Follow the trail up the Country Roads
There’s a beautiful place with looming mountains, dense forests, and pristine natural scenery tucked around proud small towns. Some have said it’s “Almost Heaven.” I’m talking about West Virginia, one of the most unique states in our great Union. It has an iconic topography and is home to a team that is one of the strongest fixtures in American collegiate sports. West Virginia University (WVU) is the state flagship and the team to root for, as the entire state has no professional sports franchises. The Mountaineers of WVU take their nickname from their state slogan of “The Mountain State,” as it is the only state entirely within the Appalachian Mountain region. Its average elevation is higher than any other state east of the Mississippi River.
What a perfect backdrop this weekend for two men who have stewarded our leading men’s sports teams and elevated them into the Big 12. This Friday afternoon, Johnny Dawkins and his formidable motley crew of solid talent and “second chance” men tip-off against the Wisconsin Badgers in the Greenbrier Tip-Off in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Some four hours due north in Morgantown, Gus Malzahn will be laying his head down to sleep Friday evening in hopes of keeping some semblance of a respectable season intact as his 4-6 grouping of blue-chip talent and Portal prospects get ready to take on West Virginia Saturday. One team is riding an undefeated win streak for the year into a marquee out-of-conference matchup against the #19 ranked team in the nation, while the other is hoping to return the favor of an absolute drudging by the same conference opponent the year before on Homecoming and fighting to make a bowl.
Who would have thought these first eighteen months in the Big 12 would have gone this way? Our athletic department’s two highest revenue-generation sports go in entirely different directions. The golden ticket and resource-fueled Wayne Densch Center is always humming with potential and excitement for fall ball. At least, it used to. Men’s basketball has been under-resourced and under-amplified through social content for decades. It was only until last year that the administration decided to give love to the hardwood (pause). A little paint, some lighting, and amenities go a long way. There still, however, needs to be a baseline of substance, work, and results.
You can argue that Johnny Dawkins is the best coach on campus right now. I have had my heaping helping of crow as a Dawkins Denier. The affectionally nicknamed (by me) “Resource Ricos” like Eric Lopez from the Black and Gold Banneret were based on their takes. The bus has always been driven by football at this university. I would have never dreamed of the environment Hoops is delivering in our new conference, though. The fun I’ve had watching conference member games outside of UCF. The memories I’ve made in only one season of Big 12 play. The wins. Excitement I used to feel for football.
It’s a changing world. Every major college athletics program in the country navigates new realities in this current paradigm. Conference realignment fallout. House settlement in 2025 looks to bring revenue-sharing responsibilities in-house. Still, NIL will be a significant factor. I remember that first call to donate from Johnny Dawkins, seated behind his modest desk, with the framed series of NBA jerseys reminding you of his decade-long career in the league, shimmering sterile fluorescent office lighting as he begrudgingly asked for donors and fans to fuel the coffers that would be used to pay athletes. The promise of an education and the ability to play D-I basketball was no longer enough. I hated it. I callously remarked that it looked like a hostage video tape, and it was time to cut bait with the current staff. Behind closed doors, I think many coaches will tell you they greatly disdain this new lens in which they must operate. It’s not that they don’t want athletes to earn, but the lack of guardrails, fundraising expectations, and asks is the Wild West right now in college sports.
Almost two years later, you see a refreshed and reformed man navigating the waters of his new reality, fundraising, effectively evaluating talent, and succeeding. Dawkins is operating in the SEC of basketball as it pertains to the Big 12. He has pivoted to taking a crop of lower-tiered conference talent that has risen, getting creative with elite high school talent, and taking advantage of all his familial and professional relationships. There is a mix of kids on our roster with past legal troubles, boneheaded decisions at their former spot, or maybe overlooked at other major programs. But what Dawkins has done in this year and a half is remarkable. Beat a Top 3 blueblood at home with two other ranked wins, won seven conference games, and got to the postseason. This year, he has a mostly entirely new roster rolling steadily into the season after a successful baptism by fire and beating a tournament #13 Texas A&M team. He is now looking to start 5-0 for the first time in his tenure in Orlando. He is truly doing more with less, and he is doing it with class. He is building his power program and adapting. Went out and got Adam Hood, a de facto offensive coordinator who joined UCF after eight seasons at UTSA, where the Roadrunners were ranked Top 40 in pace of play his entire career there. His mark is evident this year with an entertaining brand of offense, faster play, and slashing elite guards. Dawkins may not have the showman in him like Malzahn, with bold slogans or slick content hype behind him, but he has provided substance at this level. Hell, he has just as many wins as Gus has this season. Dawkins got out of his own way.
My alma mater’s sports passion has been split.
Somewhat fragmented by the leader of my first UCF sports passion: football.
