Judging by UCF’s National Signing Day recruiting haul on Wednesday, this isn’t going to take as long as originally planned.
The five-year plan is now down to a three-year plan. Maybe two. If you ask me, that’s how long it will take until the UCF Knights are a consistent Big 12 championship contender.
UCF coach Gus Malzahn and his staff hauled in what is almost unanimously being hailed as the best high school recruiting class in history on Wednesday. The Knights’ class is ranked anywhere from No. 27 (ESPN) to No. 33 (On3), but we’re not going to quibble over whether they should be ranked 27th, 30th (Rivals), 32nd (247Sports) or 33rd. Being ranked in the 20s or 30s might not be impressive by Alabama or Georgia standards — or even by Florida State, Florida or Miami standards — but it’s ultra-impressive by UCF standards. And, more importantly, by Big 12 standards.
After only one season in the Big 12, the Knights are already near the top of the league’s recruiting rankings. According to many recruiting services, UCF is ranked second in the Big 12, only behind Texas Tech. Not bad for an expansion team that went 3-6 in the league this season.
“The Big 12 has been a game-changer for us,” Malzahn says. “… It obviously had a lot to do with us having the highest-rated class in school history. These [recruits] can see the future. That’s why they chose to come to UCF.”
Before we go any further, let us acknowledge that recruiting rankings are subjective and often wildly inaccurate (see Texas A&M’s No. 1-ranked 2022 class), but it’s not just coincidence that consistent national powers such as Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State perennially haul in top-5 recruiting classes.
UCF is obviously not at that point yet, but they are already proving their critics wrong. I hate to say, “I told you so,” to ESPN’s Paul Finebaum and some of the other UCF haters over the years, but … I told you so!!!
Finebaum and others would often ridicule me when I would write columns lobbying for UCF to be invited into a Power 5 league like the SEC, ACC or Big 12. Their criticism always focused on the assertion that the Knights could never survive the season-long rigors of a Power 5 conference, but I always thought this claim was ill-conceived.
My contention has always been that if UCF were playing a Power 5 schedule, it would mean UCF would actually be in a Power 5 league. And if you were to place the Knights in a Power 5 league and give them the elevated stature, the increased exposure, the access to better recruits, the $40-million-a-year TV check and the chance to compete for a national championship then, yes, UCF — within five years — would be more successful than half the teams already in Power 5 leagues.
In hindsight, I was a little too pessimistic. I don’t think it’s going to take five years; I think it’s only going to take two or three years for UCF to surge to the top of the Big 12. Although the Knights won just three conference games this season, they competed week in, week out. They should’ve beaten Baylor; they could’ve beaten Oklahoma; they dismantled Big 12 Championship Game participant Oklahoma State 45-3.
And the Knights haven’t even cashed a single Big 12 TV check yet. Just wait until they get that influx of TV money and the resulting resources that come with it.
“UCF will be the best thing that ever happened to the Big 12,” former UCF and current Tennessee athletic director Danny White told me recently. “It’s only a matter of time before UCF is competing at the very top of that conference.”
UCF has one monumental built-in advantage over many of its opponents in the Big 12 — location, location, location. Not to be mean, but if you were a big-time college football recruit, would you rather spend four years in sun-filled, fun-filled Orlando or would you rather spend four years in Lubbock, Texas; Stillwater, Oklahoma; Ames, Iowa; or Manhattan, Kansas?
It’s also a huge advantage that UCF is the only Big 12 school located in the state of Florida’s recruiting hotbed. Certainly, Florida State, Florida and Miami get their fair share of the state’s bigtime recruits — as do the national powers that come in and cherry-pick four- and five-star prospects — but there are still plenty left over for UCF to fill its roster with talented in-state players who want to play Power 5 football close to home.
Even former USF coach Jim Leavitt, once UCF’s biggest antagonist, told me recently that the Knights have achieved the status he always wanted to attain when he was at USF.
“It was my vision and my dream back then to accomplish what Central Florida has accomplished today — to be part of a Big Four in the state of Florida,” Leavitt said.
Beware, Big 12.
It’s only a matter of time before the UCF Knights are dominating the league.
Email me at [email protected]. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen
