Former Auburn football coach Gus Malzahn will be the next head coach of UCF, sources told ESPN.
An agreement is being finalized, and a UCF announcement could appear immediately on Monday. Malzahn emerged as UCF’s top candidate on Sunday. Yahoo first reported employment.
Malzahn, 55, was fired on December 13 after eight seasons at Auburn. He was 68-35 overall and 39-27 in the SEC game. Malzahn took the Tigers to the national championship game in his first season in 2013. They won 10 games and made an appearance in the SEC championship game in 2017, but only went 14-12 against SEC opponents in the next three seasons.
Malzahn replaces Josh Heupel at UCF. Heupel left Tennessee as head coach last month.
Malzahn signed a seven-year, $ 49 million contract after the 2017 season and received a $ 21.7 million acquisition from Auburn when he was fired in December. Malzahn was only 8-17 against rivals SEC Alabama, Georgia and LSU, but he was also one of the few coaches in college football who had any success against Nick Saban in Alabama. Since the start of the 2013 season, Saban is 65-6 against SEC opponents, and three of those losses were for Malzahn.
The new director of UCF athletics, Terry Mohajir, and Malzahn’s ways crossed paths in Arkansas. Three months after he was named sporting director of Arkansas in 2012, Mohajir had to find a replacement for Malzahn when he left for Auburn.
Kent coach Sean Lewis was also among those considered for the UCF post, according to sources.
Chris Low and Adam Rittenberg of ESPN contributed to this report