Will Muschamp: Does Jim McElwain like his dog more than Florida's players?

AUBURN -- Will Muschamp isn't so sure what Jim McElwain is complaining about.

In November, Muschamp said Florida had a "deep and talented roster, so don't let that new guy tell you he ain't got any players," but last week McElwain said the Gators roster "really insufficient" in some areas, specifically on offensive line and linebacker.

Muschamp said he was unaware of McElwain's comments, but Auburn's defensive coordinator offered a strong rebuttal.

"He said he could coach a dog and win," Muschamp said. "Heck, (does he) like the dog better than his players?"

Muschamp was referring to remarks McElwain made during his introductory press conference.

"I believe I can win with my dog Claribelle," McElwain said. "That's the attitude. There's good players here. That's just our responsibility to get that going."

Florida is practicing with just eight scholarship offensive linemen this spring and has three walk-ons on the two-deep, according to GatorBait.net.

While Muschamp acknowledged the departures from UF's offensive line that obviously led to some shortage for the Gators this spring, he still feels there's "a lot of good football players" at Florida.

"At the end of the day, at the time D.J. Humphries and Tyler Moore had not declared for the NFL Draft and that's two guys that started a lot of ball games and Rod(erick)Johnson was a returning starter," Muschamp said. "Certainly at the position, at the offensive line, the numbers are obviously down.

"I didn't know of any comments. Other than that, there's a lot of good football players sitting down there."