ORLANDO, Fla. — Make no mistake about it, UCF football coach Gus Malzahn is now in charge of the school’s name, image and likeness collective.
Actually, it’s Malzahn’s self-described “right-hand man” SJ Tuohy, who last week announced he is leaving as Malzahn’s director of football operations and chief of staff to become the executive director of The Kingdom NIL — a fundraising collective geared toward supporting UCF athletes through NIL.
That means Tuohy is technically in charge of collecting the NIL money, but you better believe Malzahn is in charge of doling it out.
As it should be.
It’s the head coach who is ultimately responsible for recruiting the players and managing the roster so why wouldn’t the head coach be in charge of deciding how much of NIL money everybody on the roster should get?
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We briefly interrupt this column for the requisite explanation that “NIL” is now just code terminology for “pay for play.” The original concept of NIL was that college athletes could market themselves and make money on endorsement deals, public appearances, etc. It quickly and predictably turned into boosters and fans pooling their money to induce recruits and transfers and retain current players. … We now return to our regularly scheduled column.
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As I was saying, nobody knows better than the coaches how much each player is worth in a pay-for-play world. That’s why Malzahn has put Tuohy, his most trusted football staffer, in control of the Kingdom collective.
If University of Florida coach Billy Napier had had such a structure in place, his program would have avoided the national embarrassment of a high-rolling booster in the Gator Collective offering and then reneging on an absurd 4-year, $13 million deal for 4-star California quarterback Jaden Rashada.
When I asked Malzahn if having a loyal, organized former assistant such as Tuohy in charge of UCF’s collective will help avoid Rashada-type blunders, the head coach replied: “SJ knows our players, he knows our administration inside and out and I have a great comfort zone with him. That continuity will do nothing but help [avoid] those types of situations.”
Perhaps it was just coincidence, but state lawmakers amended Florida’s NIL law last month right after the Rashada situation blew up at UF. The amended law allows college programs and coaches to help facilitate NIL deals for players. A month after the amended law passed, Tuohy left UCF’s football program and was put in charge of UCF’s NIL collective.
That, in itself, should tell you how much Malzahn is focused on raising money to recruit and retain players. What’s it say when Malzahn believes Tuohy is much more valuable coordinating the NIL program than in coordinating football operations? Malzahn himself has even given up play-calling duties in part because he says he needs to focus on raising money for NIL and managing the roster.
Any coach will tell you that managing a roster is much more complicated today than it was two years ago. This is where Malzahn will no doubt work in unison with Tuohy to come up with a budget and spreadsheets so they can figure out how to split up the money in the NIL kitty equitably among the deserving players.
It’s no secret that when you combine the transfer portal with NIL, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to maintain any semblance of continuity on a year-to-year basis. Case in point: Former UCF star center Matt Lee, who grew up a UCF fan in nearby Oviedo but recently transferred to Miami, which is well-known for handing out lucrative NIL deals.
“NIL is really the most important thing within a program right now,” Malzahn admits. “For us to be able to compete for championships in our new conference [the Big 12], it’s going to be about raising money for NIL so we can keep our current players here and be competitive in recruiting.
“This last recruiting cycle, we had a great class, but there’s a handful of guys that would have helped us even more and wanted to come here, but we just couldn’t compete in NIL,” he added. “I really think we’re going to win the whole thing [national championship] here … but we have to be able to navigate and compete in the NIL world.”
You know what that means, UCF fans and boosters?
You can have the keys to the Kingdom, but you’re going to have to pay for them.
