Gus Malzahn on changing world of college football: Coaches have to deal with it

Gus Malzahn isn’t entirely pleased with the way NIL is changing college football, but he knows all he can do is adapt. The UCF football coach joined the Paul Finebaum Show this past week, where he offered his perspective on the new landscape of college athletics.

Tampering has been a major topic of discussion, with rumors swirling of boosters across the country disguising “pay-for-play” schemes using NIL collectives, enticing players to enter the transfer portal with offers worth millions of dollars. That led another Florida football coach, Mike Norvell of Florida State, to open up about offers his players received to enter the transfer portal.

Malzahn told Finebaum that UCF has experienced the same thing, forcing him to recruit his players all over again.

“I just think that’s the new college football world,” the coach said. “It’s just something we’re gonna have to deal with whether a coach likes it or not. Players are getting actively recruited by probably third parties, but obviously other teams too. Some teams came after our top players. Not only did they come after them, but tell them how much they can make at their school. You’ve got to re-recruit your own players and you’ve gotta adjust and adapt. I think the teams that adapt will have an advantage.”

It hasn’t all been bad for Malzahn and the Knights, however. UCF is one of four Group of 5 schools — along with Cincinnati, Houston and BYU — set to make the jump to a Power 5 conference in the Big 12 for 2023. Malzahn said that has actually worked in his favor when it comes to recruiting, opening doors to prospects that are only interested in playing for a team in a major conference.

Malzahn is set to enter just his second season as head coach of the Knights in 2022 following an eight-year stint at Auburn. He led the team to a 9-4 finish in his inaugural season that included a Gasparilla Bowl victory against the Florida Gators. Prior to his arrival, UCF developed a reputation as one of the strongest Group of 5 schools, finishing with back-to-back undefeated regular seasons in 2017 and 2018.

With so much changing in college football, Gus Malzahn and UCF seen both the good and bad that can come from it. Like many, the coach is simply doing the best he can to adapt to rules that are still in the process of evolving.

“We just decided we’re gonna embrace this,” Malzahn said. “I’ve gotta adjust too. I just think that’ll be the big key moving forward. It’s out of the box and I don’t think we’ll be able to get it back in. Some of the programs have been using NIL before it was legal, so I think maybe this will even out the playing field. We’ll see what happens.”