Gus Malzahn Signing Day Press Conference Quotes
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Looking back at Gus Malzahn’s 2023 National Signing Day press conference, the UCF head coach had some interesting comments that are fun to discuss.
Let’s get started with the opening segment of the press conference, where Malzahn brought up the obstacles late in the recruiting process.
“We lost our two coordinators in the middle of last week, which is extremely tough to do and still have this kind of class.”
Malzahn could not be more spot on. Losing a coordinator, by itself, can be catastrophic. However, Malzahn has shown his experience once again.
He hired a coach from within, and was poised to do so, with the promotion of Addison Williams to defensive coordinator. It happened quickly and decisively. That helped with defensive recruiting down the stretch.
The offensive coordinator spot could take a little while, but there’s less concern about it since Malzahn calls his own plays.
“We had five State of Orlando signees. That was really a big focal point of keeping our top players home. I mean this is one of the best areas in America to recruit football players. Just trying to make it popular for our top guys to stay home, and this class definitely did that. I’m definitely excited about that.”
Before delving into the Sunshine State signees, Malzahn made a great point about Orlando first. It’s a loaded city. There’s talent on all sides of the city, as well as across the city. The Knights needed to start keeping more players home that were impact players.
That happened with John Walker and Kaven Call, among others. Can the Knights make that a trend and also continue to grow it? That’s going to be something to follow through the 2024 cycle.
Next, how UCF did across the state of Florida. Malzahn was happy about that, too.
“10 players from the state of Florida. That’s what we talked about when we first got here. We’re going to recruit this state. That’s what we’ve done, so I'm really excited about that.”
This one is about as point blank as it gets. If the Knights can sign up to seven or eight top players from the greater Central Florida area, and then still add about five players from the rest of the state, UCF can become a national program and in a hurry.
The difference between an additional two or three players leaving or sticking with the UCF program is enormous. Any one of those players could be the next elite quarterback or receiver or safety.
Who knows?
UCF local recruiting efforts have improved tremendously. Now UCF has to take that next step and win even more recruiting battles for in-state players, and of course that begins in and around Orlando.
Finally, a quote from Malzahn about the importance of Walker signing with the Knights.
“You know, John’s a program changer I think…He has a chance to be a program-changing type player, in the fact that a guy like that, stayed home. And it’s going to be a lot easier for the top players in the future to stay home.”
An old saying in recruiting needs to be mentioned in conjunction with Malzahn’s comments about Walker. “Great players want to play with other great players.”
That’s essentially what this turns out to be. Walker could be the one that gets other top-notch players to stay in-state and be a UCF Knight.
Make no mistake, when a top 2024 or 2025 prospect comes to UCF for a visit, Walker is going to be a player on the UCF roster that Malzahn and his staff introduces that same recruit to.
Why did you pick UCF? That’s probably going to be the question from the recruit, and Walker can tell his story firsthand.
Here’s the full Malzahn press conference, and it’s full of good information:
'23 National Signing Day Press Conference 🎙️ https://t.co/LNMPAx4muY
— UCF Football (@UCF_Football) December 21, 2022
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