Jim McElwain making core changes to Florida Gators

One need not look far or hard to see Jim McElwain’s fingerprints on the Florida Gators program. An 87,000 square foot indoor practice facility now sits in-between McKethan Stadium and the Stephen C. O’Connell Center, plans to renovate the athletic dorms and a new academic facility for student-athletes are in the works and the football locker room will receive an upgrade in the not too distant future.

These cosmetic changes — while pricey — are nice. They’ll help student-athletes in the classroom and on the field but the change that Jim McElwain is most focused on doesn’t come with a price tag. It can’t be bought and the lessons will be hard.

Friday McElwain announced that three players — all upperclassmen — will miss the season opener due to suspensions. It’s part of McElwain’s hard stance on being good people off the field and creating a culture that embodies the core values that McElwain holds near.

“Everything we do should be generated towards helping our players be successful, and it doesn’t matter what aspect of it is,” McElwain said at Florida football media day. “It has to be everything, everybody that touches the desk of the head football coach has to be zeroed in on helping these young men be successful.”

As television and network money floods into college football, the game is becoming more of a business but unlike the NFL, college coaches are getting paid more than the players they coach. College coaches are also getting young kids who are away from home for the first time in their lives. They’re young, impressionable and still growing. That is the part of the job that McElwain cherishes most, being able to work with kids and help shape them into not only good football players, but good people.

Starting on the field, the Gators have been the either the most penalized or second most penalized team in the SEC six out of the last seven seasons.

“We’ve got some behavior that we’ve got to keep working on,” McElwain said less than an hour after kicking a defensive lineman out of the Florida Gators scrimmage for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. “What are we? The most penalized team in the last five years, six years, whatever it is? I don’t know where we sit. It’s ridiculous.”

Are fans tired of being the most penalized team in the SEC? Sure. There wasn’t a lot of griping when Florida was one of the most penalized teams in the country during the three national championship seasons, but when the talent on the team doesn’t leave much room for error, ever yellow hanky stings.

McElwain is setting the tone early in his tenure at Florida. Will Muschamp made a statement by kicking Janoris Jenkins off of his inaugural team at Florida and — for all his deficiencies running the program — did a good job cleaning up a system that had gone belly up the previous four years.

And there are different types of penalties. A pass interference call on a defensive back that’s trying to make a play on the ball, you can live with that. Mental lapses like offsides and extra curricular activity after the whistle is blown simply won’t be tolerated. McElwain made that clear when he kicked an unnamed defensive lineman out of Friday night’s scrimmage and it’s a move he vows to make during the season as well.

“We don’t put up with it. There’s no excuse. There’s absolutely zero. To me, it’s one of the most selfish acts somebody can do because it’s them and it’s usually because you’re not going as hard as the other guy so now you’re going to be Mr. Tough Guy or whatever,” he said. “Then because of your actions, you hurt the team. I just don’t see any place for that. I don’t get it. There’s no place on a football team for a selfish player. It’s that simple. We just don’t put up with it.”

McElwain’s fingerprints can be seen all over the University of Florida campus and with a little time he hopes fans will start to see more than just cosmetic changes around Gainesville.