Very rarely in college football can a Group of 5 program recover from losing its athletic director and head football coach during carousel season and come out feeling good about themselves on the other side, but that's exactly what UCF has managed to do with this week's hire of Gus Malzahn as its new leader.
The former Auburn coach who won nearly double the amount of games that he lost in the SEC is ready for the opportunity that awaits and hopes to immediately make the Knights a factor in the Sunshine State, building on what is already established as a winning culture in Orlando.
"We're going to recruit Florida like nobody else," Malzahn said Monday during his introductory press conference at UCF. "We're going to recruit like our hair is on fire. We're going to go after the best players in America and we're not backing down to anybody. We have got a lot to offer here, and we're going to put together a staff that can (recruit).
CBS Sports veteran college football analyst Dennis Dodd updated his final grades for college football's full list of coaching hires on Monday, sifting through more than a dozen new fits to determine the best:
Utah State Aggies: Blake Anderson
Grade: B+
CBS Sports: "Anderson needed a change of scenery. Utah State needed a reliable coach. Anderson left Arkansas State after seven seasons as the longest tenured coach at the school in 11 years."
247Sports take: Blake Anderson's reputation as a hands-on head coach respected by his peers is a quality that was high on Utah State's wishlist. In seven seasons as a head coach, the 2020 campaign was his only losing record. He steps into a win-now situation at Utah State, part of the reason he took the job.
Boise State Broncos: Andy Avalos
Grade: B+
CBS Sports: "Boise has hired a former Broncos player or assistant coach to be head coach going back to 1998. The only drawback? Avalos has never been a head coach."
247Sports take: Unlike many Group of 5 programs, Boise State already has the pieces in place for Avalos to step in and win when you're talking about facilities and personnel. This is a program that expects to win and having that mindset already established is a big piece of the puzzle for first-year head coaches.
South Alabama Jaguars: Kane Wommack
Grade: B
CBS Sports: "This was a no brainer after the Jags decided to part ways with Steve Campbell. Wommack was South Alabama's defensive coordinator from 2016-17. The Broyles Award finalist (best assistant coach) was a big part of an Indiana turnaround the past two seasons."
247Sports take: South Alabama wants to win with defense and convinced one of its former staffers to return to the program to lead. Kane Wommack is one of the better hires this cycle, especially in the G5 ranks.
Louisiana Monroe Warhawks: Terry Bowden
Grade: B
CBS Sports: "At 64, Bowden wanted one last swing at the coaching pinata. Bobby's son knows about turnarounds. Terry went undefeated at Auburn (including three nine-win seasons). He then loaded up on transfers at Division II North Alabama taking the Lions to three straight playoff appearances."
247Sports take: Can Bowden take ULM back to relevancy in the Group of 5 ranks? This is one of the toughest jobs that opened up this coaching cycle.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles: Will Hall
Grade: B
CBS Sports: "Southern Miss needed a Willie Fritz-like offensive revival. It got the next best thing, Fritz's offensive coordinator. Under Hall, Tulane averaged more than 34 points per game in 2020."
247Sports take: Southern Miss is trying to catch lightning in a bottle here and as Dodd mentioned, mimic Tulane's rapid rise offensively with the hire of Will Hall.
Arizona Wildcats: Jedd Fisch
Grade: C
CBS Sports: "This is Fisch's 12th stop in the NFL or college since 2002. He'll have to win over skeptics who wanted a coach with ties to the school."
247Sports take: Arizona needs stability after a near instantaneous failed marriage with Kevin Sumlin and hopes Fisch can turn things around quickly. He is only the second head coaching hire at Arizona in the past 40 years without any head coaching experience. That's a risk.
Arkansas State Red Wolves: Butch Jones
Grade: B
CBS Sports: "Arkansas State usually doesn't whiff on head coaching hires. Its last four coaches have won 65% of their games. The school is used to being a springboard (See: Hugh Freeze, Gus Malzahn, Bryan Harsin). Would you take a 52-year-old SEC veteran who spent the last three years as an Alabama analyst? Yes, you would."
