… The 2017 American Athletic Conference Championship game when he knew he was on borrowed time and just wanted to celebrate with his guys.

Today is a homecoming moment just for him and his wife, Ashley, as they check off their final task (a five-minute photoshoot) of this momentous day.

He loosens his tie. It’s been four straight hours of hugs and smiles and shaking hands and speeches and interviews and tours and pompoms and standing ovations and fight songs.

He soaks in the silence.

He glances up at the 2017 National Championship signage. UCF Chief Branding Officer Jimmy Skiles ’06 paints a picture of what has sustained in 2024 from the game day atmosphere Frost’s 2016-17 teams helped mold.

“You know what I’m looking forward to as much as almost anything?” Frost says. “Wawa. I wanted to say that in the press conference, but I didn’t think it was appropriate.”

A chuckle. Skiles replies: “They’re a sponsor. They would have loved that.”

“I’ll say it at the next one,” Frost says with a smile.

Familiar comforts.

This place.

He’s home.

You Can Go Home Again

In nine years, a month hasn’t passed without Sean Beckton ’93 speaking to Frost.

The pair did not know each other before Frost arrived on campus in 2015 to replace retiring head coach George O’Leary following a 0-12 season.

Fans, former players and donors were all in Beckton’s corner — a star wide receiver for the Knights from 1987-90 and UCF Athletics Hall of Famer with a combined 20 years as an assistant coach for his alma mater.

The two chatted. At the end of the meeting, Frost said he could see why he kept hearing endorsements on Beckton’s behalf. He offered a job to coach the tight ends.

“He said, ‘I know you haven’t done that before, but I know you will do a great job coaching,’ and I just thought that this was a person who believed in me,” Beckton says.

Since then, they’ve won games and championships together. They’ve also experienced the other extreme together. Through the ride, they’ve created a bond and a friendship that is fit for a lifetime.

The two were in contact through Frost’s interview and vetting process for his second tenure at UCF. And then over the weekend Beckton started hearing it was a done deal.

“I texted him, ‘Hey, I’m hearing a lot that you’ve gotten the job. Are you coming?’” Beckton says. “Frost said, ‘Yeah, get ready to go. I need your help to get rolling.’ I said, ‘Well I’m already rolling.’”

Beckton, above all, is a UCF man. After he followed Frost to Nebraska — he never gave up his UCF season tickets — he returned to the Knights’ staff for the 2024 season.

He, perhaps more than anyone, knows what makes Frost the right fit for UCF.

“His love for this place,” Beckton says without pause. “I’m going to tell you, it was hard for him after we went 13-0 to make that decision to go to Nebraska. He genuinely did not want to leave — all the way up to the championship game against Memphis that morning. In a staff meeting, he broke down and said, ‘Man, I don’t want to leave this place.’

“That’s one of the things that makes me feel that he’s going to do whatever he can to stay here for the rest of his career.”

The standout quote from Frost’s press conference Sunday has resonated with so many because it’s true: “When you’re climbing the ladder of success in life, sometimes they forget to tell you to stop when you’re happy.”

A Reset

Frost coached the Cornhuskers for a little more than four seasons. He left Lincoln in 2022 and remained off the grid and away from the game.

He moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. He and Ashley focused on their kids. They rallied around her younger brother, who was diagnosed with cancer and thankfully today is in recovery.

“We went there to be in a family bubble,” Ashley says. “The kids loved having him home. It was an awesome decision. Scott got to get a reset from everything.”

But the calling to the sport never totally faded. He just needed to wait for the right opportunity. There was only one in college he was willing to return for.

Frost dipped his toe back into football this season as a coaching consultant with the Los Angeles Rams. He was happy. His family was happy.

“In my mind, I thought this is it — NFL,” Ashley says. “When this opened up, and there was talk about coming back, I started praying. I was like, God if this is meant to be, I trust you to lead it. If it’s not, please slam the door shut. He would never take a job if he didn’t feel like he was called to be there. We learned that lesson. Truly.”

Culture Keeper

Following Gus Malzahn’s departure from the program on Dec. 1, UCF Vice President and Director of Athletics Terry Mohajir called a meeting the next morning with the football student-athletes.

