Michigan wide receivers coach Jim McElwain, who led Florida to two SEC East championships in 2015 and 2016, has agreed in principle to become Central Michigan’s coach, a source told Stadium.
A news conference to officially introduce McElwain as the Chippewas’ coach will be held Monday at CMU in Mount Pleasant, Mich., a source said.
McElwain, 56, spent this season as wide receivers coach at Michigan, after getting fired midway through the 2017 season at Florida.
At Central Michigan, McElwain will replace John Bonamego, who was fired after going 1-11 in his fourth season with the Chippewas.
At Florida, McElwain became the only coach in SEC history to lead his team to the SEC title game in each of his first two seasons.
After seven games in 2017, McElwain and UF mutually agreed to part ways because the school said McElwain “failed to provide evidence to support (an earlier) claim he, his family, staff and players had received death threats from the UF fan base.”
This will be McElwain’s third head coaching stop. He was at Colorado State from 2012-14 before going to Florida. McElwain has a career record of 44-28 – 22-16 at Colorado State; 22-12 at Florida.
Before becoming a head coach, McElwain was an assistant coach at Eastern Washington, Montana State, Louisville, Michigan State and with the Oakland Raiders. He also was offensive coordinator at Fresno State in 2007 and offensive coordinator at Alabama from 2008-11.
At Colorado State, McElwain led the Rams to a 10-3 record in 2014, the school’s best season since 2000 (10-2).