Team behind Jim McElwain after Kelvin Taylor incident

Late on Saturday night, or early Sunday morning, a video was posted on the Gator Country message boards of a profanity laced tirade featuring Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain berating running back Kelvin Taylor, following Taylor’s unsportsmanlike penalty for a throat slashing motion celebrating a touchdown.

The video was quickly picked up by national news outlets and went viral, with seemingly everyone chiming in to give their opinion on how McElwain handled the situation.

After getting a chance to cool down following Florida’s narrow victory over ECU, McElwain expressed regret over the way the interaction was seen and the light that it put on the program.

“I don’t feel good about it,” he said. “As you know, this is a very public job. This is a public thing that we do. I understand that I have a long ways to go, and I make mistakes. Am I proud of it? Absolutely not. Do I feel bad about it? Yes. At the same time, I’ve got to understand my mistakes as well and learn from it and go forward.”

This is the biggest stage McElwain has ever been on as a coach. As the offensive coordinator at Alabama, McElwain wasn’t made available to media during the season and Nick Saban was able to control the message that came out. The stage as the head coach at Colorado State would fit on a small corner of McElwain’s desk inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. This is truly the first time that McElwain has had to face the ire of the media on a grand scale.

To McElwain, Taylor’s penalty was different that the 11 other penalties that were committed. The previous head coach would have similar tantrums on the sideline for dropped passes, fumbles and interceptions; football mistakes. McElwain was calm and cool throughout a penalty riddled game until Taylor’s unsportsmanlike penalty following a touchdown. To McElwain he difference is the intent. Making a mistake while trying to make a play is going to happen and can be forgiven, drawing attention to yourself in a selfish manner and costing your team 15 yards because of it cannot.

“In case you haven’t figured out by now, I’m a pretty passionate guy, pretty emotional guy,” McElwain said. “I want what’s best for this university, this administration and program moving forward. There were some real teachable moments in that game as far as things that we just can’t do to hurt ourselves or hurt the team. They’ve been addressed. We’re moving forward to this next opponent.”

McElwain and Taylor have spoken since the incident that garnered national headlines. Taylor expressed regret over the penalty he committed and he understands that there will be consequences. The immediate consequence is Taylor’s demotion on the depth chart from starter to third string, a similar penalty that Demarcus Robinson faced after missed a team dinner the Sunday after Florida’s first win of the season.

“We talked about how hard he played, talked about the lessons and I hugged him just like I did after the incident happened,” McElwain said of the interaction.

As far as how McElwain’s coaching decision was perceived by the team, the people’s who opinion about the altercation that actually matter, they were unfazed by it. Football players are accustomed to a certain language that may not be normal at the water cooler in an office setting, but it is commonplace on the gridiron.

“In my opinion, I think he did the right thing. On any team, the head coach is a father figure. He wants the best out of his players,” senior offensive lineman Trip Thurman said. “What we’re trying to do as a team, not do throat slashes and try to cut down on penalties. Kelvin knows what he did wrong. We learned from it and we’re going to move along. Coach loves us all.”

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC

6 COMMENTS

  1. Good article as usual Nick. I really hope this issue fades fast. In my opinion it is a non issue and I have no problem with it .
    Football is a man’s game and it is a violent sport. The candy assed p.c. crowd needs to sit down and shut up once and for all. Mac did his job and it was over the moment he put his faith in Taylor by placing the ball in his hands .
    Playing sports and being in the military I had butt chewings that made that look like a church service.
    Lets move on and get the hell over it. Both parties involved are grown MEN and they are obviously over it. If you are offended you have that right , but just maybe you are involved in the wrong sport.
    The people that are pushing this have an agenda , or their the type of people who don’t mind sending men and women to war and want to fight a brutal enemy with white gloves…..

  2. Love the article Nick. No issues with what Mac did. I gurauntee players see that he is for real, and the culture will change. Wouldn’t have see this type of reaction happen last year with that type of penalty. I think he just set the tone Saturday night for what he expects from the team and his staff.

    thx

  3. Very good article Nick. There is no place for that kind of thing in college football. Go play your best and see who wins, without all of the jaw jacking and other ways of trying to embarrass another player. I would add a suggestion that will certainly start some backlash. Will Greer is clearly the best quarterback, best passer, put him in as the regular starter at QB. Use both of them in the game together and use Treon as a wildcat back. You put both of those guys back there the opponent is nto going to know what hit them. You can use both of them. Peaple are going to say oh you will get one hurt then you don’t have a QB. That is the Doug Dickey philosophy of AVOID LOSING. Get our there to win the ))*** GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!