Jim McElwain shows respect to Nick Saban, Alabama

Jim McElwain fielded 25 questions over a 30-minute teleconference as his Florida Gators football team readies to play the Alabama Crimson Tide this Saturday in the SEC Championship game.

The most telling thing that happened during the question and answer session isn’t anything that McElwain said, rather something he didn’t say. A former offensive coordinator at Alabama under Nick Saban, McElwain simply referred to Saban as “Coach.” He didn’t call him, Nick, Nick Saban, or even Coach Saban. It’s simply “Coach,” a show of respect, a tip of the cap.

McElwain came from humble beginnings and a small town in a rural state. After playing quarterback at Eastern Washington and serving as a coach at his alma mater, McElwain returned home to Montana to be the offensive coordinator at Montana State. Stops at Louisville, Michigan State, with the Oakland Raiders and Fresno State soon followed, but his big break came from Saban, and a phone call from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

“Pat Hill I coached with at the Cleveland Browns, we coached together at the Cleveland Browns, so I knew the Fresno State offensive coordinator and he told me that Jim was a really good coach and did a good job and when we had an opening,” Saban said. “I sort of always did a pretty thorough job of trying to look around to see who’s available and who we might be able to get to come here to be our offensive coordinator. Jim was one of those guys, but because Pat Hill thought so much of him, I trusted him.

Saban’s relationship with Hill is what garnered McElwain the job, the life-changing opportunity to coach big time football in the best conference in college football.

“You know what, I want to make him proud too,” McElwain said of Saban. “He took a flier on some guy from Montana that was out west and gave him an opportunity to coach in one of the greatest places in all of college football, in the best conference in the United States of America. For that opportunity I just can’t tell you how grateful I am and how lucky I am.”

McElwain spent four years working at Alabama with Saban and the two won a National Championship together. McElwain is a product of his environment and his upbringing. Nick Saban didn’t make him the man that he is today, the coach that took a floundering Florida Gators football program and in less than a year has the Gators playing in the SEC Championship game for the first time since 2009, but Saban sure did help.

Saban has built a football factory in Alabama. The Tide continually get the best talent each recruiting cycle and NFL teams probably have scouts living in Tuscaloosa given the amount of talent Alabama has to send to the NFL on a yearly basis. McElwain was able to get a lot out of coaching under Saban’s umbrella, but two things in particular stand out to Florida’s first-year head coach.

“The one thing he did tell me on the way out the door, he said ‘Mac, whatever you do, make sure you do it with your personality and put your thumbprint on it.’ That’s a great piece of advice,” recalled McElwain.

Mac has already put his thumbprint on the University of Florida in more ways that one can count.

Alabama will come into the final SEC game of the season as a heavy favorite. It’s Saban’s football factory against Jim McElwain’s new startup tech company. The early returns on Mac’s startup are promising, the margins are nice, but they’re about to go toe-to-toe with a beast, a company and a plan that they’ve modeled their entire organization after.

It will be a measuring stick for Florida, an opportunity to see where they stack up with the best team in the SEC and maybe even the best team in the country.

“I’m excited to take our Florida Gators, who haven’t been there in awhile, back in to see what it’s all about,” McElwain said. “We’re excited to be there.”