UPDATE: Steve McClain, the Florida sports information director, has confirmed McElwain will be introduced at a press conference on Saturday.
Original Post: WUFT News has confirmed Jim McElwain of Colorado State University has agreed to join the University of Florida as the head football coach of the Gators. No official announcement has been made, and a press conference is not expected later Thursday.
Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley met with McElwain in Fort Collins on Tuesday to begin negotiations, which were stalled due to a $7.5-million buyout clause in McElwain’s contract with CSU. These issues have been resolved.
During his three seasons as the head coach for the CSU Rams, McElwain had a 22-16 record. He went 4-8 in 2012 and 8-6 in 2013 with a win in the New Mexico Bowl over the Washington State Cougars. The Rams are currently 10-2, riding a 9-game winning streak before losing to Air Force; the Rams are scheduled to play a bowl game at the end of this season. McElwain was also named the Mountain West Conference’s 2014 Coach of the Year for 2014 on Tuesday.
Prior to becoming head coach at CSU, McElwain was the offensive coordinator under Nick Saban at the University of Alabama, where he coached quarterbacks Greg McElroy and AJ McCarron in two of his four seasons there.
More background information:
CSU had a 9-27 record in the three seasons before McElwain became the head coach.
Prior to becoming head coach at CSU, McElwain had a long coaching career spanning 30 seasons, which began at his alma mater Eastern Washington University. After playing quarterback from 1980 to 1983, McElwain held several different EWU coaching positions from 1985 to 1994, including quarterbacks and receivers coach.
He went on to become the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks and receivers coach at Montana State University from 1995 to 1999, and went on to coach the receivers and special teams at the University of Louisville from 2000 to 2002.
From Louisville, McElwain accepted the assistant coaching position at Michigan State University in 2003 and led the Spartans to the Alamo Bowl in his first season there.
McElwain then left college football for a brief stint, becoming quarterback coach for the Oakland Raiders, but later returned to the collegiate level as offensive coordinator for Fresno State.
After leaving Fresno, McElwain joined Nick Saban at the University of Alabama in 2008 to 2011, where he helped lead the Crimson Tide to two national championships.