In a shocking turn of events from the end of September when Florida was 3-1 with their only blemish being a two-point loss against mighty Alabama, the Gators went just 2-5 since and fired Dan Mullen before their regular season finale against Florida State this week.
Where does Florida now turn for their next head coach?
Adam Dubbin of Gators Wire has put together a list of candidates for Florida to pursue and on it is a recent Notre Dame assistant and current Texas A&M defensive coordinator, Mike Elko.
Jimbo Fisher made a big splash when he got Elko, the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, to follow him to College Station in 2018. Elko, 44, is considered one of the up-and-coming coaches in college football, and given the fact that he is leading his best defense, which ranks in the top 10, expect his name to come up quite a bit during the coaching carousel this offseason.
Elko is a good coach and could be a candidate for jobs like TCU, but given the importance of this hire for UF, it seems unlikely it chooses to go with a first-time head coach.
I’m with Adam in that line of thinking. I also remember the last time Florida hired a defensive coordinator from a Texas program who didn’t have any head coach experience and I can’t imagine doing that again would go over too well in Gator country.
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See the latest on all FBS college football coaching hirings and firings in our 2021 coaching tracker