Gus Malzahn at UCF feels so right. Not only is this the best addition to the current recruitment cycle for college football coaches, it’s the best hire of Group of Five since we started calling it the Group of Five about ten years ago.
And it’s not even close.
This is because Power Five coaches with a .670 winning percentage at championship tribe level usually do not fall out of the air like UCF. It’s been twenty years since FIU’s Butch Jones Miami led to relevance again. Lane Kiffin (at FAU in 2017) comes up to me, but it’s a piece. Kiffin went to FAU after needing the Alabama car wash and Nick Saban’s supervision to become a head coach again.
Malzahn beat the master three times. He also won a national championship as an attacking coordinator and played for one as head coach.
What do you dislike? At age 55, he is in the prime of his coaching career, and he sounded like a coach during his introductory press conference on Monday.
The best group of five coaches have no Power Five coaching experience: Billy Napier, Luke Fickell (one year as an interim Ohio State), Bill Clark, Bryan Harsin (now only replacing Malzahn at Auburn). UCF inherited only the only active coach who walked the earth with the hat trick on Saban.
There is no shame from SEC to the AAC. Former UCF athletics director Danny White spent six years forming UCF into a soccer team that claimed its own national championship and inspired Orlando, Florida. We know what the knights can be because we’ve seen it.
Gus could take a year or two off to do TV and count his Auburn buyout money. But there’s a reason he’s barely breathing after his shooting. In his history, if Malzahn does not call ball games, he delegates someone else to call ball games before he quickly takes over ball game.
If it works out, Malzahn will probably be gone in a few years, but everyone should know it’s going in. All involved enter this relationship with open eyes. The new UCF AD Terry Mohajir is familiar with the situation that led the program with Malzahn as coach at Arkansas State in 2012. Malzahn stayed one season, his first as a college head coach, and Mohajir had to make a replacement. That replacement, Bryan Harsin, also lasted one season. There will be every reason to believe that Malzahn could be a short-term limiter if the next SEC or ACC assignment begins. Maybe as soon as 2022.
It is good. We are all adults here.
“I really believe we will be in the last four within a short period of time,” Malzahn said Monday.
Note that Malzahn is not a lost coach. He just did not win enough for Auburn. The expectations are different, less crazy than the SEC West.
Then again, it could just be the rest of his career who Malzahn is: an energetic offensive brain still on the lookout for New Year’s Six and College Football Playoff dorm near Disney World. If both entities stay in their current relationship, think of the ceiling for UCF: The CFP is likely to expand when the current contract expires in five years.
‘I thought for a long time eight would be a better number [for the playoff], “Malzahn said Monday.” There are some great ball games that are missed. … The top group of five teams is there. I have experience playing UCF in a kitchen game and beating. I know there is not much distance between the top Power Five teams, especially not the one. ‘
Gus is or is not, but that’s not the point. He has the itch, and he has a built-in quarter to win in the capable Dillon Gabriel. (Let’s hope Malzahn, by the way, retains defense coordinator Randy Shannon.)
If the worst thing you can say about Malzahn is that he can not develop quarterbacks. Welcome to the age of the transfer portal. Malzahn is not trying to beat Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, Florida and Georgia, to Memphis and Cincinnati. You have to like his chances.
UCF is the best program of the AAC since the conference was launched in 2013. The American is the Group of Five’s best conference since the CFP started in 2014. The state of Florida is still dripping with talent. Former Knights coach Scott Frost once told me his research showed that one in 99 Florida High School players signed a Division I scholarship. California and Texas are next on one in 400.
That’s where Malzahn also fits in nicely. It will be a relief to wake up every day and not have to read or hear what Alabama just did, 24/7/365. That’s Harsin’s problem now. Grade: A +
Remember when COVID-19 was supposed to be a mulligan year for coached coaches? Not quite. Although the pandemic probably reduced the number of departures – only 15 during the off-season, it did not prevent some big time programs from swallowing cash. Texas, South Carolina and Auburn have jointly paid $ 42 million to buy out departed coaches.
The total buyout figure for the nine coaches fired on the list below is more than $ 53 million. (Derek Mason of Vanderbilt was a retired coach, but buyout figures are not available because it is a private institution.) This averages $ 5.89 million. It is one consideration to make a change. The 15 changes now make it 86 schools that have switched coaches at least once in the past four seasons (66%). Patience is not a virtue among athletic directors.
Here’s how we assess the rest of the jobs when we enter the 2021 football season in college.