Getty Image / G Fiume
Gus Malzahn and the University of Central Florida Knights are 49 days away from their 2023 season opener against Kent State.
This is UCF‘s first season in the Big-12 and the expectations are sky high after the Knights have rattled off 6 winning seasons in a row.
Thursday marked Gus Malzahn‘s first Big-12 Media Day. In fact, it marked his first in-person media day in years as he’d been doing Media Days via Zoom for the past two years.
Some highlights from Gus Malzahn’s Big-12 Media Day appearance include him revealing the recruiting edge he gains by UCF being centrally located in Florida *AND* the only Big-12 team in the Sunshine State.
Malzahn was asked: “You got a question earlier about maybe longer geographically to travel from Florida but it’s also an advantage having Florida as the flagship school in the conference. How do you use being the only Florida State as an advantage at UCF?”
Gus responded, saying: “It’s a huge advantage. Now that we’re in the Power Five recruiting, we recruit against the three larger schools in the state and it’s been a game changer as far as that. I really think the fan bases are going to really enjoy Orlando. There’s not a better place in the country to live, vacation.”
“There’s no NFL team. The best brands in the world are there. We’ve got a great environment as far as our bounce house and everything that goes with it.”
“I really feel like it’ll be a great spot for opposing fans to come.”
UCF’s Gus Malzahn On Big-12 Parallels To SEC
When asked about the parallels between entering the Big-12 Conference and his time in the SEC, Malzahn said ‘the excitement.’ But he tempered that by stating that UCF isn’t in a hurry.
Coach Malzahn said “There’s a lot of excitement, and like I said earlier, I think the best thing for us is like we’re not in a rush. We had time to prepare for this moment and building our roster and our staff and everything that goes with that. Terry Mohajir is as good an athletic director as there is in the country, and me and him have worked together strategically to get this moment, so we’re really excited about it.”
Gus Malzahn didn’t hold back when speaking about the Big-12’s depth. He straight-up said “I think it is the deepest” conference in football. He went on to add “when you look at your schedule, there’s no off weeks. You’ve got to bring your A game every week. That’s really what stands out to me coming in as a new kid on the block.”
In ESPN’s FPI rankings, the UCF Knights currently occupy the 26h spot.
Personally, I don’t put nearly as much stock in the FPI rankings as others. I believe they tend to overemphasize previous results at a time when churn in College Football is higher than ever. But it will be interesting to see where UCF finishes out its season.