Coach’s staff his first win

New coach counts assembling coaching staff as his initial win

UCF’s Gus Malzahn hit the ground running, hiring a new coaching staff in a period of nine days, a feat the 55-year-old boasted about on social media.

Gus Malzahn spent his eight weeks away from the game of college football in reflection and self-analysis. Turns out, the time off was the calm before the chaos. In the two weeks, since he arrived on campus as UCF’s new football coach, Malzahn hasn’t had much time to sleep.

“It’s been fast and furious, but fun,” Malzahn said Friday. “Not a lot of sleep, but that’s a good thing. I think we bought a house, met our players and hired a staff.

“So it’s been really quick. It’s just so exciting putting everything together.”

Malzahn hit the ground running, hiring a new coaching staff in a period of nine days, a feat the 55-year-old boasted about on social media.

“Hired our staff in nine days #UCFast!,” Malzahn posted on Twitter Thursday.

The 10 full-time assistant coaches that comprise Malzahn’s staff featured plenty of familiar faces and consist of a mix of veteran and up-and-coming young coaches.

The group includes Travis Williams (defensive coordinator), David Gibbs (co-defensive coordinator/secondary coach), Tim Harris Jr. (co-offensive coordinator/ running backs coach), GJ Kinne (co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach), Herb Hand (offensive line coach), Darrell Wyatt (receivers coach), Brian Blackmon (special teams/tight ends coach), Addison Williams (cornerbacks coach), Kenny Ingram (defensive ends/outside linebackers) and Kenny Martin (defensive tackles).

“It’s hard to hire staff this late,” Malzahn explained. “A lot of guys have already moved or just got to where they’re at. They’re not wanting to move, and their wives are not wanting to move again. A lot of people just signed a contract extension with buyouts.

“So for us to put this stuff together, I was very encouraged.”

Many of those hired spent time with Malzahn as part of his coaching staff at Auburn at one time or another during the past eight seasons.

It was that familiarity that Malzahn was eager to surround himself with as he embarked on a new job.

“I think anytime you’re going in a new situation, the more people that you can get around you that are familiar with you and, if you look, the guys that have been, and we won pretty big,” said Malzahn.

“These guys know what to expect from me, and they know how to win too. And I think that’s very important, especially with our goals.

We’re going to put ourselves out there, and we’re going to dream. I’m really blessed to have these guys with me.”

Malzahn’s contract guaranteed an annual salary pool of $3.3 million for his 10 full-time assistant coaches.

However, he came in slightly under that figure with $3.12 million guaranteed for 2021: Williams ($600,000), Gibbs ($450,000), Harris Jr. ($325,000), Kinne ($300,000), Hand ($300,000), Blackmon ($275,000), Williams ($250,000), Wyatt ($245,000), Ingram ($200,000) and Martin ($175,000).

He also announced the hiring of Chris Dawson (strength coach), SJ Tuohy (director of football operations), Devin Ducote (recruiting coordinator) and Beth Burkett (director of on-campus recruiting/executive assistant to the coach).

Malzahn said there was a lot of interest in joining his new coaching staff at UCF.

“The first 48 hours I got the job, I think I had 1,100 texts and half of those were coaches that want to be a part,” said Malzahn.

“There was a lot, a lot of really good coaches and NFL coaches that really wanted to be a part, but it was just a matter of kind of filtering through.”

Now that he has a staff in place, Malzahn said everyone must get acclimated quickly to prepare for the start of spring football camp, which kicks off Monday, March 15.

“Let’s hit the ground running,” added Malzahn. “Let’s go four straight weeks, or whatever, for spring and let’s evaluate that — what we have, what we don’t have, what our strengths are, what our weaknesses are. And then get going on recruiting.

“Like I told the staff yesterday, they’re not going to get a whole lot of sleep. We’re going to have a get-‘er-done mentality.”