Gus Malzahn pulled one of the more surprising moves of the 2024-25 coaching carousel when he left his post as UCF’s coach one day after a season-ending loss to Utah to become the offensive coordinator at Florida State. With such a quick turnaround, one UCF player accused Malzahn of leaving without taking the normal steps associated with a coach’s departure.
Defensive back Jaylen Heyward claimed during an appearance on the “Charge On Podcast” that Malzahn did not hold an official meeting with the team before moving to Florida State.
“If I’m being real, we had a meeting — it wasn’t even like we had a meeting,” Heyward said. “It was just like, next week came and he was gone. He didn’t even have no meeting telling us he was going to leave or anything. He just got up and left. It kind of shows you where his mindset and head was at when he left. He showed that he really didn’t care for us how he said he was to the media.”
Malzahn spent four seasons at UCF, with the first two years of his tenure being the most successful. The Knights won 18 games from 2021-22 and made an appearance in the 2022 AAC Championship game.
However, a transition to the Big 12 in 2023 set Malzahn’s tenure back. UCF dropped to 6-7 in its first season as a Power Four program and then finished the 2024 campaign with a 4-8 record — its worst since 2015 — after a 3-0 start.
UCF replaced Malzahn with a familiar face in Scott Frost. Frost led the Knights to their first undefeated season in 2017, capped by a win against a Malzahn-coached Auburn team in the Peach Bowl.
“What I learned within the last year as well was, it is a business at the end of the day with NIL and everything,” Heyward said. “Coaches are going to up and leave. You want to find coaches that have your best interest at the end of the day. I’m glad that we got a new coaching staff that has our best interests for us.”