In 2021, we declared, without much controversy, UCF to be the best coaching job in the entire Group of 5. We couldn't make the same declaration in 2023, because the university has since graduated to the Power 5.
At a program that didn't have a full-time FBS home until 2005, the maturation process has happened rapidly. Another opportunity for growth-at-warp speed opened on Wednesday.
Associate AD for football/chief of staff SJ Tuohy is leaving the program to head the Knights' brand-new collective, dubbed The Kingdom. Tuohy had been with the program since Gus Malzahn's 2021 hiring, and the move very much happens with Malzahn's blessing.
"We both align with what puts our program in the best chance to sustain success and win — and this is that," Tuohy told the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday.
Tuohy's biggest task will be to capitalize on UCF's grand potential as the athletics department levels up to the Big 12.
UCF doesn't have a deep roster of uber-wealthy alums -- at least not in comparison to a major state university that has been playing what equates to Power 5 football for more than a century now, like neighbors Florida and Florida State or new conference rivals Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. But what UCF does have is a lot of alums.
UCF lists 360,000 living alumni -- roughly half in the Orlando/Central Florida area -- and the school classifies a third of that 360,000 as "young alumni." Current enrollment is approaching 70,000, so more are alums are being churned out by the tens of thousands each semester.
Given that reality, the opportunity to raise a large amount of money from a small amount of people won't be there like it might at other places. UCF won't have its own version of UF's Gator Guard. But what Tuohy can potentially do is raise a relatively small amount of money from a large amount of people.
UCF is also the only football team in the greater Orlando area, a metro of nearly 2.7 million people as of a 2021 estimate. UCF by no means an LSU, an Arkansas, or a Wisconsin -- the only Power 5 team within state borders -- but there is space there for Tuohy to carve out elbow room between the Gators and Seminoles within the city's business community.
That said, Tuohy's task is as tall as former Knights center Tacko Fall. It's on him to get The Kingdom up and running, essentially from scratch. He'll have to fund the payroll for each Knights team, whatever that number may be. That not only means funding a football team, while good, was not the best team in the American over the past three seasons and now must go toe-to-toe with TCU, Kansas State, Baylor and the rest. It also requires investing in a basketball program (19-15 in 2023) so it can compete in the most competitive conference in college basketball. Rinse and repeat for each sport on campus.
If Tuohy can succeed, though, UCF could find life in the Big 12 profitable for all involved; and it is hard to think of anyone better suited for this role than Tuohy.