Gus Malzahn turns down USC job despite no one asking him

No one has mentioned Gus Malzahn as a candidate for USC, but he felt the need to say he’s not interested in the job anyway.

After his tenure at Auburn finally came to an end, Gus Malzahn landed at UCF and the Knights are 2-0 on the young season. He might be a candidate to make the jump back to a Power 5 job after one season, with an opening at USC after this week’s firing of Clay Helton and possibly at Florida State if Mike Norvell can’t get it turned around this season.

Malzahn is nowhere on any list of rumored candidates for USC. That could change as time goes on by the time the season ends, but it seems unlikely. However, that didn’t stop Malzahn from getting in front of the situation.

Appearing on Mike Bianchi’s radio show “Open Mike” Thursday, here’s what Malzahn had to say.

Gus Malzahn issued a preemptive denial of interest in USC job

“I’m not interested in the USC job, I’m blessed to be at UCF,” he said. “We got big things ahead in the future.”

Mario Cristobal, Urban Meyer, Luke Fickell and James Franklin have all issued some sort of denial/dismissal of rumors as they’ve been tied to the USC job this week. Franklin and USC may even have mutual interest in each other. But all four were reactions to reports and rumors that mentioned them as a candidate to replace Helton.

Malzahn decided he needed to get ahead of speculation he’d go to USC, which doesn’t exist. He has no prior connection to USC athletic director Mike Bohn. He’s way down the list (if he’s on the list at all) in a professsed national search for the Trojans’ next coach. There’s leaving no stones unturned, then there’s reaching. Malzahn would surely be seen by the USC fanbase as a far too close a facsimile to Helton.

Despite failing to meet expectations after reaching the national title game in his first season, Malzahn had a solid 68-35 record over eight seasons at Auburn. So it’s not that he’s unqualified for a job like USC, on a surface level. He’s just not a candidate for the job, even if the Trojans miss on too many candidates to count.