He asked them to speak candidly about what characteristics they wanted to see in their next head coach. They mentioned discipline, accountability and culture among their list.

Mohajir says that gave him his marching orders. He got to work on a national search.

“No one wanted to lead our program more than Scott, and that commitment speaks volumes about his character, his dedication, but most importantly, his love for UCF,” Mohajir says. “He doesn’t just want to coach football here. He wants to be a part of the community. He wants to inspire student-athletes. He wants to carry forward the momentum that defines UCF football.”

Six days later, Mohajir was once again in front of a small group of student-athletes and others Zooming in from their homes on holiday break to introduce their new head coach.

Frost addressed the team in a concise, impactful speech. He spoke of working hard, but having fun while doing it (a staple of the 2017 undefeated team). Doing the little things right. A charge to build something and be part of something bigger than themselves. And a commitment to keep the core group of players at UCF.

Redshirt senior offensive lineman Paul Rubelt ’23 walked away “ready to run through a brick wall” for Frost.

“Everything he said in that meeting I agree with. I’m already 100% bought in,” says Rubelt, who has been a part of the program since 2020. “I’m excited for change; what’s to come. I’m thankful for coach Malzahn and the opportunities he gave me. But on the other side, I already regret only playing one year for coach Frost.”

On The Job

Within two minutes of his re-introduction to the world as the Knights’ head coach on Sunday, Frost addressed the expectations of Knight Nation.

“I hope everybody doesn’t think we’re going to go undefeated immediately,” Frost said, eliciting laughter from everyone in attendance at his press conference.

Yes, there is work to do — especially to reach the aspirations he and others have for the team and the athletic department as a whole.

Mohajir’s: “Scott’s return signals a bright future — one where we can continue to dream big and achieve even bigger,” he says. “I really believe we can be a national champion program.”

Rubelt’s: “In my final year, I want to help UCF be in the best possible spot. The best possible spot would be to go to the College Football Playoff. In 20 years, I want to look back and say, look where this place has gone to and I was part of that.”

Beckton’s: “For me, on the back end of my career and being associated with the program, I want to see it to continue to grow for not only football, but all the sports. We have some elite programs, and we want to continue to win championships and really show the country where this place is headed. I want us to be in a situation where, five, six, seven years from now we’re saying that UCF is playing for the national championship — not only in football, but basketball and some of the other sports also.”

Everyone is betting on UCF with Frost at the helm.

And Frost is betting on himself.

“I know what I’m capable of and I know what we can get done here,” Frost says. “UCF can become great if we do things the right way. There’s a little bit of me that wants to prove the type of coach that I think I am. I’m going to get the chance to do that in a special place.”

Alongside his family, who he is eager to share this experience with. He’s looking forward to his children seeing their dad coach on the sideline and building their own relationships with his players. He’s eager to coach football again at a high level and impact the lives of young people. He’s happy to be putting down roots with Ashley in a place they love to live.

“Living here was probably one of my favorite times of life, and I’m happy to be back,” Ashley says. “I just want happiness for the players and coaches. I want success. And culture in the midst of NIL. I think it can be done. Especially here.”

His first days on the job he’s doing everything, everywhere all at once. Assembling a coaching staff. Player meetings. Navigating the transfer portal, which opened this week. Acclimating to the evolution of NIL. Figuring out moving his family across the country. He’s announcing the return of McKenzie Milton ’19 ’22MA as his quarterbacks coach. Embracing Shaquem Griffin ’16 in the parking lot. Talking bass fishing and kids with Michael Colubiale ’17.

And sitting there, among the chaos, is a gray, plastic Wawa takeout bag on the desk outside his office doors.

This place.

He’s home.

In February 2021, Terry Mohajir was introduced as UCF’s vice president and director of athletics. Seven months later the Big 12 Conference issued an invitation to UCF to join its league. This is Mohajir’s take on the events of those months — and how the conference question factored into his early days on the job.

