Auburn football: Gus Malzahn’s UCF scores 70 points, improves to 5-1

The grass is much greener for former Auburn football head coach Gus Malzahn during his second season in Central Florida — with his Knights now sitting at 5-1 following a 70-13 destruction of Temple during the team’s sixth annual ‘Space Game’ on Thursday, October 13.

Once upon a time, Malzahn was 3-3 at UCF and Bryan Harsin was on his way to a 6-2 record during his first season as head coach of Auburn football. Almost a year later, the narrative has completely flipped with the Knights having won nine games, including a bowl game, and Harsin being rumored to be fired week in and week out halfway through his second season after finishing with a losing record in his first.

Malzahn’s Knights scored 70 points between two 35-point halves and shut out the Owls entirely in the final half-hour. With the win, Malzahn is now 2-0 in the program’s ‘Space Game’ while UCF moves to a perfect 6-0. Week 7 was the fourth game of the season in which the Knights surpassed 40 points, and the third time against an FBS opponent in 2022.

Per CFB Home, the Knights scored more Thursday night than Colorado and Colorado State have through the first six weeks of the season, if you needed another way to frame Malzahn’s offense’s dominance Thursday night.

Former Auburn football head coach Gus Malzahn cannot have any regrets

Juxtaposing the state of Auburn football and Gus Malzahn’s current situation is simply sad at this point. Making matters worse was Kobe Hudson going for 121 yards and two touchdowns following an offseason where he demonized Bryan Harsin to the point of claiming he’d still be on the Plains if the Boise native wasn’t.

Malzahn seemingly got out of Auburn at the right time considering the success UCF is experiencing and the downturn the Tigers are experiencing at the moment. There is less national media attention, but Harsin would probably welcome that at the very moment.