Sportswriters are often at their worst when they demand the firings of coaches with an unbecoming hair-trigger immediacy, a reflexive reaction not supported by careful situational analysis or an appreciation of the fact that behind the coach, there is a person, often with a wife and kids.
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O’Leary previously stepped down as interim athletic director on October. 12.
There is no teen out there who likes to be told to “wait and see”.
That was enough to make the 69-year-old O’Leary, who seemed ready to stay on for a couple more years before the season started but who has been increasingly overwhelmed mentally as one loss piled on another, to reconsider his position and get out now.
Current UCF quarterbacks coach Danny Barrett, who is in his fifth year with the Knights, will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the 2015 season. “He’s the reason I have an offer from UCF right now”. “I didn’t want to go out as a lame duck coach”.
But aside from trying to get the Knights their first victory of the season, Barrett’s interim debut for UCF Saturday will come with the added melancholy of facing Cincinnati – his alma mater. The tremendous Fiesta Bowl win over Baylor gave the conference instant credibility in its inaugural year.
If you read the Orlando Sentinel’s full coverage of the Ereck Plancher story, especially the legal battles which flowed from the original incident, it is almost impossible to walk away with the idea that George O’Leary did his job the way it was supposed to be done… this, in the area of coaching which MUST BE fundamental to the job description: Care. For.
In a larger political sense, successful coaches become very powerful people. His kids always graduated. “I think it comes from too much parental babying….” The Yellow Jackets reached bowl games in O’Leary’s final five seasons.
“It’s just more of the same, only he has more of a voice over the team”, Thompson said. Throw in the off-the-field criteria expected by O’Leary, and not everyone could make the cut.
He was a tough recruiter. O’Leary has coached in Orlando since 2004. He built winning teams from unheralded recruits, putting players like Blake Bortles, Breshad Perriman, and Latavius Murray into the NFL.
O’Leary’s often candid comments to the media seemed sometimes refreshing, and at other times remarkably tone deaf, especially when cast in the light of the Plancher tragedy. After significant discussion with the UCF administration, I reconsidered and agreed to coach two additional seasons, 2014 and 2015.
From that aspect, a few coaches were taken aback by his ways, and there are probably bridges that could use a few mending with high-school programs across the area. Thanks for all you did and say hi to Steve Spurrier on the golf course for me.
The new coach will likely be in an immediate positive situation with recruiting in Central Florida. The talent base is wide, and there are players just looking for a few love.
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UCF has undergone one of the biggest free falls in recent college football history, and now the inevitable coaching change has happened.
