Nick Saban has high praise for new Florida coach Jim McElwain

Few doubt that Jim McElwain has the tools necessary to succeed at Florida, but if any naysayers do still exist, Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban may have silenced them during the SEC Meetings in Destin, Florida this week.

Saban was quoted by the Orlando Sentinel to have nothing but praise for his former offensive coordinator McElwain.

"Players really respect him and like him," Saban said. "He's a really good teacher. He's innovative in terms of things that he does. And I think he really has the best interest of the player in mind."

"He did a fabulous job for us. He did a great job of managing the players that we had and putting them in positions to give them a chance to win. And we won a couple of championships with him. He made a great contribution to those."

The two coaches shared an enormous amount of success in Tuscaloosa, winning two BCS National Championships in their four years together at Alabama.

During McElwain's tenure at Bama as offensive coordinator, he helped several players get to the NFL including Julio Jones, Trent Richardson, Barrett Jones, Greg McElroy, AJ McCarron just to name a few. McElwain also helped Mark Ingram become the first Alabama player to win the Heisman Trophy in 2009.

"He's the kind of guy that is always trying to learn," Saban said. "And we learned a lot of things from him. And maybe he learned something along the way when he was at Alabama from some of us."

(h/t Orlando Sentinel)