Sunshine State trolling: UCF billboard in Gainesville promotes Knights as 'future of college football'
UCF is hyped for the Gus Malzahn era of Knight football. The latest marketing campaign includes some trolling via billboards on other programs’ home turf.
In Gainesville, UCF now has a billboard telling drivers on I-75 that they are 124 miles from the “future of college football.”
Billboard spotted in Gainesville. 👀 (h/t /r/floridagators) pic.twitter.com/I81YD5MhiK
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) April 6, 2021
The Gainesville billboard hit social media days after a similar billboard near FSU campus was spotlighted in the Tallahassee Democrat. Per the Democrat’s Jim Henry, UCF has 31 billboards in Florida and the Atlanta area with the “future of college football” slogan, words used by Malzahn in his opening press conference. Each billboard features the mileage from its location to Orlando.
The Gainesville billboard stirs up the back-and-forth over Florida and UCF meeting again on the gridiron. Former UCF athletic director Danny White, now at Tennessee, was publicly vocal about wanting to schedule a home-and-home between the Knights and Gators. Florida AD Scott Stricklin countered by offering a 2-for-1, two meetings in Gainesville and one in Orlando, citing UF not doing home-and-home series against teams outside of the Power 5.
Malzahn is presumably in no rush to return to The Swamp after Auburn’s 24-13 loss to Dan Mullen’s squad in 2019.
Claiming that fake Natty has really gone to their heads lol
Yeah. They are wacky aight. Follow this:
Why did UCF claim an NC? — As a protest
Protesting what? — The CFP committee ranking them 10th.
So, what was the problem with 10th? — Not high enough to make an imaginary 8-team playoff.
I swear that’s the truth of their rationale.
Oh, all that was all prior to the bowl game. Then just for fun, Auburn let ’em win. That’s when UCF really went batship crazy.
Great financial move if it ends up riling up gator fans enough to pressure Strickland into scheduling a home and home.
Bama offered UCF the same 2-1 and like with Floria they demanded 1-1. For UCF it’s a PR bluff. They know 1-1 would cost top-tier P-5 schools way too much money. Then when the likes of Florida & Alabama turn ’em down, they whine about not being able to schedule better competition. They know they’re not contenders, so they make themselves happy being pretenders.
There is no evidence Alabama offered to play UCF 2-for-1. In fact, Alabama’s AD specifically said Alabama had no interest in playing UCF at the 2018 SEC media days.
Other than someone who knows. Negotiations like that are generally not made public until a deal has been reached. Byrne made that comment after the fact… thankfully he didn’t go on to say what he really thought of White.
I don’t think most Gator fans give a rat’s a$$ about playing UCF so a home and home would not do anything for the fan base. Have them agree to a 2 for 1 like everyone else of their ilk or go fly a kite
UCF “future of college football” featuring Gus Malzahn.
Uh… I don’t even know how to start with that. smh
Maybe I can help. The future of their program is in the hands of a coach who lost a bowl game he should have won to their team. The irony is stunning.
Yeah, that’s a good start! Now I could go and on… but I’ll spare everybody :)
It’s good for a program to have some attitude like that. They should have hired a coach with that mentality. I don’t think Malzahn is that guy.
I was anti-Malzahn as well a few months ago, I thought he was a re-tread looking to retire but he’s a household name in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. UCF couldn’t have found another coach with as much cache. He’s also impressed me with how involved he is with every aspect of the program. This is HIS marketing idea, not UCF’s.
And he is still an average at best coach.
So was Steve Spurrier before he got to Florida.
@jbattle77…You should really get out a little more. Spurrier won an ACC title at Duke! Duke! Let that sink in. He was ACC Coach of the Year two years running. Brother, you win at Duke, you are not average.
jbattle, that was a stupid retort. You clearly know nothing about Spurrier. He had one college head coaching job before coming to Florida and that was with Duke. He instantly turned them around and his offense was breaking school and conference records. He was ACC coach of the year in 2 of his 3 seasons there. He won the ACC title the year before he came to UF, a feat that has not been accomplished at Duke since. His only other head coaching gig was with the USFL’s Tampa Bay Bandits where his offenses were one of the best in the league all 3 years he was there and making the playoffs 2 out of the 3 seasons. A little research goes a long way.
