It’s going to start getting ugly for UCF coach Gus Malzahn.
Actually, it was already starting to get ugly.
Really ugly.
Painfully ugly.
Embarrassingly ugly.
Noxiously ugly.
The kind of ugly that turns murmurs into calls for change as fans and alumni wonder if Malzahn can get the Knights back on track — or if he even deserves the chance.
In the aftermath of Saturday’s not-as-close-as-it-sounds 37-24 homecoming loss to 11th-ranked BYU, Malzahn and UCF athletic director Terry Mohajir will now hear the noise in the system that will be louder than standing right next to the amp at a Mastodon concert. When you’ve lost five straight games and have a 1-4 conference record, there will be more empty seats just as there were Saturday. More calls for Malzahn to be fired. More speculation on whether UCF’s administration will try to buy out the $13 million remaining on his contract.
Personally, I think such talk is way too premature, but there’s no way to make it stop other than winning games. When Malzahn was asked before Saturday’s game how he and his players are dealing with the negative noise, he replied: “It’s real life. It’s the Twitter world. People are going to be on social media with their opinions. You have to learn to deal with it.”
Even before the loss on Saturday, Malzahn was getting savaged by the growing number of critics on social media. And then, to make matters even worse, the head coach was lustily booed by some UCF students at the school’s annual “Spirit Splash” homecoming celebration on campus Friday afternoon.
Another controversy developed during the week when a former UCF defensive end Kaven Call posted a letter to Malzahn on Twitter in which he accused the UCF coaching staff of recently kicking him off the team when he requested to be redshirted. Call’s letter evoked sympathetic replies from many UCF fans on social media.
Of course, if UCF were winning right now, fans would have taken Malzahn’s side, but when you’ve lost five in a row, everything gets magnified tenfold. UCF has lost 12 of its last 18 games and has just four wins in 14 conference games since joining the Big 12 last season.
In other words, Malzahn and his team desperately need to win a game — and soon. After nearly upsetting No. 9-ranked Iowa State on the road last week, I actually thought a victory over BYU was possible and could jump-start a late-season winning streak for the Knights. Now you wonder if their season is circling the drain and whether they are on a collision course with a 3-9 record.
Truth be told, UCF’s struggles in the Big 12 shouldn’t be a total shock, but fans don’t want to hear about the growing pains of going from the minor leagues of college football (the American Athletic Conference) into the major leagues (Big 12) where you are competing against programs with more money, more tradition and more resources. UCF, by most estimates, is ranked 14th among the 16 Big 12 teams in athletic spending.
Even BYU, because of its affiliation with the Mormon church, has a significantly bigger budget than UCF’s and was much more financially prepared to join the Big 12 last year than were the Knights. But none of that matters to frustrated UCF fans, many of whom expected their team to challenge for the conference championship and a spot in the College Football Playoff this season.
It should be noted that a SpaceX rocket launch could be seen on the horizon from FBC Mortgage Stadium on Saturday just as BYU scored a touchdown to go up 31-10. It is believed that the rocket’s cargo included the hopes of UCF being able to salvage the season.
It’s become so bad for Knight Nation that some boosters leaving their luxury suite midway through the fourth quarter were talking among themselves on the stadium elevator.
“It could be worse,” one booster said to the other. “We could be Florida State.”
Quite frankly, you can’t blame UCF fans for being disgruntled. It’s not just that the Knights are losing games; they’re losing home games against teams they were supposed to beat. UCF was a 14-point favorite in a highly anticipated home game against Colorado and got blown out 48-21. The Knights were favored by 3 at home against Cincinnati and lost that one, too. And, believe it or not, UCF was even a 2-point favorite against undefeated BYU on Saturday and were never really competitive.
When you lose games — especially home games — it’s the quickest way to anger the fan base. It’s great that Malzahn has been an effective recruiter and fund-raiser for the Knights, but his primary job is to call plays, score touchdowns and win games.
Malzahn took back control of the play-calling duties this season and went out and spent a good portion of his NIL budget on quarterback KJ Jefferson — the transfer from Arkansas. That decision has turned out to be disastrous; Jefferson was benched three games ago and hasn’t been heard from since. There was a hope that Miami transfer QB Jacurri Brown would kick-start UCF’s offense, and he did temporarily by running for 154 yards and two TDs in last week’s close road loss to No. 9 Iowa State.
But on Saturday, it was back to reality for UCF’s offense. With Kobe Hudson, UCF’s only real receiving threat, knocked out of the game on the opening series, BYU took away Brown’s running lanes and dared the Knights to throw the ball. The result: Brown completed only 8-of-17 passes for 96 yards with two bad interceptions before he was yanked with 10 minutes left and replaced by redshirt freshman Dylan Rizk.
UCF astonishingly has now played four quarterbacks this season. There’s an old saying, “If you have two quarterbacks, you really have none.” What does it mean when you have FOUR quarterbacks?
Unfortunately, UCF’s quarterbacking issues are only part of the problem. There are clearly a plethora of other reasons on both sides of the ball for UCF’s five-game freefall.
We could try to compile a list of all of the problems, but it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is Gus Malzahn has four games to get them fixed.
Otherwise, it’s going to get ugly.
Toxically ugly.
The kind of ugly that can only be erased by winning — and winning now.
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