The Florida Gators 33-17 loss to Michigan dropped the team to 3-8 against Top-25 opponents, including 20+ point losses in each of their last three games against Michigan, Florida State and Alabama.
The Gators 192 yards gained against Michigan are the second least yards the Gators’ offense has gained under McElwain, lowest since they mustered 180 against Alabama in the 2015 SEC Championship game.
The offense has scored less than 20 points in 11 of the 29 games McElwain has coached at Florida. McElwain was brought to Florida to fix an offense that Will Muschamp and his bevy of offensive coordinators broke. The
The offense hasn’t been better in McElwain’s first two seasons. The offense was ranked 116th in 2016 and 112th in 2015th. That has led many fans to turn on offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, who calls plays. McElwain has called plays during stops as an offensive coordinator at Fresno State and Alabama. He even called plays the first year he was head coach at Colorado State before ceding the responsibility to Dave Baldwin.
With a floundering offense many have asked if McElwain should take over play calling duties from Doug Nussmeier. That’s not on the table right now, according to the head coach.
“No, we’re not doing that right now,” McElwain said when asked if he was going to take over play calling duties. “You know, we need to make sure that the guys that need to touch it, touch it. Those things need getting called.”
McElwain told the fans to divert the ire they have towards Nussmeier to him and that “he’ll get it fixed.” An eerie saying, one that all too often was muttered by his predecessor.
McElwain has long known Nussmeier and he’s sticking next to his buddy.
“I’ve what he can do,” McElwain said. “And yet we also have to step up around him, too, and make sure we’re getting some things accomplished in some other spots.”
As he did on Saturday after the game, McElwain said the plan to attack Michigan’s defense was thwarted because of how the offensive line was manhandled.
“You know, it’s one of those things where there were a whole lot of things that (were) in the plan, in the series that we were putting together,” said McElwain. “It’s tough to call when, you know, they’re in your back pocket, you know, all the time.”
Florida will get a reprieve this week against a Northern Colorado team that surrendered 336 yards to the College of Idaho.