Coaches / Head coach / Jim McElwain
Career
56
not coaching now
Rating54recent
Peak59best 5 yrs
Career56whole career
confidence
Jim McElwain
Head coach
Headline rating: as head coach. Every role he has been rated in is below.
Chemistry
70
continuity at Central Michigan · early
Seasons here—
Programs3
Stints3
Career path
Head-coaching stints since 1936; assistant roles since 2016
Chemistry
vs every head coach since 2016 · 62 = typical
Tenure here
Seasons as head coach at his current school
Staff continuity
Seasons he and his offensive coordinator have worked together
Player retention
Players kept vs. the league norm for similar rosters (fewer transfers out)
Followers
Players and staff who followed him from his previous job
QB & coordinator
How long his quarterbacks have played for the same coordinator
Roster continuity
Share of starters returning from one season to the next under him
Dashed gold ring on the radar = average (62). Chemistry scale: 62 is typical, 20-50 is a warning sign, under 10 is a collapse.
As head coach
Rating54Peak59Career56
2012–2024 · 12 seasonsRecord 77-64National titles 0Great seasons 0 (top ~7% of all teams that year)
- Rating 54: his whole career, recent seasons weighted most, measured as how far his teams stood above their era, crediting him with half of what each program already was when he arrived (about the share that, historically, follows a coach to his next job), fading as the program becomes his own.
- Peak 59: best five-season stretch, 2013–2017 at Colorado State and Florida (40-20).
- Career 56 (#392 since 1936): total accomplishment over 12 seasons (77-64), 0 national titles, 0 elite seasons; full credit for the program he inherited.
Rating = who he is: his whole head-coaching career (since 1936), weighted toward recent years — how far his teams stood above their contemporaries, how much he lifted programs, his great seasons and titles. Form = the last two seasons. Career = the all-time ranking number.
| Season | Team | Record | Season rank | vs contemporaries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Central Michigan | 4-8 | #122 | -1.17 SD |
| 2023 | Central Michigan | 5-7 | #125 | -1.41 SD |
| 2022 | Central Michigan | 4-8 | #115 | -1.16 SD |
| 2021 | Central Michigan | 9-4 | #87 | -0.50 SD |
| 2020 | Central Michigan | 3-3 | — | — |
| 2019 | Central Michigan | 8-6 | #91 | -0.48 SD |
| 2017 | Florida | 3-4 | #69 | -0.07 SD |
| 2016 | Florida | 9-4 | #20 | +1.00 SD |
| 2015 | Florida | 10-4 | #33 | +0.75 SD |
| 2014 | Colorado State | 10-2 | #48 | +0.24 SD |
| 2013 | Colorado State | 8-6 | #69 | -0.06 SD |
| 2012 | Colorado State | 4-8 | #104 | -1.04 SD |
Season rank = his team among all major-college teams that year; vs contemporaries = how far above the average team (in standard deviations).