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Another coach announced.

Tim Harris Jr. has DEEP South Florida/Miami roots. Harris has exclusively coached high school and college in Miami for the last 12 years.

24/7 has Harris Jr. as having landed 25 commits during his tenure at FIU. 22 of the 25 are from Miami or the surrounding South Florida area.

That’s about as Florida focused as it gets.

Current 2021 UCF Coaching Staff + Salaries

Head Coach: Gus Malzahn - $2.3M

Co-OC/QB Coach: GJ Kinne - $300K
Co-OC/RB Coach: Tim Harris Jr. - $325K
WR Coach: TBD
OL Coach: Herb Hand - $300K

DC: Travis Williams - $600K
DL Coach: TBD
LB Coach: TBD
Co-DC/Secondary: David Gibbs - $425K

Special Teams Coordinator/TE Coach: Brian Blackmon - $275K

Still have four open assistant coaches to hire. WR coach will be one of the four. The final three spots could go a variety of different ways.

-UCF could hire a DL coach or split their DL coach into two roles - a defensive ends coach and defensive tackles coach.
-UCF could split their LB coach job into two roles - inside linebackers coach and outside linebackers coach.
-UCF could hire a cornerbacks coach who would work under Gibbs.

Is there anyone from UCF that coached for Malzahn available to fill one of those last spots? I always like to see at least one guy from here on the staff.

Was on vacation while all the news was happening. Wasn't initially "thrilled" with the hire, just because I liked the idea of continuing with another up and comer. But I will say his intro press conference got me pretty excited, especially if he really does intend to stick around and build something here. I love his emphasis on recruiting, as that's been trending negatively for a while now when it should be going the other way.

The more I hear about Heupel and how he was running things the more i'm seeing his departure as a real blessing. I was still in his corner and giving him the benefit of the doubt, but it certainly seems he had some real trouble running the program and meshing with the kids that were recruited by Frost, and it sounds like his relationship with the defensive side of the ball was pretty problematic. not sure if that's all on him or if there was some friction because Shannon was forced on him.

Either way, I'm excited by what Malzahn's staff picks so far and what he's said. It's hard to judge his resume at Auburn because he was in the toughest division in football and had to run up against the Saban machine every year. Either way, i'm hopeful if nothing else that recruiting picks up and that increase in talent will pull through.

Should be an exciting fall.

Another young guy in his early 30s. Has direct experience with Gus.

WR coach, DL coach, LB coach left with 800K left in the spending budget.

Seems like everyone has worked or played for him at some point.

UCF wrote:Seems like everyone has worked or played for him at some point.

Kinne, Hand, T. Williams, A. Williams and Blackmon all have direct ties to Gus.

Gibbs has direct ties to DC Travis Williams.

The only true outsider with no ties to Gus or anyone else on the staff thus far is Tim Harris Jr.

UCF wrote:Seems like everyone has worked or played for him at some point.

I go back and forth on this

1) If they're want to work with him again I guess that has to say something good about him as a boss

2) Does it expand the program/skill sets or does it result in the same old group think.

Shocker... he’s a 4* transfer from Auburn

https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/2019/mark-antony-richards-182117

Here’s an article on the transfer:
https://247sports.com/Article/Mark-Antony-Richards-transfer-UCF-Knights-Auburn-football-Gus-Malzahn-161378998/

2021 UCF Coach Salaries Highest to Lowest
DC Travis Williams $600K
Co-DC/S David Gibbs $450K
Co-OC/RB Tim Harris Jr. $325K
Co-OC/QB GJ Kinne $300K
OL Herb Hand $300K
STC/TE Brian Blackmon $275K
CB Addison Williams 250K
WR Darrell Wyatt $240K
Defensive Assistant Kenny Martin $175K

UCF has $385K left in their assistant coach budget. The 10th and final assistant is going to be the third highest paid assistant on the staff.

I would assume that since Martin’s contract says he is going to be “defensive assistant” and not “defensive line coach” that the plan is to hire a DL coach and let Martin specifically work with the defensive tackles.

In which case that would mean Travis Williams would double dip and coach linebackers in addition to being the defensive coordinator.

Interestingly enough, Darrell Wyatt was also fired by Josh Heupel before Josh ended up getting the Tennessee gig. There were a lot of rumors out there that Wyatt was a bad recruiter and didn’t get along with the rest of the staff, specifically Heupel and Golesh.

Hard to argue his ability as a WR coach though. Gabe Davis and Marlon Williams both improved a ton under him. When his tenure is all said and done, he’s probably going to end up putting 3-4 of his UCF WRs into the NFL.

That’s definitely a plot twist with Wyatt. The guy who got let go, is the only one to stay on. I imagine they will see how this year goes and replace him if it doesn’t work out.

I saw somewhere that MAR would be our highest rated recruit ever if we go by his rating out of HS (i think it was according to 247 ratings). Huge get if he lives up to that potential.

UCFJayBird wrote:I saw somewhere that MAR would be our highest rated recruit ever if we go by his rating out of HS (i think it was according to 247 ratings). Huge get if he lives up to that potential.

Really hope he lives up to his potential. We have had pretty good RB, but based off his HS projections he should be the top RB for us. Thinking of a great RB with DG has me super excited for next year!