Florida coach Jim McElwain could ill-afford a blowout loss to Georgia on Saturday.

So of course, that’s exactly what happened. The Gators were thoroughly dominated. To wit: Georgia held a 21-0 lead in the first quarter before Florida even got a first down offensively. Those three first-quarter scores were merely a prelude of what was to come, as the Bulldogs cruised to a 42-7 win, their most lopsided victory in the series since blanking the Gators 44-0 in 1982.

With questions about McElwain’s job security swirling all season — and only intensifying after a strange week in which he initially said he and his team had received death threats, only to prove uncooperative when the athletics department tried to gather more details — it came as no surprise Sunday that he had reportedly been fired with the Gators sitting at 3-4 overall and 3-3 in SEC play.

So ends a tenure that can best be described as a “mixed bag of success and failure.”

The good: McElwain won the SEC East in each of his first two seasons, posting a 22-12 record (16-8 in SEC matchups). He combined to go 4-2 against Georgia and Tennessee, two of Florida’s biggest rivals.

The bad: Florida never showed up in McElwain’s two meetings with arch-rvial Florida State, losing 27-2 in 2015 and 31-13 last season. Similarly, the Gators were unable to present much of a challenge in the SEC Championship Game the past two seasons, with both contests pitting them against Alabama. Above all else, the chief reason McElwain is no longer at the helm of the program was his inability to jump-start Florida’s offense.

That’s where he had staked his prowess, after all, guiding top-flight offenses at nearly every stop of his coaching career, from Montana State and Colorado State to Alabama and Louisville.

For one reason or another, he wasn’t able to recapture that magic at Florida, which, during the glory years of the Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer eras, sported offenses that were nearly impossible to contain.

Perhaps things would have turned out differently had Will Grier stuck around.

Now the quarterback at West Virginia, Grier led the Gators to a 6-0 start in 2015, throwing for 1,204 yards and 10 touchdowns. But midway through that season, he was suspended for a calendar year after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. At the time of his transfer, it was reported Grier had decided to leave after McElwain wouldn’t give assurances Grier could return to the starting job once his suspension concluded.

In eight games this fall, Grier has completed 63.8 percent (197-for-309) of his attempts for 2,752 yards and 28 touchdowns for the 5-3 Mountaineers.

Those are numbers the Gators can only dream about.

In their eight games this season, the trio of Feleipe Franks, Malik Zaire and a pre-injury Luke Del Rio have combined to throw for 1,160 yards and five touchdowns. You read that right: Five. Passing. Touchdowns.

And consider those numbers would look even worse if not for the game-winning, 63-yard touchdown pass from Franks to Tyrie Cleveland as time expired against Tennessee.

That play is a perfect metaphor for the type of last-ditch effort McElwain would have needed to save his job.

But Saturday, against a Georgia program that appears primed to be a juggernaught for years to come under second-year coach Kirby Smart, McElwain’s luck ran out.

Now let’s take a look at what else is going on around the SEC East:

Florida

No reason to do much rehashing of this game from the Gators’ perspective. All that really matters now is about McElwain’s dismissal, as well as his successor.

In that regard, Saturday Down South has all of it covered.

How did fans and media members react to the firing? How did players find out the news? Who will take over as the interim coach in the meantime? And most importantly, who are the top potential candidates?

Undoubtedly, that last question will be one of the biggest topics in college football until the position is filled.

Georgia

After keeping Florida off the scoreboard until a garbage-time touchdown with 2:42 left in the fourth quarter, Georgia described its performance afterward thusly: ”We let the guys loose,” according to The (Macon) Telegraph.

Offensively, the Bulldogs were paced by their ground game, notably Sony Michel.

Kentucky

Somehow, four lost fumbles didn’t doom Kentucky in Saturday’s home game against Tennessee. Thanks to the backfield duo of Stephen Johnson and Benny Snell, the Wildcats were able to overcome their miscues to take a 29-26 victory — and keep the Volunteers winless in SEC play.

That win made Kentucky bowl-eligible, so Ben Roberts of the Lexington Herald-Leader speculated about the team’s possible postseason destination. Herald-Leader columnist Mark Story kept his focus on Saturday’s victory, specifically, the growing legend of Johnson, the senior signal-caller who scored the game’s go-ahead touchdown.

Jon Hale, the Courier-Journal’s Kentucky football beat writer, wrote that Snell made good on a pregame prediction.

Missouri

It was a non-conference game, sure. But a win’s a win, as Missouri went on the road and blasted Connecticut 52-12.

It’s the type of performance the defense has been looking for all season versus an FBS foe, wrote Dave Matter, the Missouri beat writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Meanwhile, the Columbia Missourian shared the five things it learned from the team’s (rare) road triumph.

South Carolina

Vanderbilt actually outgained South Carolina in total yards, 440-386. But the Gamecocks made more plays that actually mattered, holding off the Commodores 34-27 at Williams-Brice Stadium.

It marked South Carolina’s sixth win, making it bowl-eligible for the second time in as many seasons under Will Muschamp. Last season, that accomplishment was cause for celebration. Now? It’s something the Gamecocks expect, according to The State’s Ben Breiner.

Breiner also wrote that in an unusual game, South Carolina’s versatility came to the forefront.

Tennessee

It’s hard to see how this season gets much worse for Tennessee. The Vols have already lost on a last-second fling from Florida. They got shut out and embarrassed by Georgia. And after falling to Kentucky on Saturday, Tennessee has lost four straight games and is tied for last in the division alongside Vanderbilt at 0-5.

While coach Butch Jones continues to bear the brunt of the fan base’s frustrations, quarterback Jarrett Guarantano said players must take ownership as well.

And though he’s been hinting at it week after week after each new loss, Wes Rucker, the senior writer at Tennessee’s 247Sports site, finally came out and wrote it directly following Saturday’s defeat: It’s time for Jones to go.

Vanderbilt

Losing is nothing new to Vanderbilt. Thanks to Saturday’s defeat at South Carolina, the Commodores are guaranteed to finish with a losing record in SEC play for the 23rd time in 26 seasons since the SEC began divisional play in 1992.

But coach Derek Mason is fired up, as he spiced up his language when asked whether his team could finish as strongly as it did last season.

While that remains to be seen, The Tennesseean, as ever, provided the five things it learned from Saturday’s loss as well as the “best and worst” from the latest setback.

Tweet of the week

This cheeky insight is a microcosm of why the The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal pays Geoff Calkins handsomely to opine about sports.

Quote of the week

In the wake of Saturday’s lopsided loss to Georgia, Feleipe Franks was asked what he thought about McElwain’s future.

Franks offered a response as good as his throw against Tennessee.

“I’m not an athletic director,” he said.