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Ranking every SEC football coach ahead of SEC Media Days: Where does Butch Jones stand?

By Caleb Calhoun

KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
KNOXVILLE, TN - OCTOBER 15: Head coach Nick Saban of the Alabama Crimson Tide shakes hands with head coach Butch Jones of the Tennessee Volunteers after their 49-10 win at Neyland Stadium on October 15, 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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BATON ROUGE, LA – NOVEMBER 19: Head coach Jim McElwain of the Florida Gators reacts during the second half of a game against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on November 19, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
BATON ROUGE, LA – NOVEMBER 19: Head coach Jim McElwain of the Florida Gators reacts during the second half of a game against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium on November 19, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

Jim McElwain won the SEC East each of his first two years with the Florida Gators. And he did it in impressive fashion.

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    • Remember, he inherited a team with talent but one that had gone 4-8 and 7-5 the two years before he got there. And just as he arrived, Tennessee was returning to power while Georgia was still in its prime.

    So although the East was weak as a whole, getting over Tennessee and Georgia was no easy task. But he’s 3-1 against those teams.

    Add in a crucial road victory over the LSU Tigers last year and key wins in both years, and he clearly is a good coach who has Florida winning.

    Now, with all that said, it’s still not up to the standard Florida needs to be at. The Gators haven’t even competed with the Florida State Seminoles either of the past two years, and they had no business being on the same field as the Alabama Crimson Tide in either SEC Championship game.

    So McElwain right now still just looks like another lesser Saban assistant. But has at least shown himself to be the best coach in the SEC East.

    And he has proven enough in just two years to be No. 4 on this list. It was close between McElwain and Sumlin in terms of which coach should be higher, and Sumlin actually does have a strong case.

    But we factored in the two divisional titles to give McElwain the slight edge, even if it could go either way.

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