Jim McElwain, Florida Agree to New Contract: Latest Details, Comments, Reaction

The University of Florida rewarded head football coach Jim McElwain with a $750,000 raise in a new deal announced Friday after the Gators went 10-4 during his first season in charge.

Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel passed along the news of the reworked contract, which brings the coach's total compensation to $4.25 million. The report noted it makes him the fifth-highest-paid coach in the SEC.  

Here's how the top five coaches now stack up in the powerhouse football conference:

Coach	School	Earnings
Nick Saban	Alabama	$6.9 million
Kevin Sumlin	Texas A&M	$5 million
Hugh Freeze	Mississippi	$4.7 million
Les Miles	LSU	$4.3 million
Jim McElwain	Florida	$4.25 million

The Orlando Sentinel report also pointed out that the deal comes with a $100,000 annual expense account and a variety of potential performance-based bonuses—the most lucrative being $250,000 for winning a national title and $200,000 for reaching the title game.

McElwain arrived in Florida after getting the Colorado State program back on track. After winning four games his first year in charge, the Rams won 18 contests over the next two years and made two straight bowl appearances.

The improvement in Gainesville has come even more quickly. The Gators won just 11 games over the final two years of Will Muschamp's tenure before McElwain led them to 10 wins and a berth in the Citrus Bowl last season.

Bleacher Report's Barrett Sallee thinks the raise was warranted and puts the Florida coach in the perfect compensation range:

That said, in order to become an annual national title contender again, he knows doing a better job of landing top in-state prospects is a must. Thomas Goldkamp of 247Sports provided McElwain's thoughts on that subject last month.

"We've still got a long ways to go, but we'll continue to work that in all those areas," McElwain said. "I kind of like how we've got something from a lot of the areas as far as within the state and not just focused on one central area. That's something we still need to get better at, and we'll keep working at it."

Looking ahead, Florida should be in line for another competitive season in the SEC. The biggest question is whether Treon Harris is ready to take on more responsibility following fellow quarterback Will Grier's decision to transfer.

The Gators did supplement an already solid roster with the 14th-rated recruiting class, based on 247Sports' rankings. So that should give them a little more margin for error if Harris goes through some growing pains early in the season.

McElwain has the program trending in the right direction after a year in charge. Now he's got the contract to prove it.