Report: UCF, Gus Malzahn agree to contract extension, raise through 2027 season

UCF head football coach Gus Malzahn isn’t going anywhere and is a huge piece of the program’s future as they embark on their time as a Big 12 program.

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Malzahn and UCF have agreed on a contract extension through at least the 2027 season. Here was the report and details on that news:

“Sources: UCF and coach Gus Malzahn have agreed to a contract extension through the 2027 season. Malzahn agreed to terms early this summer and the school raised his salary to $4 million per year on July 1. The deal rises to $5.5 million annually in 2026 and 2027.”

Thamel added of the investment in Malzahn:

“The raise and extension are part of UCF’s transition plan to the Big 12, which the school calls ‘Mission XII.’ The new deal puts him more in line with the Big 12, as he would have entered UCF’s first in the Big 12 as the lowest-paid Power 5 coach without the adjustment.”

Malzahn is in his third season as the Knights’ head coach and is the latest in a line of remarkably successful coaches at what has long been a non-power-conference program. In his two seasons thus far, UCF has won nine games in both 2021 and 2022 and is off to a 3-2 start so far this season.

Before his time in Orlando, Malzahn was the longtime head coach at Auburn and took the Tigers to the final iteration of the BCS National Championship in his first season in 2013, where he lost to Florida State the year they won it all with Jameis Winston.

In the seven seasons that followed, he had a knack for occasionally upsetting some of Nick Saban’s great Alabama teams but never won more than 10 games in another season. Eventually, after losing four or more games in every year after ’13, Malzahn was let go by the Tigers.

He immediately landed at UCF, who had just lost their own head coach, Josh Heupel, to a different SEC program in Tennessee. Plus, Heupel was in charge of the Knights for just three seasons — which included 12-1 and 10-3 finishes — after he initially took over for UCF legend Scott Frost.

Frost’s failure at Nebraska is well-documented among college football fans, but he earned that job due to his conquests during his time with the Knights, which was brief but powerful. In year one, Frost turned an 0-12 team from the year before into a 6-7 club that went to a bowl. Then, in 2017, he authored the infamous 13-0 season in which UCF declared themselves national champs after going undefeated but not getting the invite to the College Football Playoff.