Gus Malzahn is resigning after four seasons as the head coach at UCF and will become the offensive coordinator at Florida State, according to multiple reports.
Malzahn, 59, went 28-24 with the Knights, but after two nine-win seasons in the AAC, UCF fell to 10-15 in its first two years in the Big 12.
UCF finished 4-8 in 2024, ending the season with a 28-14 loss at home to Utah on Friday.
Malzahn and Florida State coach Mike Norvell have known each other for almost 20 years. Malzahn was the offensive coordinator at Tulsa when he heard about Norvell through a friend. Malzahn hired Norvell — then a graduate assistant at Central Arkansas — as a GA with the Golden Hurricane before the 2007 season. Norvell rose the ranks after Malzahn left to become an assistant at Auburn.
Malzahn will be taking over a Florida State offense that heads into its season-finale against Florida ranked 131st nationally in both yards per game and points per game.
Malzahn is 105-62 in 13 seasons as an FBS head coach with one season at Arkansas State and eight at Auburn.
The Arkansas native went 68-35 at Auburn, with a BCS championship game appearance in 2013, his first season as head coach. He never had a losing record there and went 3-5 against Nick Saban and Alabama in the Iron Bowl, but he was fired after the 2020 season, with the school paying a then-record $21.5 million buyout to get rid of him.
Malzahn was also a successful offensive coordinator in the SEC, first at Arkansas and then at Auburn, helping Cam Newton and the Tigers win a national title in 2010.
UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir swooped in soon after Auburn let Malzahn go and brought him to Orlando, a splashy move to replace Josh Heupel after he left for Tennessee.
Malzahn seemed invigorated by the new challenge. He bought into the branding — and underlying idea — that UCF was the future of college football as a growing program in the center of one of the nation’s biggest football states. Malzahn’s 2024 recruiting class was the best in program history, finishing 39th in the 247Sports Composite. His staff fended off one of the in-state powers, Florida, to sign defensive lineman John Walker, the nation’s No. 95 overall prospect and the top recruit in program history.
But even during two seasons in the AAC, UCF failed to meet the elevated expectations of a program that went to back-to-back New Year’s Six Bowls in 2017 and 2018 under Scott Frost and Heupel. The Knights went 18-9 his first two seasons, losing the American title game in 2021 before beating Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl.
All three former AAC schools, including Houston and Cincinnati, have struggled since entering the Big 12. UCF had the best first season by reaching a bowl game. But the Knights had one of the season’s biggest collapses when they blew a 28-point second-half lead to Baylor in their first conference home game in the Big 12.
Year 2 was expected to bring success — or at least solid results — with Arkansas transfer KJ Jefferson a promising match for Malzahn’s offense. Instead, it brought a carousel at quarterback, a midseason firing of defensive coordinator Ted Roof, Malzahn handing off play-calling duties to offensive coordinator Tim Harris and several close losses that could have flipped the season.
Malzahn had three years left on a contract that would have paid him about $5.5 million annually.
Required reading
- Gus Malzahn knows exactly what he’s walking into at UCF — you can bank on it
(Photo: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
