It didn’t take long for Gus Malzahn to land his next head coaching job.
The former Auburn coach is officially headed to UCF to serve as the next leader of the Knights program. Malzahn was offered the job by first-year UCF AD Terry Mohajir, who previously hired Malzahn to serve as the head coach at Arkansas State.
News of Malzahn’s hiring at UCF was first reported by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports.
The AD and head coaching positions were open at UCF after Tennessee hired both the school’s previous AD Danny White and former head coach Josh Heupel.
Malzahn comes to UCF after being dismissed by Auburn following the conclusion of the 2020 regular season, in which the Tigers went 6-4 (they later lost the Citrus Bowl matchup against Northwestern to drop to 6-5 overall in a game coached by interim head coach Kevin Steele).
Malzahn went 68-35 during his time at Auburn and holds an overall record of 77-38 after he went 9-3 during his only season at Arkansas State.
In case any Auburn fans are curious, Malzahn’s massive buyout following his dismissal on The Plains will not be mitigated by UCF. Auburn still owes Malzahn his full $21.45 million buyout (50 percent of which has already been paid) and the coach is allowed to double-dip when it comes to any salary offered to him by UCF.
Interestingly enough, UCF opens the 2021 season at home against Boise State which was previously led by Bryan Harsin, the coach that replaced Malzahn on The Plains.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
