Jim McElwain impressed with Alabama but isn’t ready to concede SEC title
By John Hollis
Published:
Anybody expecting Florida coach Jim McElwain to apologize for his team’s appearance in this week’s SEC Championship Game can go ahead and keep waiting.
“At the end of the day, the Florida Gators belong,” McElwain said. “These Gators belong in this game.”
McElwain used Monday’s weekly press conference to remind the media of just how far the Gators have come despite the low expectations many held for them at the season’s start.
The 18th-ranked SEC East champions will nonetheless rate as a heavy underdog on Saturday when they face Alabama at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
If McElwain felt the need to defend his team to the media, it was for good reason. The Gators looked awful offensively during Saturday night’s 27-2 pasting at the hands of rival Florida State and their kicking issues continued to be problematic as well.
Despite the setback that dropped his team to 10-2, McElwain made it a point to laud his team for its efforts in reaching the SEC Championship Game for the first time since 2009. But he just knows all too well that there’s still more to get done.
“We’ve got a long ways to go,” he said.
Few outside their locker room give Florida a real chance against a Crimson Tide team that is playing better than anybody in the country right now thanks to a dominant defense and power running game led by Heisman Trophy candidate Derrick Henry.
“He’s real deal,” McElwain said of Henry. “Hopefully, we’re not just a speed bump on the road.”
Alabama, McElwain, allowed, is “arguably the best team in all college football and, by all means, is the best football program over the last eight years.”
But the Gators coach didn’t sound as if he were ready to hand the trophy over to Alabama just yet.
“We’re going to go with this mindset that we’re going to do our job in this game,” he said.
John Hollis is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Georgia and Florida.
