this time around.
Luckily, our friends over at Bleeding Green Nation were able to get their hands on the ACTUAL CALL Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley placed to Kelly. It was… brief:
My favorite part in all of this may be the speculated reasons from the original report why Kelly would want to leave for a college job:
A school would have to jump through all kinds of hoops to pay Chip appreciably more than he’s earning ($6.5 million per year) or could earn through a contract renegotiation with the Eagles. Nick Saban is the highest paid college coach at $7.3 million per year.
In no world, does, a college coach, have a, let’s use a lot of commas, for emphasis, less-taxing, lifestyle… what with having to jet all around the country and specifically the hard to reach areas of the south to persuade high school kids into spending their formative years in Gainesville(!!!). And that’s in addition to worrying about scheduling, placating overzealous boosters, and stepping around the NCAA’s draconian policies. The lifestyle of an NFL head coach is not much of a lifestyle, for sure, but perhaps the only sports occupation with a more-taxing schedule is that of a college head coach.
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Also, this is amazing:
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Related: Listen to Josh Innes and Marc Farzetta tear into my Enough! post yesterday: [Josh talks about Chip Kelly going to Florida]
H/T to (@dcschrader)
