Take Two: Who would be the best fit to take over at Florida?

Take Two returns with a daily offering tackling a handful of issues in the college football landscape. Rivals.com National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney lays out the situation and then receives takes from Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and a local expert from the Rivals.com network of team sites.

MORE TAKE TWO: What changes should be made at Florida State?

Three straight losses certainly helped lead to coach Jim McElwain’s downfall at Florida, but probably even more problematic was the university distancing itself from him after he made unsubstantiated claims about death threats this past week. The coach who led the Gators to back-to-back SEC championship games in his first two seasons in Gainesville has reportedly been unceremoniously ousted seven games into his third season, with all kinds of problems still on offense.

A strange week at Florida just got a whole lot more confusing. Georgia obliterated the Gators 42-7 Saturday in the annual "World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party," which probably left a lot of Florida fans searching the parking lot for any drink they could find to forget what was happening inside the stadium. It was ugly.

According to reports, though, Florida honchos were already huddling to figure out if the school could fire McElwain for cause, thus not being forced to pay his lofty $12.9 million buyout.

Now with McElwain gone, who would be the best hire for Florida? Would Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen be the answer? He has a lot of good history in Gainesville. UCF’s Scott Frost is certainly a hot name in coaching circles. Might the Gators go after former defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, who has an impressive resume with the Gators?

Should an offensive-minded coach come in to fix Florida’s woeful offense, something that never clicked under McElwain for one reason or another? Or would the right assistant coach hires fix that issue?

“After the failed Will Muschamp era mercifully came to an end, then-Florida athletics director Jeremy Foley stated that one of the main criteria in hiring a replacement was that he have an offensive background. Foley has since retired, but I see no reason to change that part of the job requirement. Florida has been in an inexplicable offensive funk for eight straight seasons, spanning three coaching staffs. Yes, if someone such as a Bob Stoops - even with his background in defense - was interested, Florida should jump at the chance to hire him. However, given the very small probability of that happening, I would think that someone such as Dan Mullen, Justin Fuente or Scott Frost would be at the head of the list of candidates. The safest bet would be Mullen. Not only does he have a history in Gainesville, he is familiar with the SEC, and he is perhaps the best at developing quarterbacks in the league. All things considered, he has overachieved at Mississippi State.”

“The best candidate as far as a pure coach is Dan Mullen. He’s proven he can win in the SEC, he’s an offensive coach and he knows the culture in Gainesville. The problem with that is Florida is going to be in a lot of competition with other schools for him and I don’t know what terms he left Florida on - good terms, bad terms, I don’t know.

“I also don’t know what his relationship is with Stricklin. You might assume it’s good, but you don’t know these things. I can’t speak to any inside knowledge as to Florida’s interest. Everybody is going to say Frost. Strong? No way. They can’t hire a defensive coach at this stage with the offense in such disarray. They need a big-name hire, because McElwain was not a big-name hire and they whiffed on some guys when they were trying to replace Muschamp. They need an offensive-minded coach and they need someone with experience who won’t be intimidated by the SEC. Mullen looks to be a home run in that respect.”