There’s no doubt the conference situation was on the radar from the very beginning. That’s one of the things I thought was attractive about this job. I thought UCF was poised to be the next school up to join the club. Being part of the Autonomy 5 is what we were trying to do, what everyone wants to do. I think for the last few years the alumni base and fan base have believed UCF could participate at that level. It came up during the interview process, and I told President (Alexander N.) Cartwright, “I’ve been through conference realignment six times. I would be surprised if you could find anybody that has been through the process as much as I have.” Not only that, but I’d also been through realignment twice before in the Big 12.

Usually, when you get hired, you have a little bit of time to get settled. But I had to hire a football coach. Gus (Malzahn) and I talked about it (potential realignment). But you’ve got to be careful when you hire coaches not to overpromise. I told him I would work hard at it, and he knew I would. But at that point, we were already in a pretty good conference and we needed to figure out how to get back on top.

After we hired Gus I immediately started looking at conference realignment. We kept hearing things that suggested the conference landscape might change, even if we did not know when it might be. I talked to a couple of commissioners. I felt like our next biggest priority was to generate more revenue, but also we had to think about our national narrative so we would be attractive if there was another change.

I reached out to a lot of people to let them know we were open to the idea and we were ready. I talked to President Cartwright about the idea of constantly having this drip, drip, drip in the national media — making sure we were top of mind. And the president agreed it was a good strategy. He’s been an incredible partner for UCF Athletics. The trustees are crazy about our meteoric rise — they want to help us be nationally competitive and compete with the top teams in this state.

We hired an architect to do some conceptual drawings because we understood the role facilities could play in any potential realignment. We modified some of the renderings of the football campus, and at my first Board (of Trustees) meeting I was allowed to present . It was about telling people that we had a unique opportunity to build something that would be second to none. We were ready to take that next step. I told the president that once we released the renderings people would have a lot of ideas and questions, and we just had to stay the course.

After the announcement in July 2021 about Texas, Oklahoma and the SEC, you start looking at dominos. The Big 12 was very cautious about any interference through contacting schools. I knew about that from previous experience — so we reached out to them and when the time was right they reached back to us. The fact we made contact first was good. The day it happened with Texas and Oklahoma I reached out to a couple of commissioners. We didn’t wait. I didn’t want it to get cold, and it was hot at that time.

I was calling all the national media about our facilities plan and trying to get their take. I made a lot of calls and it made national news. I had my list of media people I knew and when I’d drive home I’d call this person and this person and this person. I had that call list for about three weeks. It gave us a real opportunity to talk about who we are. The announcement of having Gus on board had a big impact as well. He’d been in the SEC, played for a national championship as a head coach, won a national championship as a coordinator.

At the same time, you get into the mode of ‘What do we have to do to prepare?’ You pull your team together, a very intimate group of people. Then we went into action.

UCF had laid some groundwork five years earlier by preparing some materials for the prospect of moving to another conference, so we had a solid foundation to work with. Plus, UCF had accomplished a lot during those five years, so our brand had a lot to offer. A lot of it has to do with timing. At that time (five years ago) I don’t think the Big 12 was particularly interested in expansion. This time they had an interest in our market and had done a lot of research on our market. We became a national fit as they looked for some viewership to fill the void left by Texas and Oklahoma.

A week or so before Labor Day, the Big 12 reached out and wanted to have a conversation. Bob Bowlsby flew to Orlando and met at my house with me, Alex Cartwright and (Board of Trustees chair) Alex Martins. We had just moved in so there was stuff all over the place and painting going on, but we didn’t have much choice because we couldn’t really go out in the community for lunch. I had family in town because of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in Daytona. Both my brothers were here as well as maybe five of my nephews, who were current students at Big 12 institutions. I knew Bob was coming so I just told my wife, Julie, “You’ve got to find a way to shoo everybody out of the house on Sunday.” So no one knew they came.

That Sunday (Aug. 29) we spent two or three hours with Bob. We knew Bob wanted to meet, but we were not sure exactly what was going to happen. Was it fact-finding and he had questions for us to learn more about us? Were there some initiatives we needed to handle? We were invited to apply for membership that day — and we were very excited.

