GAINESVILLE — After seven years of futility under multiple head coaches, Florida fans were hoping 2017 would finally be the season the Gators turned the corner offensively.

Jim McElwain, hired largely due to his well-earned reputation as the original offensive architect of Nick Saban’s Alabama dynasty, had flipped the roster, stocking it with playmakers in the backfield and on the perimeter, and he had spent much of the SEC’s summer “talking season” heaping praise on his offensive line.

The optimism wasn’t just localized in the Florida football offices either: ESPN’s Tom Luginbill boldly declared in July that the offense would see a major breakthrough, and the Gators were a QB away from being a CFP team.

Saturday’s opener, however, a 33-17 loss to Michigan that was more complete a defeat than the final score, saw more of the same offensive failure. In fact, the Gators’ 192 yards of offense was its second lowest figure under McElwain, with only the 180 they gained in the 2015 SEC Championship Game against Alabama a more miserable performance.

What’s more, the game marked the fourth consecutive time the Gators gained fewer than 300 yards against a ranked opponent. The Gators are 1-3 in those contests.

While the suspensions to Antonio Callaway and Jordan Scarlett aren’t insignificant, they also aren’t an excuse for the type of basic ineptitude Florida displayed Saturday in Arlington, Texas. The Gators’ offensive coaching staff had a summer in which to scheme for Don Brown’s aggressive Michigan defense, and the Wolverines, while talented, were replacing a staggering 10 starters on that side of the football.

For Florida to be limited to 3.62 yards per play and 0.4 yards per rush was an abject failure.

Gators fans, understandably, have spent the past two days stewing over the result, with calls for offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier’s resignation. The rumblings around Gainesville and Gator Nation will only grow louder if the offensive struggles continue into SEC play, which begins Sept. 16 in The Swamp against Tennessee.

Whatever  happens, the Gators must use the only game remaining between the date with the Vols to establish some type of identity. Florida looked unprepared and slow to adjust against No. 11 Michigan, and an offensive line that played well in a bowl win over Iowa last January looked incapable of opening space in the run game or holding in protect situations, regardless of whether it was Feleipe Franks or Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire under center.

Some of the offensive line issues were undoubtedly about Michigan’s talent, whether it was highly-coveted senior tackle Maurice Hurst or highly-touted sophomore end Rashan Gary. But once it was clear Florida’s line was struggling, Nussmeier and the Gators staff needed to adjust. They didn’t, and a game the Gators led at halftime despite scoring only three offensive points quickly fell out of reach.

The play-calling was dismal too, and at its worst at crucial moments, like running a stretch play on 3rd-and-2 after Florida had blocked a Michigan punt. The play was stuffed, costing the Gators several yards, and ultimately, resulting in an empty trip when Eddy Pineiro hooked a long field goal just wide.

Why Florida ran a slow developing stretch play against 8 in the box requiring the line to hold the edge is a pressing question. The result was disastrous, as Florida lost yards and altered the angle for their talented young kicker.

Many have blamed the lack of quality line play on recruiting, but the truth is the Gators have talent on the line, whether it’s high-end NFL pick Martez Ivey or Jawaan Taylor, who was a freshman All-American a year ago.

Further, you can scheme around line deficiencies.

For example, Taylor’s a big body but his footwork is a bit slow. Florida’s coaches could have adjusted to this and forced Michigan to remove men from the box, either by going to more spread principles or using tempo. They declined. They also rarely made any effort to match up numbers wise and run power, with heavier packages in short yardage. It’s hard to run the ball when you don’t have a hat for every hat.

Making matters worse, Florida’s passing schemes were likewise poor.

Without Callaway, Florida abandoned the more complex crossing routes, which was understandable, but the refusal to try to hit slants or posts against a defense playing with 7-8 in the box and one 15-yard deep safety trying to prevent the home run was bizarre.

Nussmeier and McElwain were masters of the screen pass at Alabama, but abandoned them altogether Saturday, even at the ideal time to deploy one, when Zaire entered and Brown’s defense had its ears pinned back.

So what can Florida do moving forward?

One logical solution would be to have McElwain assume play-calling duties, but he ruled this out, at least for now, at his Monday press conference. “He’ll get it fixed,” McElwain said, brushing the notion quickly aside. McElwain has won big with Nussmeier at his side and is standing by his man.

The problem for McElwain and Nussmeier is Florida fans aren’t famous for patience, especially when it comes to offense.

To be fair, given the Gators finished 107th nationally in scoring in 2016 and 100th in 2015, even a modest improvement would likely improve the fortunes of a program that somehow managed to win 19 games in spite of offensive ineptitude in McElwain’s first two seasons.

But will that even be enough? Florida’s defense is young and likely to regress a small amount from the ferocious units of the prior two campaigns. The Gators need more.

And then there’s the history of offense.

The truth is that every Gator offense that ever takes the field has two opponents: one on the field, the others with their names on the field and on the ring of honor — the sum talent and accomplishments of the seemingly unstoppable Steve Spurrier and Tim Tebow offenses of years past.

By the first measure, simply improving a bit will make things less grim. The problem is there’s just not much evidence Nussmeier is capable of leading the offense to even that type of improvement.