Gus Malzahn Turns UCF Football Into A Joke By Asking To Be Included In A ‘Big Four’ Of Florida

Something tells me that University of Central Florida Golden Knights head coach Gus Malzahn wasn’t thinking about a legendary quote from Walter Payton when he opened his mouth this week. Payton once said “when you’re good at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re great at something, they’ll tell you.”

UCF joins the Big 12 this season alongside BYU, Cincinnati, and Houston, and a season before Texas and Oklahoma leave for the SEC. Evidently, joining the Big 12 doesn’t bring enough street cred for Gus Malzahn who believes UCF needs to be in the same conversation as FSU, UF, and Miami.

Speaking with The Oklahoman, UCF’s Gus Malzahn said:

“You, here, think about the ‘Big Three’ (Florida, Florida State and Miami). It’s time for the ‘Big Four.’ You look at the last six, eight years, we’ve been as good or better as any of those other programs.”

I understand Malzahn’s desire for his team to be taken seriously in the Sunshine State and across the nation but Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither were Big 3 programs in Florida. Florida State and Florida each have 3 national championships and Miami has 5.

FSU finished ranked in the AP Top 4 for 14 straight years and has produced 3 Heisman Award recipients. The Gators also have 3 Heisman Trophy recipients and they’ve produced 42 1st Round NFL Draft picks. And while the Hurricanes have fallen off in recent years their history is as rich as any program of the past 40 years.

But Gus Malzahn wants a ‘Big 4’ in Florida because UCF won the Peach Bowl in 2018 over Auburn, a team FSU beat for a legitimate National Championship five years prior…

Naturally, College Football fans had jokes about Gus Malzahn’s ‘Big Four’ comment.

One Twitter account wrote “When will UCF learn…YOU’RE IRRELEVANT.” Another person questioned “Outperformed them? How’s that ? UCF has zero Nattys.”

UCF does, in fact, have zero National Championships but that didn’t stop the state of Florida from releasing a commemorative ‘UCF National Champions’ license plate even though the UCF Golden Knights didn’t actually win it and just claimed it.

Checks notes:

Another chimed in with “Really??? One mythical National Championship ain’t enough. They not passing FAMU.”

Meanwhile, UCF fans continue to support their coach and his messaging. They maintain they just want a seat at the table which is fine but that doesn’t happen by their head coach asking for a ‘Big Four.’

Bobby Bowden’s FSU of yesteryear made its name by going anywhere to play any team and proving their worth. Bowden’s FSU played Nebraska 4 times and all 4 games were AT Nebraska. FSU had 5 straight road games in 1981 against Nebraska, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, and LSU. That’s how they become part of the Big 3, not in a war of words.

Gus Malzahn has an opportunity to turn UCF into a dominant program. Talking about a ‘Big 4’ should be beneath him but here we are.