That was when we had a discussion about some of the logistics of the move. We talked about other schools coming in. We weren’t just a shoo-in — we had to make a valid pitch and obviously we did. They were looking at other schools and they had some priorities. You had travel partners some of the schools were concerned about, but it played very well.

What was the buy-in going to be (to join the Big 12)? Coming off COVID-19, we were just trying to pay our bills. But we had some buy-out money from our previous coach and athletic director. We had both buy-in and buy-out expenses. We had to look at The American by-laws to make sure we knew when payments were due. There were a lot of logistical things to work through. You’re doing it by yourself to start because you can’t really talk about this all over the office. For four or five days I knew this was going to happen, but I didn’t bring anybody in. We had another conversation with Bob Bowlsby about some contractual issues and worked those out. Then one by one we started bringing our own staff members in to let them know.

By the time we played Boise State (Sept. 2) I knew we were going to be in. By then there were a lot of rumors in the media. That may be why I was so emotional at that game considering we got down 21-0. When we got the late interception, I was just happy because I knew we were going to win and I knew we were going to announce it the next week before we played Bethune-Cookman (Sept. 11).

The day it all happened (Sept. 10) there were several governance steps you go through. Our board approving, their board approving, the letter you send to The American. I was more worried about logistics than being caught up in the moment. But once our board approved it, I was pumped up.

I was in the league when we went from the Big Eight to the Big 12 (announced February 1994). I was in the league when Texas A&M, Colorado, Nebraska and Missouri all left (2011 and 2012) and TCU and West Virginia (2012 and 2013) came in. So I remember some of the conversations involved with all that.

The Big 12 couldn’t have taken us in 2022 because it was too early. So we were shooting for July 1, 2023, all along — and we had to work out financials with The American. Creating relationships in a new league is huge — and so I can’t thank Bob Bowlsby and Brett Yormark enough for including us in the Big 12 meetings all along. We couldn’t vote (in the Big 12), but we had a voice and we had input. We could learn the room — that’s been the best part of the transition for me. Now we are back to being part of the governance and that’s important because this is such a volatile time in college athletics.

I think the current (Big 12) ADs believe we can compete at a high level coming in. I’ve had a lot of those conversations. They don’t have to say that, but I believe they’re sincere. I think they believe that this is a lot more than just keeping the league together—they’re excited about what all the new schools can bring.

It’s been a lot of work – but rewarding, challenging work. I don’t think people realize how complicated the transition is because of where the Big 12 is competitively.

The four parallel tracks I’ve talked about are real things. We are trying to increase our operating capital and keep our best personnel. Then there are facility and maintenance costs that are going up – and then the fourth thing is recruiting, which is . We’re not just competing with the Big 12, we’re competing with Florida, Florida State and Miami as well.

As we transition into the league it’s going to be fun. You’re going to see why those other schools have been successful — because they’ve been competing for 100 years. We’re going to play a school in men’s basketball (Kansas) that, in essence, invented basketball. We’re playing against schools that have had multiple Heisman Trophy winners and national coaches of the years — and they have unbelievable resources.

Some of the places we will go are great college towns with great fans. A lot of those schools’ facilities are second to none and we’ve got to catch up to that. Our four parallel tracks are connected with an ‘and.’ Not an ‘or’ — and we’ve got to jump from one track to the next because they all are equally important.

No matter how much money you have, talent acquisition is key and then you have to develop that talent. That’s how you win. That’s the message to our coaches — you have to be really diligent in evaluation and recruitment and development. If you do those things very well you can beat anybody.

We need to pay homage to all the people who got us to this place. There was a foundation already being built before we got here.

We have all kinds of really cool opportunities to be the first to do things in the Big 12. What can we do that hasn’t been done before?

We’re starting from scratch a little bit. It’s a new beginning.

This is the start of the rest of our athletics lives.

After enduring a 2-hour-and-41-minute lightning delay that pushed back kickoff to 9:46 p.m., the Knights rallied to a 36-31 win in their long awaited matchup against Boise State.

The game technically stretched over two days to complete, wrapping up at 1:26 a.m. Friday in front of a still lively crowd in the stands to witness the victory.