It’s true what they say: “Expectations kill happiness.”
That would be my theme for this 2024 sophomore football campaign in the Big 12. The word sophomore is derived from the Greek words Sophos, meaning “clever,” and Moros, meaning “foolish.” Straight up means “wise fool.” That’s precisely what we all were this season. We all believed the preseason hype emanating from Sin City. KJ Jefferson looked every bit of green in that first game. We wanted to believe it was just a rust knock-off game. We were convinced after the TCU game that the road woes were hushed. Good teams overcome adversity. We were convinced Ted Roof needed another change of scenery and to connect with an old buddy, even though every media pundit in the country wondered, “Why?” Well, they’re improving every week, aren’t they? We were excited to see a new start against Cincinnati with true freshman EJ Colson under center. Only to be pulled after one series for Jacurri Brown. Echoes of another mismanaged QB room. Redshirt defectors and allegations of ineffective upper management communications. Amidst all that, the losses piled into another mirror streak of being on the wrong side for five games.
We weathered an embarrassing defeat at home by the nation’s heel team, now turned darling. Then there was a drowning in The Swamp, followed by miscues in conference play for three straight games that were only finally remedied by a cathartic celestial output in our annual Space Game. Thank God, it’s the only streak Gus hasn’t killed. When we thought we turned a corner, his protégé bested him in the desert, even without his star scatback. Sloppy special teams play was that game’s malady. Buried fourth within the depth chart is a beacon ‘10 ‘with moxie likened to those that wore the number before him. It only took us two-thirds of the season to realize we had a starting quarterback capable of throwing a successful pass over and over again. It’s The Mikey Keene Experiment 2.0. Every triumph for Dylan Rizk is a seeming indictment on Gus’s QB talent evaluation ability or lack thereof. We constantly found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Maybe this new collegiate sports landscape is “No Country for Old Men,” unless you are an old man who wants to adapt and reinvent your approach and stay close to the game for what really matters: development, relationships, and winning. Gus has been given EVERYTHING. The Kingdom NIL support has been bolstered, big-time boosters have bought into the vision, and we all did, too: “The Future of College Football Lives Here.” We rallied, but the results have not been acceptable.
I really think this year was meant to be a launch pad year for Gus. Chips all in, go out and win eight or nine games, make an appearance in Arlington, and dip back to the SEC rehabilitated and tanned. The notion of a post-dawn foursome at Whitewater Creek Country Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas, probably whispered to him like the Green Goblin mask did to Willem Dafoe in Spider-Man (2002). It’s blown up in his face, and now we head to rural West Virginia on a slick, cold, wet Saturday afternoon against an opponent that has underwhelmed this season as well on ESPNU, both fighting to make a background noise bowl game. Yes, that ESPNU, where we would be thrilled to watch UCF v Southern Miss at 6:00 PM on a Thursday in C-USA decades ago. Does Gus still have that fire in him? Does he still even enjoy this gig? Losing sucks, but the process, whether you win or lose, has to produce some semblance of joy. He looks worn in his pressers, and the packaged coach’s speech might as well be AI-derived. I like Gus, the man. He is a great man. But is he the man up for the task at hand, in need of elevating this football brand to another level? I don’t think so, and that makes me frustrated.
Our leading men’s sports trajectories are trending in two opposite directions. What was once a Top 25 football recruiting class in the summer now is an anemic AAC-level 60th-ranked class two weeks before Early Signing Day. Dawkins is getting five-star talent to put our hat on the table, still making do with people he has in-house, getting the best out of “second chance” men, and translating that into wins with a fraction of the support. If Gus is not winning the on-paper battle and not closing on Saturdays, what exactly is this exercise in futility we’re all doing?
For as much infatuation that Gus has had in chasing the ghost of Cam Newton his entire career, maybe Terry Mohajir should reacquaint himself with Isaac Newton’s first law:
An object will not change its motion unless a force acts on it.
2031 will be here faster than you think. New media rights channels are evolving, building brand equity and positive visibility, and winning will be paramount in the remaining decade for a budding program like UCF. We are at a real country crossroads regarding the identity we want moving forward. One man has eroded our football brand to an unrecognizable place. Another man has elevated our basketball brand to an unrecognizable place, but for the better.
Take me home.
I’m on my way to Morgantown for the WVU football game, my 3rd away game this year. But nagging in the back on my mind is I wish I was heading to The Greenbriar instead. Basketball was THE GAME when I attended FTU. The excitement in the arena now for basketball since joining the Big 12 is fantastic. I know, football drives all athletics at a major university and our program will recover. What Coach Dawkins has been able to accomplish for our basketball program is truly inspiring. Let’s pack the arena this year, for every game. Go Knights Charge On!