247Sports take: Butch Jones needed the right fit after a failed tenure at Tennessee led to his spot on Nick Saban's staff as an analyst. This is it.
Marshall Thundering Herd: Charles Huff
Grade: B-
CBS Sports: "Huff is one of the best recruiters in the country and a savant with running backs. Ask Saquon Barkley and Najee Harris. Marshall wants to chase championships. Coming from Saban's coaching tree doesn't hurt."
247Sports take: The Thundering Herd didn't land their first or second option in Byron Leftwich or Chad Pennington, but feel they hired a good fit in Charles Huff. Time will tell.
Vanderbilt Commodores: Clark Lea
Grade: B
CBS Sports: "Lea, Notre Dame's former defensive coordinator, needs to hire a difference-making offensive coordinator to keep up with the SEC superpowers. If you've spent any time around him, you get the sense he can do it."
247Sports take: Vanderbilt needed to hire someone who was up to the challenge at the toughest place to win in the SEC and the hard-nosed Lea is the perfect fit. The former Commodores fullback is putting the right pieces in place to help build a respectable product and knows Rome won't be built in a day.
Illinois Fighting Illini: Bret Bielema
Grade: A-
CBS Sports: "Illinois should never be this bad. It will immediately be more physical under Bielema who took Wisconsin to three straight Rose Bowls."
247Sports take: Respected at Wisconsin before fading into somewhat oblivion at Arkansas, this job represents Bret Bielema's second chance at cooking up some of the previous success he had in the Big Ten. Recruiting is key and landing players will be his top priority.
UCF Knights: Gus Malzahn
Grade: A+
CBS Sports: "It will be a relief to wake up every day not having to read or hear what Alabama just did, 24/7/365. That's Harsin's problem now."
247Sports take: Rarely does a Group of 5 program upgrade after losing its coach to a bigger program, but that appears to be just what the Knights managed to do following Josh Heupel's departure to Tennessee. Gus Malzahn is a proven winner and should be able to improve UCF's recruiting efforts immensely.
South Carolina Gamecocks: Shane Beamer
Grade: C-
CBS Sports: "Frank Beamer's son is one of the most talented and likeable guys on his way up the ladder. But Shane has never even been a coordinator. There were defections galore upon his hiring."
247Sports take: The first couple months on the job have been unkind to Shane Beamer, who has been forced to replace several coaches and staffers that he hired and saw a mass exodus of key personnel. It may get worse before it gets better in Columbia.
Auburn Tigers: Bryan Harsin
Grade: A-
CBS Sports: "It's OK to refer to Harsin as Auburn's fourth (or fifth) choice. If he was the first pick, he would have been on the first flight out of Boise State when Malzahn was fired. Instead, the school went through Auburn's version of, ahem, "The Process"."
247Sports take: this may have looked like a head-scratching hire to some in the SEC, but Auburn hired it's guy and sometimes, the perfect fit behind closed doors may not fit the home-run moniker nationally. Harsin wins, runs a clean program and has put together an impressive staff in his first month and change on the job.
Texas Longhorns: Steve Sarkisian
Grade: A
CBS Sports: "He is being given every possible resource to do so at Texas. If not, he will come full circle and be the next Tom Herman -- in a different sense."
247Sports take: One of the best hires this cycle, Texas went out and got the nation's top assistant to lead one of the biggest jobs in college football. Steve Sarkisian appears ready for his long-awaited return as a head coach and steps into a great situation with talent already in the stable in Austin. Keep an eye on this one.
Tennessee Vols: Josh Heupel
Grade: C
CBS Sports: "When Heupel was announced, it was largely a shoulder shrug. Not terrible, not great. Other, more accomplished candidates, were no doubt scared away by the NCAA investigation. Sure, he's the offensive-friendly guy that AD Danny White wanted, but in the end, this seemed like a fall back when the likes of Tony Elliott decided to stay put."
247Sports take: Tennessee went full UCF this offseason, landing the Knights' athletic director and head football coach. This is a multi-year plan for the Vols to pull themselves out of the depths of irrelevancy. Can Heupel do that?
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CBS Sports grades every college football coaching hire - 247Sports
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