Following a surprising turn of events in January that saw Dan Enos accept an offensive coaching role at Michigan and then take a coaching job at Alabama 2 weeks later, Michigan has reportedly offered 'play calling duties' to a former Nick Saban offensive coordinator and former SEC head coach.
Who is the coach in question? From a report by Brandon Justice at The Wolverine Lounge, former Florida head coach Jim McElwain is in Ann Arbor currently and was offered an undisclosed coaching role with Michigan by Jim Harbaugh, that included 'play calling' duties that fall under the job description of an Offensive Coordinator. The report does not include speculation on OC Tim Drevno or Passing Game Coordinator Pep Hamilton.
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McElwain was the OC and QB Coach at Alabama under Saban for 4 seasons, 2008-11, 2 of which resulted in National Championships for the Tide (2009, 2011). At Alabama, he coached 2009 Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, as well as NFL All-Pro WR Julio Jones. He is widely credited for the development of QB A.J. McCarron at Alabama, who would win a title under McElwain in 2011, repeated in 2012, and get withing a kick-six from Auburn from a potential 3-peat of National Titles as Alabama's QB. McElwain took the head coaching job at Colorado State from 2012-14, going 22-16 in 3 seasons. His team went 10-3 in 2014 before taking the head job at Florida from 2015-17, which included SEC East Championships in 2015 and 2016, going 10-3, and 10-4 respectively.
McElwain was fired at Florida (reported as 'mutually parting ways') as rumors were swirling that he lied to Florida officials and media about receiving death threats.
This report of McElwain to Michigan is surprising due to the fact that is was widely rumored, especially on The Michigan Football Report, that McElwain and Harbaugh had words in the 2015 season when they met in the Citrus Bowl. The bad blood continued to 2017 when McElwain took a shot at Harbaugh for not releasing the Michigan football roster publicly before Michigan and Florida's season opening match up.
Harbaugh had tremendous success against McElwain and his Florida teams, beating the Gators in the January 1, 2016 Citrus Bowl 41-7, and in 2017's season opener 33-17 in Dallas. In the 2017 game, Florida only scored 3 points on offense (10 total in 2 games vs Harbaugh). Known as an offensive coach, McElwain's Florida offenses could only muster 273 and 192 yards of offense in 2 blowout losses against Harbaugh and Michigan. We will report MORE on this story on the show tomorrow - click to be alerted to watch.
This article was written by THE Michigan Football Insider James Yoder (Twitter @JamesTYoder) - LIKE Michigan Football by Chat Sports for wall-to-wall-to-wall-to-wall coverage of Michigan football recruiting coverage on national Signing Day 2018.
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