Gus Malzahn is clearly fired up to land another college job and it showed during his introductory press conference at UCF on Monday.

After leading Auburn’s program for eight years, Malzahn was dismissed by the Tigers this offseason and replaced by Bryan Harsin. A few weeks later, UCF coach Josh Heupel left to become the new coach at Tennessee, leaving the job in Orlando open for Malzahn to take.

During his first media availability as UCF’s new head coach, Malzahn was asked to discuss his thoughts on the Knight program and how good of a job he just landed.

“This is a job that I would say, I’ve been interested in a long time,” Malzahn answered. “You know, just looking at the big picture as coaches and looking ahead you say best non-Power 5,  job, we need to change the narrative. This is going to be one of the best programs in college football in a short period of time. At times, they’ve been that way. And so that’s another goal of mine, you know as far as that goes.

“This is a job that I plan on being here and building it. That’s what really makes me tick. Now, you asked about well, why’d you set out — this, to me, is one of the top 20 coaching jobs in all the college football.”

The way Malzahn tells it, stepping away from the spotlight and having eight weeks to prepare for his next opportunity was more than enough time to recharge his battery and reevaluate his career.

“I’ve been coaching 30 years. This is, I guess it was eight weeks that I got a chance to kind of sit back reevaluate things it took me about a week to figure out that, yes, I want to coach again. And then, when this opportunity came, I just, I was ready,” Malzahn added. “And I really believe and I told (UCF AD) Terry (Mohajir) this, that they’re getting the best Gus Malzahn coach of any time in my career.

“From the fact that I had eight weeks to reflect, refresh, kind of evaluate, too and to be better the next time you do it. And so that’s when I tell you at the very first that I’m one of the most excited I’ve been in my whole coaching career. It’s legit.”

You can watch Malzahn’s introductory press conference at UCF below.