Gus Malzahn's piecing together quite the staff at the University of Central Florida.
He's poised to add another former Auburn colleague with deep ties throughout the state of Alabama as well.
Sources tell FootballScoop that Malzahn is hiring Ross Newton away from The Plains to be the assistant to the head coach.
It's a key role in Malzahn's organizational structure; among previous staffers in that spot for Malzahn is Chip Lindsey, the current head coach at Troy University.
Newton had served as Auburn's director of high school relations since Malzahn had hired him into the Tigers' program in 2020.
Prior to his arrival at Auburn a year ago, Newton had worked 14 consecutive years on staff at Samford, his alma mater.
Among his on-field duties in the Bulldogs' program, a perennial Southern Conference and Football Championship Subdivision playoffs contender, were coaching both the defensive line and linebackers during various stints.
Additionally, Newton also served as Samford's director of recruiting, organized and operated the Bulldogs' football camps and also served as the school's NFL/pro liaison.
Hired barely two weeks ago to replace Josh Heupel at UCF after Heupel followed athletics director Danny White to the University of Tennessee, Malzahn has in short order almost completely filled out his entire UCF staff in both on- and off-the-field roles.