Jim McElwain

With the Fresno State Bulldogs, he built a powerhouse offense which ranked 38th in the country averaging 419.5 yards a game and 32nd in the nation in points per game with 32.9.

James Frank McElwain (born March 1, 1962) is an American football coach.

McElwain was born in Missoula, Montana in 1962.

He played quarterback at Sentinel High School in Missoula where he was chosen as an all-state quarterback.

McElwain became the first CSU coach to win his debut since Jerry Wampfler in 1970 and the first ever to win his debut against Colorado.

The momentum did not last long though as CSU suffered a 22–7 setback in their home opener one week later to defending FCS National Champion North Dakota State, the start of a six-game losing skid.

The program showed improvement towards the end of the season, winning three of their final five games to finish 4–8 in McElwain's first season.

McElwain's second season with CSU was much more successful.

He then went on to play quarterback in college at Eastern Washington from 1980 to 1983, and he earned a degree in education.

After graduating from Eastern Washington, McElwain stayed there as a graduate assistant and was eventually given the job of quarterbacks and receivers coach.

During his stint as a coach there from 1985 to 1994 his team made its way to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs twice and won the Big Sky championship in 1992 under head coach Dick Zornes.

From Eastern Washington, McElwain took an offensive coordinator position at Montana State.

He enjoyed a successful career with the Bobcats from 1995 to 1999, and coached the offense to the number one scoring offense in the Big Sky Conference in 1998 with 31.6 points per game.

McElwain's first coaching job in Division I-A football was at University of Louisville where he was the receivers and special teams coach from 2000 to 2002.

At Louisville, he tutored All-Conference USA receivers Arnold Jackson, Deion Branch, Damien Dorsey and Zek Parker.

Also his special teams set a school record of nine blocked kicks in 2000–2001 season.

He was then offered the assistant head coaching position at Michigan State when he followed Louisville's head coach John L. Smith there.

With the Spartans his coaching of the receivers and special teams helped lead them to the Alamo Bowl in his first season.

McElwain's coaching stint in the National Football League was brief.

After his success at Michigan State, he was offered a job to be the quarterback coach for the Oakland Raiders.

He was with them for one year in which the Oakland Raiders ended the season 2–14.

When head coach Art Shell was dismissed following the season, so were several of the assistant coaches, including McElwain.

In 2007, McElwain accepted a job to become the offensive coordinator at California State University, Fresno (Fresno State).

He helped lead the 2007 Fresno State team to a 9–4 record on the year including a win over Georgia Tech in the Humanitarian Bowl.

McElwain's offense outrushed the Gators' offense 251 yards to 88 yards, 63 of those yards coming from the 2007 Heisman winner Tim Tebow.

His offense put up 32 points and held on to the ball for 39 minutes and 37 seconds, almost twice the Gators total of 20 minutes and 23 seconds.

He was the offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama from 2008 to 2011.

On February 1, 2008, McElwain accepted an offer from Nick Saban to be the offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama.

In his first season as offensive coordinator, the Crimson Tide finished the regular season 12–0, before falling to the Florida Gators in the 2008 SEC Championship Game, and the Utah Utes in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.

In 2009, McElwain's offense helped lead the Crimson Tide to a 12–0 regular season record.

The team went on to defeat the top-ranked team in the country, the Florida Gators, in the 2009 SEC Championship Game.

There his offense dominated the Gators' number one defense in the country and compiled 490 yards of offense, more than twice the yards the Gators defense had averaged giving up all year.

Alabama went on to beat the Texas Longhorns in the 2010 BCS National Championship Game.

In 2011, the Crimson Tide finished the season with a 12–1 record, and beat the LSU Tigers 21–0 in the 2012 BCS National Championship Game.

On December 12, 2011, sources revealed that McElwain had accepted the head coaching position with Colorado State.

A press conference was held at the Colorado State University Rams indoor practice facility on December 13, 2011, to officially announce the hiring.

McElwain's tenure, dubbed by the school's athletic department as "A Bold New Era", began on a high note.

McElwain's Rams rallied from an 11-point deficit to defeat arch-rival Colorado 22–17 at Sports Authority Field in Denver on September 1.

McElwain served as the head football coach at the University of Florida from 2015 to 2017, and Colorado State University from 2012 to 2014, where he was named the Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year in 2014.

He is the head football coach at Central Michigan University, a position he has held since 2019.