McElwain is a good hire but you'd think Florida could have done better. I think its a slight reach for Florida. McElwain definitely deserves a top 25 job but don't know if he's deserving of that job.
Colorado St only had 3 wins the past 3 years before he went there. He goes 4-8-10. Their SRS was around 99-110 those three years. The past three years it went 112-70-36. These are the things that have to be weighed, nor record. Harbaugh was 17-20 after three years at Stanford. In 2012 after Arizona raped us I posted a message about potential future coaches and I included McElwain in there. He coordinated under Saban for 4 seasons and has proven himself as a head coach.
It just shows that sometimes there isn't always a perfect fit. Maybe RichRod, Graham, Freeze, etc all said no. Don James and Pete Carroll were 4th and 5th choices. McElwain has proven he's a good head coach. If he can make the transition and it doesn't go awry (like RichRod at Michigan) then I think he will do well.
This. CSU was 3-9 for the 3 years before he showed up, and then went 4-8, 8-6, 10-2. There are much worse records to hire coaches on.
You can argue they could have gone after an established coach, but if they are looking for an rising coach there aren't that many available and I'd say he looks to have as good a record as any.