I know all about the HBC. In 1990, he was not considered a great coach. If he wasn’t alumni, he would not have gotten the UF job in 1990. If you compare what SOS had done in his career in 1990 to what GM had done in 2020, GM had accomplished more in that stage of his career. My overall point was that a change in scenery can change the trajectory of your career and your “greatness”.
So wait you are comparing spurriers first couple years as a coach to malzhan after his 10+ years in college football and 7+ years in the sec. Dude I don’t want to be mean but you are retarded. And to even compare malzahn to spurrier speaks to how low your intelligence level is. If you are going to compare 2020 malzahn then at least use spurrier after his 10+ years coaching college football. I’m guessing you are a UCF fan
Good grief
The shine is starting to wear off that “mystical” championship trophy, so they support the billboard industry instead of agreeing to play a better schedule with better competition. More signs and t-shirts, that’ll make us relevant.
Without using a browser, who can name the winningest FBS program in the 21st Century? It’s not Bama, nor Clemson, Not Ohio State, not Oklahoma. It’s Boise State. A G5 school.
Boise State does not pretend it’s a P5 program. Boise does not demand home-and-home concessions from P5 bluebloods. Boise does not publicly wring their hands over how under-appreciated they are. What they do is just win more than anyone else in CFB and let that speak for itself. And that actually results in the occasional P5 program coming to play on the Smurf Turf.
UCF, be more like Boise . . .
For the record, the Top Ten 2000-2020:
(1) Boise State 83.3%
(2) Ohio State 83.0%
(3) Oklahoma 81.7%
(4) LSU 76.4%
(5) Alabama 75.6%
(6) Georgia 74.9%
(7) Clemson 74.1%
(8) Oregon 73.7%
(9) USC 71.6%
(10) TCU 71.5%
(36) UCF 57.9%
Hey Mountain Dog,
It’s hard to argue and a lost cause to argue against quantitative results which speak for themselves. This is me Liking your post. Now, I still pray we beat UGA this year. Take care Dawg.
wow, as dominant as bama has been since ’08…it’s pretty telling just how average to below average they were from 2000 – 2007. by the same token, how average to below average usc has been since ’09, though to a larger degree.
How many real national championships have Boise State and UCF won since 2000? Sad that a program has to stoop so low to feel relevant to Power 5 programs.
No thanks. What does Boise St get for that except a pat on the head and praise for not “rocking the boat.”
BTW…over the last decade the difference between Boise St and UCF in terms of wins is an average of half-a-game per year.
Actually, the real difference between Boise and UCF over the last decade is that Boise is respected across the board while UCF earns as much derision as respect.
To quote Malzahn “Boom! :)
“respected” And what has that gotten them, nothing. UCF gets way more press than Boise could dream of and trending upward.
Nothing? I’m pretty confident that Boise receives a P5 expansion invite before UCF does, and that’s the ticket to program-changing money. That’s what respect can get you.
Boise isn’t getting an invite to any P5 conference. PAC12 is the closest conference and that will never happen. B12 is the most likely to expand and UCF would get an invite to the B12 before Boise based on market and recruiting.
Theres’ a difference between trying to rock the boat with your mouth and physically rocking it. Maybe UCF will grow a pair one day and actually agree to some 2 for 1 with legitimate opponents. Remember what happened to the last time they had a series planned with UF? UCF paid $100K to back out of playing UF in 2007 after getting their rear end handed to them in 2006. You UCF fans have no shame. Now, go back to your bounce house and play with the other youngsters!
If you have to rent a billboard to claim you’re trending upward…
UCF Gnats.