Jim McElwain 'absolutely overwhelmed' by interest in offensive coordinator position, in no hurry to fill void
Jim McElwain has received significant interest in the vacant offensive coordinator position at CMU.
"I've been absolutely overwhelmed with the interest and the quality of the interest when you look at backgrounds that this position has garnered," McElwain said. "We have some different ways we can go with it."
Whoever takes the reins of the Chippewa offense will fill the shoes of Charlie Frye, who spent two seasons in the position before jumping to the NFL to be the quarterbacks coach of the Miami Dolphins.
The next offensive coordinator will inherit an offense with some of the Mid-American Conference's best weapons, including receivers JaCorey Sullivan and Kalil Pimpleton and running backs Kobe Lewis and Lew Nichols.
"We're so excited for Charlie Frye and his opportunity to jump to the National Football League," McElwain said. "It jumped on both of us and yet, what was really good is that's the second guy that the Dolphins have taken from our staff in a couple years and it shows that people are really taking note."
While McElwain is excited about the interest surrounding the position, he noted that he does not want to rush to make a decision.
There are a couple of factors affecting the decision, including a shrinking budget thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and the need for someone with staying power at CMU.
"Right now, I'm being patient," McElwain said. "I wanna be sure that whatever we do with that isn't one of those where a guy is here for a couple weeks and then maybe gets something else."
McElwain did not name any candidates when asked, opting to protect their anonymity. Current associate head coach and wide receivers coach Kevin Barbay is believed to be atop the list of in-house candidates.
"The way I deal with this is I keep it in confidentiality because some of them might be in other places right now," McElwain said. "And I certainly don't want to jeopardize (anything). ... Some of these guys get ruined at their other places because their name gets thrown in somewhere, and that isn't fair."
When McElwain first took the head coach position in December of 2018, he stressed the importance of finding people who wanted to be in Mount Pleasant and desired to work with the program. Speaking with Central Michigan Life on Feb. 9, he noted similar qualifications required for the next offensive coordinator.
"It's about guys who want to be here," he said. "It's about guys who want to be at Central Michigan and want to live in Mount Pleasant."
