Listen Now! UCF football ready for second year in Big 12, welcomes four new member schools

UCF head coach Gus Malzahn has deep ties with Auburn Universty.

Malzahn was the Tigers’ offensive coordinator from 2009-11, then head coach at Auburn from 2013-20.

Heading into the 2024 season, his fourth as UCF head coach, you can still see his connection to Auburn is still fomenting.

On the offensive side of the ball, two of UCF’s biggest pass-catching weapons this upcoming year are Auburn transfers in Kobe Hudson and Ja-Varrius Johnson.

On the defensive side, one of the anchors is Lee Hunter, another Auburn transfer. He's heading into his third year with the Knights.

While Malzahn has been working the transfer portal, especially with his former team, the Knights were still picked to finish eighth in the 16-team Big 12 in the conference's preseason media poll.

The Big 12 welcomes in four new members — all former Pac-12 teams — in Utah, Arizona, Colorado and Arizona State.

Utah was picked to finish first in its inaugural season.

In UCF’s first year in the Big 12 in 2023, they finished 6-7, including 3-5 in the conference.

UCF lost its first five Big 12 games, but managed to win its final three.

This year, the Knights will have a new quarterback at the helm in Arkansas transfer KJ Jefferson.

Will they outdo expectations and finish better than eighth? Can they win the Big 12?

To bring us up to speed on UCF as the football season nears, I welcome back Chris Boyle of the Daytona Beach News-Journal to “The *State of Florida Sports Podcast,” powered by the USA Today Network.

Chris will talk about the new teams entering the league, and how UCF will be playing all four. They close the season against Utah.

He also discusses the offense and defense, both sporting new faces thanks to the transfer portal.

He’ll tell us how Colorado’s “Coach Prime” Deion Sanders had praise recently for Malzahn. He’ll tell us what Deion said.

And he’ll talk about UCF’s growing recruiting Class of 2025.

If you can’t wait for the college football season to get here, then check us out to get prepared.

Find out why so many fans have checked us out and why our guests and journalists give you the best sports breakdowns in the state.

And hear why feedspot.com ranked us the No. 1 sports podcast in the state of Florida.

We can be downloaded wherever you listen to podcasts, or simply type in “The *State* of Florida Sports Podcast” into your favorite search engine. We also can be found on any of the 17 USA TODAY-Network Florida websites.

If you like it, you can check out previous shows, which feature current and former professional athletes and coaches, as well as our stable of journalists who cover beats and write columns, all of whom have a tie to the Sunshine State.

Walters can be reached at twalters@gannett.com