February 11, 2022 8:30 a.m.
Gus Malzahn was born in Irving, Texas and he went to high school in Fort Smith, Arkansas. But like most of us, we are born in one place and may move elsewhere but home is where we find happiness and surround ourselves with people who we trust and a place where you feel wanted. Gus Malzahn is home...in Orlando, Florida. Malzahn took the high road when asked about the situation at Auburn and current head coach Bryan Harsin. Instead, the leader of UCF's football program chose to tell you how much he loves his team and his new hometown and the people who support him.
It's been a trying month for Malzahn, who has tended to his wife while being hospitalized for a period of time. But when Malzahn returned for a press conference earlier this week he praised his staff for their work while he was away from the program. He thanked UCF fans for their prayers and support for his wife and family and he repeated something he has said numerous times in the last year- how much he loves his job and his new home.
Gus Malzahn won a lot of football games at Auburn, 68 out of 103. Six of his eight teams played in a major bowl or national title game. But it wasn't enough. Auburn is a unique place where lots of people with money make it clear who runs the program. Even if you win games, you still need to win more. Even if you beat Alabama every few years, you need to beat them more. Even if you recruit top 10 classes, you need to find better players. And the moment the power players decide they think they can do better, you can no longer do what you want to do- coach football.
Auburn moved on from Gus Malzahn and thought someone better would be easy to find. They paid Malzahn over $20M to leave and then hired someone with no SEC connections who didn't seem to be one of the top choices for the job. One year later, Auburn appears to be working to get rid of Bryan Harsin after a 6-7 season and an avalanche of departures among players and coaches and who knows what else. Assuming Harsin gets all his money, Auburn will have paid out almost $40M to two coaches to not coach and likely north of another $10M for assistants.
Meanwhile, Gus Malzahn chose to trust someone he believed in when UCF AD Terry Mohajir called him to replace Josh Heupel, who left for Tennessee. Malzahn thought about being an analyst on TV but his heart is in coaching. He took the UCF job and was given the keys to a program that had been to three major bowl games in six seasons. But coming to UCF gave Malzahn a chance to be a coach and leader of a program, not someone who answered to 20 wanna be general managers who constantly reminded Malzahn who they were and how their financial influence gave them the right to have a say in how he ran his program.
At UCF, Malzahn finds a passionate fan base and a nice group of donors but it comes without the structure he dealt with Auburn. He gets to coach and not worry about getting a text from the local banker asking about why he ran a certain play late in the third quarter of the previous game. Malzahn can go out and enjoy a dinner with his lovely wife and be appreciated for the job he's done, not wonder what table six is talking about. He can go to local fundraising events and sell his vision of what UCF can be and how he is building his team for their move to the Big XII.
UCF's fanbase has high expectations but it lives in a more realistic world than Malzahn's previous place of employment. Here in Orlando, Malzahn knows they are still building- not just a program for a new league, but new facilities and new opportunities. Malzahn now recruits in one of the best state's for high school talent while he appears to be owning the transfer portal as well.
Gus Malzahn is coaching, which he always wanted to do. He loves his team and loves the support he has from one of the most passionate people you will ever meet in his AD and a president that believes football is a part of the UCF brand as it continues to grow. Yes, Gus Malzahn may have been born in Texas and grew up in Arkansas and worked in Oklahoma and Alabama. But Orlando is home for Gus Malzahn and home has never been sweeter...
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Sunday's Super Bowl Halftime show features Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog and Eminem. Did you know the first song ever played at the first Super Bowl(then known as the AFL-NFL Championship) in Los Angeles was "The Sound of Music" performed by the University of Arizona Symphonic Band...
Final thought: An estimated 12.5 million pizzas will be ordered on Super Bowl Sunday...
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