The Florida Gators held their first fall scrimmage Friday, and overall, Jim McElwain said he came away ‘very pleased.’

Now, he prefaced that ‘pleased’ with, “I kind of didn’t sleep last night thinking this could be a disaster.” So, yeah, he probably came away pleased.

But if you really listened to McElwain’s press conference, it was an overall indictment of the Will Muschamp era in Gainesville. No, McElwain never mentioned him by name, nor did he take any veiled shots at the previous regime.

McElwain is a realist, not an idealist. He’s cautioned everyone since he was hired that it’s going to take some time to fix this thing.

The checklist is full. There’s a quarterback race to be decided. There’s an offensive line to put together. There are wide receivers who need to be taught fundamentals of actually running routes.

But it’s bigger than that.

Most of Florida’s 2015 team is, for lack of a better expression, like a bunch of beaten dogs. From hearing McElwain describe it, it’s like they’re waiting around for something bad to happen. How can we lose this game, instead of how do we find a way to win it?

“We’ve got to get over the hump from the psychological standpoint,” said McElwain. “It’s okay to care. It’s okay to compete. It’s okay to get out there and just let it all happen. That’s where we’ve got to get offensively a little bit.”

And later, “Part of that is the understanding you’re allowed to be great. You’re allowed to. You’re not a second-class citizen. You’re allowed to actually invest in yourself and go make plays at a million miles an hour. We’re starting to get a little bit of that, but we got a long ways to go.”

Talking specifically about the wide receivers, “It’s okay to go up and make a great play, you know, and have that mentality when you go out there that you’re going to do that. And that’s what we got to get out of some guys.”

And finally, “At some point when you’re beat over the head so much you end up thinking that you’re not worthy,” said McElwain. “Everybody boos them. It’s like: what about these guys? You guys write it; so, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. Yet at the same time when you hear it over and over and over then all of the sudden you think it’s true.

“Well, I’m telling you this, it doesn’t have to be that way. We go against a very good defense every day, and we’re moving the ball on them in spurts. To consistently be great you got to be able to step off and say, ‘I’m going to work my tail off on every single snap. I’m not going to allow someone to be beat me to the point.'”

Yes, Florida has a bunch of questions to answer prior to the start of the season, but McElwain is trying to change the culture of many battered players in the locker room. That doesn’t happen overnight.

Some other details during McElwain’s presser:

  • Little separation between Will Grier and Treon Harris. Grier started hot with the first team, but Harris moved the ball with the second-team offense better than Grier.
  • He’s very pleased at where the team is to this point.

You can watch McElwain’s presser below: