Now McElwain will find out true colors of grumpy Gator Nation

Brace yourself, Jim McElwain. Your tenure as the University of Florida’s football coach may have officially started a little more than a year ago, but unofficially it began after Friday’s 41-7 methodical dismantling at the hands of Michigan in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl.

Now you will begin to experience what Gator Nation is really like — demanding, demeaning and downright disgusted.

No doubt, the puffy, positive reaction to McElwain’s inaugural season has been a welcome respite from the traditional tempestuous feedback of Gator Nation. The Gators and their fans

Have a reputation of being among the most spoiled, overbearing fans in college football. Back in the 1970s, before UF ever won anything, the legendary sportswriter Dan Jenkins famously wrote that Gator fans “have the arrogance of Notre Dame and the tradition of Wake Forest.”

What a difference four decades makes. Who would have ever imagined the Gators could be pulverized in their last three games — including being pounded by Florida State and punched in the mouth by Michigan — and the overwhelming fan reaction would be, “It’s still been a great season.”

Here’s all you need to know about McElwain’s feel-good first season: The coach’s first response at his postgame news conference following Friday’s bowl beatdown was, “I gotta tell you, I’m proud of the football team in that locker room.” Proud? Really? Seriously? This was Florida’s secondworst bowl loss in history and far from a prideful performance. McElwain’s upbeat response was a little different from the disgusted response of former Florida coach Steve Spurrier during the worst bowl loss in UF history — a 62-24 loss to Nebraska in the ’96 Fiesta Bowl: “We got clobbered,” Spurrier railed then, “and we should be embarrassed.”

The bowl game on Friday was sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings, which seemed only appropriate considering the Wolverines smothered the Gators like a boneless-breaded drumette covered in honey-barbecue sauce.

Not surprisingly, Michigan’s fourth-ranked defense held Florida’s abysmal offense to only one touchdown and 28 yards after halftime, but astonishingly it was Florida’s own nationally renowned defense that got steamrolled by a Wolverines offense that has been pedestrian for most of the season. Michigan had three touchdown drives of at least 70 yards and the Gators yielded a season-worst 503 yards.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s no doubt McElwain’s inaugural season was a resounding success, highlighted by an SEC Eastern Division championship, 10 victories and the fact that McElwain isn’t former coach Will Muschamp. As I wrote before the season, Muschamp’s most notable accomplishment as head coach was that he successfully lowered the perennially lofty expectations of Gator Nation.

But after three straight decisive losses to end the season and an offense that was just as bad as anything Muschamp ever trotted out onto the field, it’s clear McElwain has a million miles to go before UF is truly an SEC and national championship contender.

Give the Gators credit for winning the SEC East, but don’t forget the SEC East was exceptionally weak this year. The Gators won the division in a year when the East was so bad Georgia fired highly successful coach Mark Richt and Steve Spurrier stepped down at South Carolina.

And let’s not forget, the Gators needed overtime to beat Florida Atlantic when an FAU receiver dropped a potential game-winning TD pass in the end zone. They also needed an unlikely 43-yard field goal from their maligned kicker Austin Hardin to beat Vanderbilt 9-7 and a 63-yard miracle on 4th-and-14 to beat Tennessee 28-27.

“The expectation is that you can never take your foot off the gas pedal,” McElwain said. “I think we had some guys satisfied after we won the East, and now I think they’ve gotten a taste of what you really have to do in personal preparation.”

In the future, McElwain knows Gator Nation will demand more than just participating in the SEC Championship Game and spending the holidays in Orlando.

Moving forward, fans will not be laughing at a new version of an joke:

You can’t spell “Buffalo Wild Wings” without UF.