University of Central Florida head coach Gus Malzahn shared his frustration about Cincinnati (8-0) not being in the top four of the first College Football Playoff rankings announced on Tuesday.
Malzahn told Yahoo Sports that the Bearcats have the capability to compete with the best teams in the country, specifically those within the Southeastern Conference.
“I’ve played UGA and Bama every year," Malzahn said. "I know exactly what it looks like. They’re right there. They’re a team that can win the whole thing."
While Malzahn is in his first year with UCF, his prior SEC coaching experience includes stints with the Razorbacks as the offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2006, the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Auburn from '09 to '11 and a second stint with the Tigers as head coach from '13 to '20.
In his last tenure at Auburn, Malzahn's Tigers suffered a 34-27 loss to the Knights in the 2018 Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in Atlanta. After UCF defeated Auburn—a Tigers' team that was the only one to give Georgia and Alabama a loss prior to the CFP national championship game in '18—the Knights finished as the only undefeated team in the FBS.
Central Florida, as a result of that win, declared itself as co-national champs with the Crimson Tide for the 2017 season. Cincinnati came in at No. 6 in the CFP's initial rankings, the highest-ranking in the CFP era for a non-Power 5 conference program.
The Bearcats can only hope history does not repeat itself in that another non-Power 5 conference team is left out of the top four as the college football season continues to unfold. Cincinnati'sremaining schedule include games against Tulsa, South Florida, SMU and East Carolina.
