ORLANDO, Fla. — UCF's football team has a new head coach.

Gus Malzahn, who coached Auburn University's football team from 2013 until 2020, will take over as head coach for the Knights.

Under Malzahn, the Auburn Tigers had a record of 68 wins and 35 losses. Auburn played, and lost, to UCF in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta in 2017, 34-27. Malzahn was fired from Auburn last year.

UCF is undergoing a transformation. The program lost its athletic director and head coach to Tennessee earlier this year. UCF then hired Terry Mohajir as athletic director.

Mohajir says he began the search last Sunday night, and asked the players what they wanted. The players said they wanted to get back to championship-caliber football with a fast offense, but also wanted a coach that would care about the players as humans.

Malzahn told reporters at the news conference Monday afternoon that he believed that if the right guy came to UCF and stayed to build the program, other teams would be in trouble, and he thinks he's the right guy.

Malzahn said Mohajir was also part of the reason he wanted the job, though he was interested in it before Mohajir was even hired. 

Malzahn said his coaching staff would make recruiting Florida players a priority, focusing on a six-hour regional recruiting circle.

"We're going to recruit Florida like no one else," Malzahn said.