The Knights overcame a 21-0 first-half deficit — matching a program record — and scored 23 consecutive points to earn the victory.

“I think the whole college football world saw it,” Malzahn said after the game. “You go down by 21-0 at home against a really good team and to fight back, keep believing, making plays and answering the bell again — they just kept doing it and you could feel it on the sidelines. There wasn’t any panic. I’m really proud of our staff too. Our staff did a really good job. Overall, it was a really, really quality victory that will help us moving forward.”

Similar to 2020 UCF home football games, there will be limited capacity (50 percent) permitted at the Bounce House.

No tailgating will be allowed on campus. Social distancing and masks will be required within the confines of the Bounce House, except when fans are eating and drinking.

Tickets are available for purchase through the UCF Knights Ticketmaster website. Parking will be available for free on a first-come, first-served basis. Garage F and Baseball lots will open at 10 a.m. for Suites, Tower Club and Loge ticket holders. E6, E8 and Softball lots as well as Garage C and Garage D will be available at 10:30 a.m.

“Due to COVID, they initially had not planned for a 2021 spring football game,” says UCF vice president and athletics director Terry Mohajir. “However, the overwhelming enthusiasm created by the hire of Gus Malzahn as our new head coach has made it clear our fans very much want to get a look at our team this spring.

“We are not yet in a position where tailgating will be permitted, and it is most beneficial for our student-athletes that we hold the game early in the day.” — Terry Mohajir, vice president and director of athletics

“We are not yet in a position where tailgating will be permitted, and it is most beneficial for our student-athletes that we hold the game early in the day. I’m very aware of Knight Nation’s passion for night games to maximize the tailgating experience and look forward to experiencing that in full force in the fall.”

The spring game will be the first public look at Malzahn’s initial UCF squad that will open its 2021 season at the Bounce House on Labor Day weekend (Thursday, Friday or Saturday) against Boise State.

The Knights are slated to practice on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday sequence for four weeks leading up to the game. NCAA rules permit 15 spring practice sessions (no practice slated for April 9).

Meanwhile, ticket sales for the 2021 UCF season continue — with approximately 86% of available season tickets already sold. Fans interested in purchasing tickets are encouraged to call 407-823-1000 or email tickets@athletics.ucf.edu.

The Knights are hopeful the Bounce House can be filled to capacity by fall — with that to be confirmed this summer based on COVID details.

“We are moving forward with plans to sell out the Bounce House this fall. We will certainly abide by all medical guidelines, but we’re planning on 100% capacity,” adds Mohajir.

The 2021 UCF schedule features seven home games at the Bounce House: Labor Day weekend vs. Boise State; Sept. 11 vs. Bethune-Cookman; Oct. 9 vs. East Carolina; Oct. 22 (Friday) vs. Memphis; Nov. 6 vs. Tulane; Nov. 20 vs. Connecticut; and Nov. 26 (Friday) vs. South Florida.

KnightPass is a UCF-branded specialty toll sticker that works on all toll roads throughout Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. KnightPass offers exclusive toll discounts and is available for purchase online and at the UCF bookstore. KnightPass is a product of E-PASS, owned and operated by the Central Florida Expressway Authority. Learn more at .

Change can be as simple a new way to style you hair or can be as challenging as a new career.

UCF Athletics saw change in a big way recently when the school saw its athletic director make one of those big changes.

After five years in Orlando, Danny White took the same position at the ����ֱ�� of Tennessee. White oversaw an incredible run at UCF. The football team became a national brand with its 25-game win streak. His claim of a national championship after the 2017 season made the Knights a story all across college football.

During his time at UCF, White oversaw numerous projects to upgrade facilities, raised money at a record level and became the face of Knight Nation.

For whatever reason White left – an opportunity presented itself, maybe he wondered if he had done all he could in Orlando, perhaps the frustration of college athletics that kept his school out of a larger conference — he decided to go.

His departure made many wonder, myself included: What was next for UCF?

We would soon find out.

