JACKSONVILLE — With Florida’s 27-3 win against Georgia on Saturday, the Gators find themselves in a position they haven’t been in for six years.
UF is one win away from going to Atlanta — one win from a chance to win the Southeastern Conference title.
There’s only one team standing in the way of the Gators, and it will set its anchor down in Gainesville this weekend: the Vanderbilt Commodores.
While Vanderbilt (3-5, 1-3 SEC) has shown improvement this season — the team has already matched its 2014 win total with three wins — most didn’t expect Florida (7-1, 5-1 SEC) to be in the driver’s seat when the calendar hit November.
But coach Jim McElwain was not one of those doubters.
In fact, when asked if he expected the Gators to be one win away from clinching the SEC East, the first-year UF coach had a resounding answer.
"Yeah, I did. Because I don’t expect to lose," McElwain said. "We should never go into an event thinking we’re going to come in second."
Florida last clinched a trip to the SEC Championship game in 2009 with a win over Georgia and a South Carolina loss on Halloween.
The Gators faced off against Nick Saban and Alabama, with McElwain on the sideline in the Georgia Dome as the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. McElwain’s offense racked up 490 yards en route to a 32-13 beatdown of Florida. Alabama would go on to win the national title.
The 2012 season aside — when the Gators went 11-2 — Florida has been in a tailspin as a program ever since.
However, in just eight games, McElwain has led the program back into a position it was constantly in during the glory days of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. The turnaround of the program has been a storyline as the season has progressed.
McElwain has come in and revitalized the football team with his own methodology, setting the standard for the players to follow.
"The guy always tells us just to do the little things right and everything else is going to pay off for you," running back Kelvin Taylor said. "I feel like that’s our motto, and it’s working really well."
The Gators say the atmosphere surrounding the program is different than in previous years, and it’s one of the main reasons this season feels different than past seasons. After running through Georgia and dominating the Bulldogs defensively, the team’s confidence is high.
"There’s a good vibe on this team," cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III said. "We still know we have more to accomplish. But it’s awesome. We’re going to enjoy this win and see how the rest plays out."
McElwain is already looking ahead to the challenges Vanderbilt presents. The Commodores posses a stout defense, with coach Derek Mason taking over the play calling duties this season. As a result, this Vanderbilt team isn’t the pushover the Gators have been accustomed to.
After finishing near the bottom of the SEC in total defense last year — the Commodores allowed 402.1 yards per game — Vanderbilt is sixth in the conference, allowing 323.4 yards per game.
"I just can’t help but focus on a really good defense that Vanderbilt has," McElwain said. "Derek (Mason) is doing an outstanding job, and we can’t fall off. We’ll find out what our team is made of.
"Just looking at film and watching that defense of theirs, we’ve got a lot of work to do offensively."
The Gators have proven pundits wrong time and time again this season, and while it’s easy to look ahead to the SEC Championship, McElwain is still insisting the team take things one game at a time.
"It’s not about thinking about going to the championship," McElwain said. "It’s about what do we do right now to get better. Because a championship will never come if we don’t take care of the now."
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UF players celebrate following Antonio Callaway's 66-yard touchdown during Florida's 27-3 win against Georgia on Oct. 31, 2015, at EverBank Field in Jacksonville.
