It really wasn’t too long ago when Jim McElwain was being talked about as perhaps the second-best coach in the SEC behind Alabama’s Nick Saban.

Instead, McElwain is the first in a conference full of candidates to be pink-slipped. The news became official Sunday in Gainesville, one day after Florida was spanked 42-7 by Georgia at the annual Cocktail Party in Jacksonville.

It’s a stunning fall from grace for McElwain, who was coming off back-to-back East titles and made a lot of lemonade — the Gators have been a lemon offensively since Tim Tebow left town — upon his arrival from Colorado State in 2015. Nobody could’ve projected at Media Days that he’d lose his job faster than so many of his embattled colleagues.

Faster than Kevin Sumlin at Texas A&M. Faster than Bret Bielema at Arkansas. Somehow, even faster than Butch Jones at Tennessee.

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Sumlin was told publicly by his own AD that he had to do better than eight wins. Bielema peaked three years into his tenure in 2015 but has since been in freefall. Jones is winless in SEC play yet just keeps blindly spitting out clichés.

After laying an egg at Everbank Field — 66 yards passing for the dubious duo of starter Feleipe Franks and backup Malik Zaire at quarterback — UF is now 3-4 in 2017 with three consecutive conferences losses. The Texas A&M and LSU defeats were at home, by the way, while that beatdown by the Bulldogs was delivered at a neutral site.

Frankly, Florida got lucky in two of its three victories. Both Tennessee and Kentucky threw up on themselves in the final minute.

The Gators are eliminated in the division, so a dream of three consecutive trips to the league championship game is dead. That’s probably a good thing since they were bludgeoned by Alabama both times by an aggregate score of 83-31.

On the one hand, McElwain deserves credit for getting UF to Atlanta twice in his first two tries despite a depth chart that was hopelessly out of balance. While the defense has been littered with future pros — seven draft picks this past April alone — the offense has been downright offensive. He still made it work and won games, though.

You can't get hired at a Top 10 program like Florida with a reputation as an offensive guru yet fail to score points regularly.

Nevertheless, the East was Charmin soft. Georgia and Tennessee disappointed. Missouri’s fluky two-season run was just that: fluky.

Quite simply, you can’t get hired at a Top 10 program like Florida with a reputation as an offensive guru yet fail to score points regularly. Don’t forget, McElwain won two national titles calling plays for Saban at Alabama.

Aside from a six-game stretch with Will Grier in 2015 — before he was popped by the NCAA for performance-enhancing drugs and got suspended — QB has been a total disaster under McElwain. Treon Harris was awful the rest of that year. So were Luke Del Rio and Austin Appleby most of 2016. Franks hasn’t gotten it done this season.

The fact that Grier is now at West Virginia and quite a productive passer doesn’t help. McElwain made little effort to keep him.

Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Where do the Gators go from here? Athletic director Scott Stricklin used to have the same gig at Mississippi State. Dan Mullen will be mentioned as a result. However, the rumor mill suggests they didn’t particularly get along in Starkville.

One way or another, this is a coveted position in college football. The Sunshine State is overflowing with recruits. The facilities may not be out of this world, but they’ve been upgraded in recent years. The fan base — a demanding one, to be sure — is one of the most passionate in the game and hungry for a return to prior greatness.

As hard as it may be to admit, UF wants what Georgia has. Kirby Smart, another Saban disciple, has the Bulldogs rolling.

While Smart’s rookie campaign was a bit of a disappointment at 8-5, UGA is 8-0 this season and sure to make the Top 4 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings, which will be released Tuesday. These Dawgs have some serious bite.

Smart, who worked under Saban for over a decade — as a matter of fact, he and McElwain were on the same staff from 2008-11 — has essentially turned Athens into Tuscaloosa East. From the way his defense flies to the ball to his insatiable desire to recruit to his prickly relationship with the media, Smart has photocopied Saban’s blueprint.

For some reason, McElwain never went about his business that way at Florida. He seemed to learn nothing from his time with Saban.

Love him or hate him, Saban is a master at eliminating distractions and getting his roster to focus on the task at hand. His players don’t run their mouths. Bulletin-board material is in short supply. Reporters are terrified of him.

McElwain, conversely, wanted his guys to be themselves. They talked a ton of trash, including before the Michigan and Georgia games — and got blown out both times. After being lenient on discipline at first, he was finally forced to suspend Antonio Callaway, Jordan Scarlett and seven others. We haven’t seen them since and likely never will.

Additionally, McElwain was a wild card at press conferences. Serious questions got goofy responses. Goofy questions got serious responses.

When McElwain was asked about the infamous shark photo, a story that should’ve been in and out of headlines in a day, his answers gave it legs for more than a month. An innocent case of mistaken internet identity nearly brought him to tears.

But his latest podium miscue — coupled with the maddening results on the field — was too much for the administration to ignore. McElwain played the death-threat card, so the media asked him for details. He provided none. His bosses asked him for details, too. Again, he provided none. In the end, he may have forfeited at least some of his substantial buyout money.

Saban wouldn’t have handled the situation that way. Both on and off the field, McElwain didn’t do anything like Saban.