White needed to hire a new football coach for Tennessee and he turned to someone he had recently hired — at UCF. Josh Heupel was offered and accepted the UT job. And just like that, UCF needed a new athletic director and football coach.

It is unusual that a school needs to fill both positions at the same time, and even more rare that an athletic director leaves a school then immediately takes the football coach with him.

It is unusual that a school needs to fill both positions at the same time, and even more rare that an athletic director leaves a school then immediately takes the football coach with him.

Athletic directors and top assistants across the country inquired about the leadership position and it’s easy to see why. The interest was not just about the chance to live in a great city with warm weather year-round. It was about what UCF has become — not just a brand recognized in college athletics that wins on the field and in the classroom, but about a passionate fan base and a place that is not afraid to be cutting edge and create its own path and not just follow the action of others.

Terry Mohajir, who was hired as the new athletic director, came from Arkansas State, where he oversaw tremendous growth in revenue, ticket sales, championships on the field and success in the classroom. He also created opportunities for student-athletes after their playing days ended.

Mohajir’s excitement and energy for the job was felt immediately when he was introduced. Even before that press conference he was busy trying to find a football coach.

He met with players and listened to what they wanted in a coach. As a former player, he watched film and spoke to other coaches and industry leaders. He quickly learned just how desired the position was. Current head coaches, top assistants and former coaches from college and the NFL wanted the job.

In the end, Mohajir turned to someone he worked with at Arkansas State. Gus Malzahn was in Jonesboro as the football coach when Mohajir was hired there in 2012. That year the Red Wolves won a conference title and Malzahn left to accept a new job as Auburn’s head coach.

They will be reunited at UCF, where Malzahn believes UCF is getting the best version of the veteran coach. He brings experience, accountability and discipline and has an offense that should keep up the UCF tradition of playing fast.

Both hires have been nationally praised. The college football media saw the move as a perfect fit for both the coach and UCF.

The reaction says a lot about the UCF brand. It tells you how the school, athletic department and football team have grown through the years.

Change is not easy. But sometimes change brings fresh ideas. Change can inspire and energize not just those who are new, but also those who have been here to witness that growth.

A few weeks ago, UCF lost its athletics leader and football coach, and many wondered what was going on.

Today, Terry Mohajir’s enthusiasm and vision is ready to lead the new era of UCF Athletics and Gus Malzahn believes the football team is just getting started with more championships to win and a playoff berth to earn.

I was fortunate to speak with both after their initial press conference. Mohajir is the person you want to be around and absorb his energy. He appears as someone who knows where he wants to go and wants you to come along for the ride.

Like Malzahn, the timing of the move to UCF seems perfect in his career. UCF’s new football coach seemed like the guy getting back to his roots but at a place with unlimited potential. Malzahn loves coaching. He loves the competition and challenge. Leading the Knights seems like the moment he can get back to drawing up plays and outsmarting his opponents. I think he is ready to have fun and win big.

It’s a great time to be Knight. The future is bright. So Charge On!

Marc Daniels is the radio play-by-play voice for UCF Athletics and serves as director of broadcasting for the Knights. He can be reached at mdaniels@athletics.ucf.edu.

The UCF Forum is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on UCF Today and then broadcast on WUCF-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the ����ֱ��.

In eight years as head football coach at Auburn, Malzahn also led the Tigers to a Southeastern Conference Championship, two SEC West Division titles and six New Year’s Day bowl selections among those eight postseason appearances. Malzahn, 77-38 in nine seasons overall as a head coach, has helped teams to seven conference championship game appearances in his 15 seasons as a collegiate coach, including winning a pair of SEC Championships at Auburn (2010, 2013) and a Sun Belt Championship at Arkansas State in 2012.

In the final Associated Press rankings his Auburn teams finished second (2013), 10th (2017), 22nd (2014) and 24th (2016).

“When I started the search process, it became very evident very quickly that, based on the conversations I had with the players last week and what they told me were looking for, Gus Malzahn was the guy for the job,” says Mohajir. “He has won at every level, and he has coached a Heisman Trophy winner and NFL draft picks. There has never been a better time for Coach Malzahn to lead this program than right now.”

