Gus Malzahn just gave UCF’s administration and its fan base the best early Christmas present he could ever give them.
On this just-completed Thanksgiving weekend, I believe Knight Nation owes Malzahn a huge debt of gratitude.
He voluntarily resigned as the head football coach on Saturday, apparently forfeited most of the $12 million in contract buyout money he could have collected had he been fired and then shockingly took the offensive coordinator’s position at Florida State.
According to one source, Malzahn has been considering this move since the loss to West Virginia two weeks ago and finally came to the conclusion that he “just wanted to go call ballplays” at FSU instead of trying to rebuild UCF.
The fact that Malzahn left so much buyout money on the table certainly shows that, at 59, he’s lost his appetite for dealing with all of the headaches involved in the new dynamics of college football. It’s one of the main reasons Alabama coach Nick Saban retired and why Chip Kelly stepped down as the head coach at UCLA after last season to become the offensive coordinator at Ohio State. Malzahn often talked about how today’s head coaches not only have to coach and recruit but also have to be NIL fundraisers and transfer-portal GMs as well.
Malzahn was also quite sensitive to the growing fan and booster criticism that littered social media. I believe he saw the handwriting on the wall and knew things would get worse before they got better. According to one source, he didn’t not want to go through the stress and trauma of being fired again like he had at Auburn.
And so, as this season continued to circle the drain, it became increasingly clear to him that his program was broken and he didn’t know how to fix it. UCF lost eight of its last nine games this season and has a 5-13 conference record in two seasons since joining the Big 12. The Gus Bus was obviously stuck in reverse, and Malzahn simply didn’t have the desire to get it back into gear and moving forward.
Kudos to UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir for negotiating the exit without having to pay Malzahn’s buyout and give Malzahn credit for graciously stepping aside for the sake of the program. He could have easily held UCF hostage for the brunt of the buyout money but instead he gave the Knights the best of both worlds — the excitement and buzz of hiring a new coach without having to pay the old coach’s eight-figure buyout. Let’s face it, if the increasingly unpopular Malzahn had come back next season, the financial ramifications — in the form of decreased booster donations, NIL contributions and ticket sales — would have been considerable.
So as the Gus Bus clanks and clunks its way out of town and heads to Tallahassee, we now turn our attention to who will take the wheel of UCF’s football program. Word is that the search will be done quickly and a new coach might be in place by the weekend.
Will Mohajir bring back Scott Frost?
How about former Gators coach Dan Mullen?
Or former Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher?
Or Liberty’s Jamey Chadwell?
Tulane’s Jon Sumrall?
Texas State’s GJ Kinne?
Marshall’s Charles Huff?
A word of warning for Knight Nation: Just because you’re getting a new coach doesn’t mean that the Knights will suddenly become contenders next season. In fact, quite the opposite.
While it’s admirable that Malzahn left UCF voluntarily, the timing of his departure is not ideal. With National Signing Day for high school players coming up this week and the transfer portal opening up as well, UCF’s crop of recruits and transfers will be decimated. In addition, the quality players on UCF’s current roster will be cannibalized by other college programs.
Translation: The new coach will have to totally rebuild, and that can take some time. Yes, it’s possible to revamp a roster quickly in today’s college football (see Indiana), but sometimes it takes two or three years to get the right mix of players into your program (see Miami and Florida). It’ll be interesting to see how patient UCF’s sometimes-delusional fan base will be.
No matter who the new coach is, he will face the same challenges Malzahn faced at UCF. In fact, one of Malzahn’s frustrations was he had to do more with less than his state and conference rivals. It’s certainly no secret that UCF doesn’t have the resources, booster support or athletic budget that their conference competitors have.
I know UCF fans don’t want to hear it, but the Knights are competing against programs with more money, more tradition and better facilities. UCF, by most estimates, is ranked 14th among the 16 Big 12 teams in athletic spending. However, that standing will likely change moving forward when UCF starts getting a full share of the Big 12’s revenue-sharing pot (about $40 million annually) starting in 2025.
The point is that a new coach likely isn’t going to come in and immediately start winning big. A program’s prosperity is built around establishing an efficient organization, raising tons of money, building an extensive recruiting pipeline, upgrading facilities and fostering a winning culture that can sustain success at the highest level of college football.
Don’t kid yourself, when the Knights were in the American Athletic Conference, they were among the highest-spending schools in that league, but now they are among the lowest-spending schools in the Big 12.
I may be in the minority, but I think there’s more to UCF’s Big 12 swoon than just Gus’s gaffes. Yes, Malzahn made some mistakes (see recruiting KJ Jefferson out of the transfer portal), but, at least on paper, he recruited well and gave UCF some national credibility.
When he was hired in 2020, Malzahn assured Knight Nation that, unlike its previous two head coaches (Scott Frost and Josh Heupel) he was not going to use UCF as a stepping stone to a bigger job. Who would have thought that four years later, he’d be using UCF as a launching site for a smaller job?
By leaving voluntarily, Malzahn may have given UCF more than an early Christmas present; he’s given the program a moment of truth.
As the Gus Bus pulls away for the final time, UCF finds itself at a crossroads. The destination is clear — Big 12 relevance — but the road there is littered with challenges that Malzahn could not overcome.
Buckle up, Knight Nation, your journey has only just begun.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen
