It must be strange to field these types of questions, especially after winning by two touchdowns in a rivalry game, after your defense suffocated yet another conference opponent, and after — just over halfway through the season — your team sits alone atop the SEC East.
But there Jim McElwain stood, after Florida’s 24-10 win over Georgia on Saturday, being poked and prodded with pesky quips on his team’s performance.
How did he feel about his quarterback’s inconsistent play? How does he feel that his defense is routinely forced to do everything? How is it that this SEC East-leading team doesn’t really feel like an SEC East-leading team?
“Did we win?” McElwain deadpanned. “OK. Good. All right. Just wanna make sure.”
They did, and by double digits — the Gators’ second such win in a row.
But just look at their opponents this season: Georgia, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, North Texas, Kentucky, Massachusetts.
All unranked — except for then-No. 14 Tennessee, their only loss — and all mediocre. All wins against teams clearly out of the running for any semblance of meaningful postseason recognition, with combined records that now equal 21-28.
Who has Florida beaten?
More importantly, who has it played?
The Volunteers were undoubtedly UF’s most challenging opponent, but even they aren’t looking so menacing anymore, with three losses in the last three weeks and a defeat at the hands of lowly South Carolina, the worst-scoring offense in the SEC.
So, yes, as McElwain so accurately stated, UF did win on Saturday, as it has most of the season. But it’s always the same, sobering storyline: The defense carried them, the opponent had a weak offense, and UF’s offense embarked on a mission to not screw everything up.
And yet, in a weak Eastern Division, that will be good enough to win. That will be good enough to get Florida back to the SEC Championship.
“People pick this team apart quite a bit,” McElwain said. “Guys, this is a good football team.”
In some ways, it is. Its defense is clearly elite, with multiple NFL Draft picks and possibly a couple first rounders.
But its offense clearly isn’t, not with the two quarterback options McElwain trusts to run it. Del Rio and Austin Appleby are serviceable, but never incredibly impressive.
So that’s why McElwain is forced to field all those repetitive questions. Because these double-digit wins cloaked as confidence-building victories are really nothing more than expected outcomes, games the University of Florida is supposed to win.
The Gators haven’t been challenged by a top-10 caliber team this season. But they still think they can win the SEC.
“100 percent,” Del Rio said. “I believe it with every bone in my body.”
Even having played a relatively weak schedule, and with No. 1 Alabama likely waiting in the title game?
“I mean, if we don’t believe in ourselves, who will?” linebacker Alex Anzalone said.
Good question.
Ian Cohen in the sports editor. You can contact him at icohen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter at @icohenb.
Coach Jim McElwain looks on during Florida's 24-10 win over Georgia on Oct. 29, 2016, in Jacksonville.
