One of the first head coaching vacancies of 2017 came at Florida, with Jim McElwain leaving Sunday after two and a half seasons. So, who’s next on the list to replace him? The sportsbooks have some ideas.
Who will replace Jim McElwain at Florida? You can bet actual money on Tim Tebow doing it, if you want.
Here are 20 candidates, according to the sportsbooks.
Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images
Here are the latest odds for who will get the job, from a couple different places.
Via BetOnline, shortly after the job opened:
- Dan Mullen, Mississippi State +350 (He’s the obvious early favorite)
- Scott Frost, UCF +550 (Widely considered the No. 2)
- Mike Norvell, Memphis +700 (Maybe!)
- Dino Babers, Syracuse +800 (Maybe!)
- Bob Stoops, retired +800 (Nope)
- Matt Campbell, Iowa State +800 (Maybe!)
- Jeff Brohm, Purdue +800 (Probably not)
- Chad Morris, SMU +800 (Probably not)
- Willie Taggart, Oregon +900 (If he’s not in Florida’s top group, he should be)
- Chip Kelly, ESPN +900 (Your guess is as good as mine)
- Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State +1400 (Probably not)
- Randy Shannon, Florida +1400 (The interim, but probably not)
- Charlie Strong, USF +2000 (Probably not)
- Lane Kiffin, FAU +5000 (Doubtful!)
- Urban Meyer, Ohio State +20000 (Nope)
- Steve Spurrier, retired +20000 (Nope)
- Tim Tebow, the New York Mets +30000 (YEP, MAMA’S CALLIN’)
GIVE ME $100 ON EBOW AND SPURRIER. I DON’T CARE. JUST DO IT.
A few days later, Bovada followed up with:
- Mullen +450
- Frost +500
- Taggart +600
- Norvell +700
- Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech +800 (Maybe!)
- Kelly +800
- Stoops +1000
- Les Miles, retired +1200 (Nope!)
- Shannon +1500
- Jon Gruden, ESPN +2200 (Literally nothing would infuriate Tennessee fans more)
- Strong +3300
- Kiffin +3300
- Spurrier +7500
Interesting to note Taggart’s odds are a bit better in the more recently published odds. As I pointed out Tuesday, Taggart might not make the jump, but he makes perfect sense for the job.
The first two guys with the best odds are pretty obvious. Mississippi State’s Mullen worked with Florida AD Scott Stricklin:
Mullen has built a competitive program in Starkville, which is no small feat. He’s the annual subject of stay-or-go rumors, and those will only ratchet up with the Florida job open.
He was Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator at UF from 2005-08, winning two national championships.
His boss at Mississippi State used to be Scott Stricklin, whom Florida hired away as athletic director a year ago. Stricklin wasn’t running the show at MSU when the Bulldogs hired Mullen, but they worked together for years.
And Frost’s UCF team is 7-0 so far this season, and his team is the prime candidate to earn a New Year’s Six bowl bid come December.
Norvell and Babers aren’t exactly the top candidates, but they make sense. Babers, the ex-Bowling Green coach, runs a fun, dynamic spread offense.
Coaching odds should be taken with grains of salt, but it’s fun to see who makes the lists. Especially when it’s Tebow.
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