Central Michigan University head football coach Jim McElwain has announced that he will be retiring at the end of the season after a 40 year career.
McElwain, 62, has been coaching college football in some capacity since the mid-1980s, but will call it a career once CMU’s season ends on November 30 against Northern Illinois.
The Chippewas have a record of 4-7 and have already been eliminated from bowl contention.
‘My wife Karen and I have cherished every moment of our football journey,’ McElwain said in a statement.
‘We want to express our deepest gratitude to the all the players who have welcomed us into their lives, and the incredible coaches and support staff at every stop along the way—it has been a true privilege to work alongside all of them. The lifelong friendships that were created mean the world to us.’
Born in Montana, McElwain played quarterback at Eastern Washington University for four seasons from 1980-1983.
Central Michigan coach Jim McElwain has announced he’ll retire at the end of the season
He stayed at the school as a graduate assistant, then as the quarterbacks/wide receivers coach from 1985 through 1994.
McElwain then jumped to Montana State in 1995 to take their offensive coordinator position before finally moving up to the FBS level in 2000.
He served as the wide receivers/special teams coach at Louisville from 2000-2002 and then moved to Michigan State for three seasons, serving as the associate head coach among other positions.
McElwain spent one season coaching in the NFL as the quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders. They went 2-14 that season, the worst record in the league, leading to the dismissal of head coach Art Shell and many of the assistant coaches, including McElwain.
Rather than find another NFL job, McElwain returned to the college level as the offensive coordinator at Fresno State where in one season, he built the Bulldogs up to being a top-40 offense in the country.
That caught the attention of Nick Saban, who was going into his second year at the helm of Alabama. He hired McElwain in February of 2008 as his offensive coordinator and he stayed on for four seasons.
During his time in Tuscaloosa, McElwain won the national championship in 2009 and 2011 as well as one SEC Championship.
Among the players McElwain worked with at Alabama included quarterbacks Greg McIlroy and AJ McCarron, running backs Mark Ingram, Eddie Lacy, and Trent Richardson, and wide receiver Julio Jones.
McElwain is best known for being the head coach of the Florida Gators from 2015-2017
After four years of learning and working with one of the best coaches in college football history, McElwain stepped into his first head coaching role at Colorado State.
He went 4-8 his first season, 8-6 his second season, and 10-2 in his third season to compile a record of 22-16.
Before he had the chance to coach the Las Vegas Bowl, McElwain took a massive step forward when he accepted the job at the University of Florida.
In his first season with the Gators, McElwain went 10-4. While he did upset No. 3 Ole Miss at home, McElwain lost four games to ranked opponents – including his last three games of the season to rivals Florida State, to Saban’s Alabama in the SEC Championship game, and to Michigan in the Outback Bowl.
Hoping to improve the following season, McElwain went 9-4. He went 2-3 against ranked opponents, beating LSU on the road and winning the Outback Bowl against No. 21 Iowa. However, he lost The Third Saturday in September to rivals Tennessee, fell once again to Florida State, and lost his second consecutive SEC Championship game to Alabama.
In his final season at The Swamp, McElwain lost the opening game of the season to ranked Michigan, but got revenge against Tennessee. After winning the next two contests, McElwain lost three straight games – culminating in a 42-7 defeat to rivals Georgia. After the game, McElwain announced he’d be leaving Florida.
He briefly took a job as the wide receivers coach at Michigan before arriving at his current job with Central Michigan. In his first season, he led Central Michigan to the Mid-American Conference championship game where they lost to Miami (Ohio).
Across six seasons with the Chippewas, McElwain has been to two bowl games – winning the Sun Bowl in 2021.