Miami fired coach Al Golden on Sunday, hours after UCF’s George O’Leary announced his retirement.
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Expected to at least go to a bowl game for the fourth straight year, UCF instead has started 0-8, with losses to FIU, Stanford, Furman, South Carolina, Tulane, Connecticut, Temple and Houston.
Quarterbacks coach Danny Barrett will serve as UCF’s interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
Although a few fans have been pushing for the removal of O’Leary from the helm of UCF football this season, he is credited for putting the program on the national radar.
George O’Leary celebrates Fiesta Bowl victory in 2013.
O’Leary, 69, finished with a solid 81-68 record despite the eight defeats this year and the time it took to transform the Knights program. He has had 16 former UCF players drafted, including Blake Bortles and Breshad Perriman in the first round. “I am sure this will benefit them next season”, O’Leary said in a released statement.
O’Leary was the longest tenured coach in the American Athletic Conference, and the eighth-longest among FBS coaches at their current schools. Numerous players are young but gaining valuable playing experience due to injuries and graduation.
However, despite the on-field success, O’Leary’s time at UCF will also be remembered for a tragedy. When the search is complete, the new AD will help lead the search for a new head football coach.
He was a standout quarterback at the University of Cincinnati, which will be the Knights’ next opponent as they travel to Ohio to face the Bearcats Saturday at noon.
It’s O’Leary’s second resignation of 2015.
Born in 1946 in Central Islip, N.Y., O’Leary joined UCF for the 2004 season.
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It was also the eighth consecutive year the football program improved its GSR. UCF was sued as part of a wrongful death suit after wide receiver Ereck Planchar, who had a sickle-cell trait, died after collapsing during conditioning drills in 2008. Whether I was at Bright House Network Stadium screaming my head off, freezing my butt off twice in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl, or watching the game while crammed inside a friend’s house as we huddled around the TV, I have pretty much gotten to see all of the best moments that George O’Leary helped make happen, and wow, there is much to be thankful for… He is suing UCF’s athletic department for breach of contract, alleging that O’Leary engaged in continuous criticism of his work and created a work environment that included bullying, threatening behavior and repeated discriminatory epithets.
