Jim McElwain is currently searching for answers in Gainesville, as his team has gotten off to a 3-3 start to the season — the worst start he’s engineered since arriving three years ago.

Florida is on a bye this week but face undefeated Georgia in Jacksonville next weekend. A win over archrival Georgia would go a long way toward building momentum for the last four games of the season, while a loss would continue a downward spiral and leave serious doubts on a potential bowl berth.

Here’s a summary of what the Florida coach had to say during Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference:

  • Opening statement: “This is a big week for anyone that has an open week. Get your guys healthy and at the same time make sure you are able to do some focus on other things like academics. Get back to work for the upcoming opponent.”
  • Can you update us on injuries? “Jordan Sherit had hip surgery, that went as well as expected. Nick Washington is out. Cleveland, Ivey, Gardner are all limited, basically out this week.” McElwain also announced that Sherit is out for the year.
  • Have you ever been down this many players? “No, but it is what it is. There isn’t a coach in the country that hasn’t been through much the same. The guys that are here are working hard but at the end of the day you have to win.”
  • Have you seen enough from Feleipe Franks to know what you have in him? “I don’t think so, this is a good week for him to keep working on what we are doing and for those around him to help him.”
  • Is Sherit out fo the season? “Absolutely. That was a bad deal.”
  • What’s working, what isn’t? “Consistency, that’s the big thing. It’s been a great week to work on that. It’s been fun for me.”
  • What are the challenges of evaluating QBs? “It’s one of the deals is fitting your personnel around that person and helping with his strengths. The important thing is making sure you have enough inventory there.
  • Studying Fromm and Eason, what’s different? “They do an outstanding there. They have good people on that side of the ball. That’s different this year. They are playing really good special teams and defense and playing field position. They aren’t asking the QBs to do a ton.”
  • How do you put together a depth chart every week? “It’s a joy (laughing) It is what it is. It’s next guy up and making sure you aren’t putting things in that they can’t handle and not exposing them. That’s the chess match, the creativity comes in. We have to really focus on that moving forward.”