“I’m thrilled to be the head coach at UCF, and I’m truly looking forward to being part of Knight Nation,” says Malzahn. “It’s exciting to be head of a program where the future is extremely bright. I will be hitting the ground running in terms of getting to know our team and everyone else connected with UCF. Our goal is to be ready to win championships.”

“Our goal is to be ready to win championships.” — UCF football head coach Gus Malzahn

The 2013 Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden, Eddie Robinson, Home Depot, Sporting News, SB Nation, Liberty Mutual and Associated Press National Coach of the Year, Malzahn earned SEC Coach-of the-Year honors that season after guiding Auburn to the biggest turnaround in SEC history. He led the Tigers to a 12-2 record and one of the most memorable seasons in school history in 2013, with historic wins over Georgia and top-ranked Alabama and a record-setting SEC Championship Game win over fifth-ranked Missouri. He became just the third coach in SEC history to win an SEC title in his first year at a school, joining LSU’s Bernie Moore in 1935 and Ole Miss’ John Vaught in 1947.

The 34-28 victory over top-rated Alabama in 2013 came on a memorable 100-yard return of a Tide missed field goal on the final play of the game. Malzahn’s Tiger squads also defeated seventh-ranked Texas A&M in 2013, seventh-rated Ole Miss in 2014, second-ranked Georgia and top-rated Alabama in 2017 and fifth-ranked Alabama in 2019.

After his eight seasons at Auburn, Malzahn qualified as the second-longest tenured head coach at one school in the SEC. He is one of only 10 active FBS head coaches to take a team to a national championship game. During his time with the Tigers, Auburn was one of only three SEC schools to play in multiple SEC Championships games and play for a national championship.

Malzahn has produced 15 1,000-yard rushers in 15 seasons as a college coach, including Heisman Trophy finalist Tre Mason (1,816) and Nick Marshall (1,068) in 2013 and Cameron-Artis Payne (1,608) in 2014. Kamryn Pettway ran for 1,123 yards in 2016 (despite missing significant time with injuries) and Kerryon Johnson led the SEC with 1,320 yards in 2017. On three occasions, Malzahn has had two 1,000-yard rushers in the same season: 2013 and 2010 (both Auburn) and 2006 (Arkansas). Malzahn has also coached five 1,000-yard receivers and three 3,000- yard passers. His 2007 Tulsa team had three 1,000-yard receivers.

During Malzahn’s eight years at Auburn, the Tigers had the top rushing offense in the SEC, averaging 228.6 yards per game. In 2013, Auburn led the nation in rushing at 328.3 yards per game, the first SEC team to do so. Three of the top six team rushing totals in SEC history (2010, 2013, 2016) came under Malzahn’s leadership.

Auburn became just the second team in SEC history to gain more than 7,000 yards of total offense in a season in 2013, finishing the year with 7,018 yards (also Texas A&M in 2012). The Tigers set a school record with 48 rushing touchdowns in 2013 and set a school record against SEC opponents with 677 yards of total offense versus Missouri in the SEC Championship Game.

In Malzahn’s eight seasons 32 players were selected in the National Football League draft, including four first-round draft picks — including Derrick Brown (No. 7) and Noah Igbinoghene (No. 30) in the 2020 NFL Draft. Malzahn’s other first-round picks include Greg Robinson (No. 2 overall) and Dee Ford (No. 23) in the 2014 draft.

In the last two drafts, 12 Auburn players have been drafted, the most for the Tigers in a two-year span in the common draft era.

Malzahn coached 14 All-Americans as head coach at Auburn, including consensus selections center Reese Dismukes (2014) and defensive lineman Derrick Brown (2019). Brown won the Lott IMPACT Trophy in 2019, while Dismukes was named the 2014 Rimington Award winner as the nation’s top center.

The Tigers faced the nation’s most difficult schedule collectively during Malzahn’s eight years at Auburn, facing 38 ranked opponents, including 21 in the top 10. Auburn was the nation’s only program in 2016 to face both the No. 1- and No. 2-ranked programs and in 2017 it faced three of the four College Football Playoff semifinalists a total of four times, earning two wins.