Kevin Sumlin
UCF moving quickly to wrap up search for a new football coach
is no longer the leading candidate for the UCF head coaching job, a source confirms.
Kevin Sumlin is no longer the leading candidate for the UCF head coaching job, a source confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel Monday.
UCF officials gave Sumlin until the end of the day Sunday to decide whether he will accept the job coaching the No. 12 Knights.
A separate source said Sumlin was holding out to learn whether the Oregon job would open should Ducks coach Willie Taggart accept the vacant Florida State job.
No decision had been reached and the school has moved on to other candidates. UCF athletics director Danny White is looking to lock up a new head coach before the end of the week with the new early football signing period starting Dec. 20.
Most of the UCF coaching staff has joined former coach Scott Frost in Nebraska, leaving tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Sean Beckton as the only
one on the recruiting trail for the Knights.
Toledo head coach Jason Candle is on the short list of UCF candidates, according to sources. Candle replaced Matt Campbell as the head coach in 2015 after Campbell departed for Iowa State.
Ohio State co-offensive coordinator Ryan Day’s name has been circulated as a potential candidate as well.
UCF interim coach Troy Walters also is a candidate for the job.
During the search that led to Frost’s hire, few media outlets circulated his name and White could easily wrap up this search with another under-the-radar selection.
While White is leading the search as UCF president John Hitt prepares for retirement, he did plan to seek input from current players about the qualities they’d like to see in their next coach.
Walters will be in Little Rock, Ark., this week for the Broyles Award ceremony. He is a finalist for the award that honors the top assistant coach in the country. The other finalists for the award include coordinators from Auburn (Kevin Steele, defensive coordinator), Clemson (Tony Elliott, co-offensive coordinator), Oklahoma (Bill Bedenbaug, co-offensive coordinator) and Wisconsin (Jim Leonhard, defensive coordinator).
The winner will be announced today.
According to sources, White hired Parker Executive Search well before Frost officially resigned Saturday to help him identify candidates in the event Frost chose to leave.
Frost officially addressed the football team about his resignation Saturday hours after the Knights defeated Memphis 62-55 in double overtime to earn the American Athletic Conference championship and finish the 2017 regular season as the only undefeated team in the nation.
He is slated to return to coach the bowl game, but it’s unclear whether the Knights will really have Walters, Frost and potentially the yet-to-be named coach all working to lead the program.
“If it all works out, I’d love to help out,” Frost told reporters in Nebraska Sunday afternoon during his introductory press conference.
Frost and the former UCF assistants who have joined him at Nebraska irked Knights fans by offering a scholarship to an athlete committed to UCF Monday.
Walters said Sunday he still expected all of UCF’s assistants back to help with bowl game preparation. He said he’s contacted all of the Knights’ current commitments to remind them their pledge was to the school and future teammates, not solely to Frost.
“I told them they just have to hold on and be patient and see what kind of happens in the next few days and go from there,” said Walters, who is working with Beckton to hold the Knights’ class together. “But I’ve touched base with all of them and filled them in with what’s going on and we have a great recruiting class so far and it’ll be great to keep them all together.”