George O'Leary to retire as Central Florida coach
Central Florida coach George O'Leary has announced his retirement, effective immediately.
The school confirmed multiple reports when it made an announcement on its website Sunday afternoon. The decision comes one day after a 59-10 loss to Houston, the worst home defeat in school history.
"In an effort to allow UCF to accelerate its search for my successor and clarify the facts regarding my future plans, I am retiring effective immediately," O'Leary said in a statement. "I appreciate the opportunity afforded me by John Hitt and Steve Orsini to come to UCF to build a program and the fine facilities we now have here. I am especially proud of our four conference championships and two additional championship appearances in the last 10 years along with seven bowl appearances and 31 wins in the three previous seasons.
"I again want to thank my coaches, players and loyal supporters for their efforts on this journey from the MAC to the AAC. Godspeed and go Knights."
O'Leary said in his statement he wanted to retire after the 2013 season but after discussions with school administration agreed to return for two more years.
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. Barrett previously worked as a head coach for the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2000-06. He played quarterback at Cincinnati, which will be the Knights' next opponent on the road Saturday.
O'Learly, 69, is 81-68 at Central Florida overall, but the Knights are 0-8 to begin 2015 and are ranked last in Football Bowl Subdivision in total offense.
Following the 2013 season, Central Florida was the trendy mid-major coming off a Fiesta Bowl victory against Baylor with seemingly endless momentum toward Boise State-level highs ad potentially a spot in one of the power conferences. And O'Leary is credited with putting the program on the national radar. He has had 16 former UCF players drafted, including Blake Bortles and Breshad Perriman in the first round.
Now, the program is a non-competitive mess and probably headed for a 0-12 season.
Overall, O’Leary has compiled a 133-101 record and 11 bowl appearances as a college football head coach.
UCF President John Hitt said in a statement that he expects the new head coach will come from outside of the UCF program.
“This season has been difficult, and I support George’s decision to retire now so our program can begin planning for the future,” Hitt said.
Calls for O’Leary to resign as coach ramped up last week after he told an Orlando radio station he would not authorize the school to release a current version of his coaching contract.
That came after the Associated Press and other media outlets requested its release as rumors swirled that there might be a coach-in-waiting clause to name longtime assistant Brent Key as O’Leary’s successor.
Though O’Leary was an employee of UCF’s private athletic department, the school had previously released his and other coach’s contracts. The school officials said last week that because of a legal ruling, it would need authorization from its coaches before releasing current versions. That request was supposed to take place following Saturday’s game.
Coming off back-to-back American Athletic Conference titles, the Knights the started the season with a narrow loss to Florida International. Things got worse the following week when starting quarterback Justin Holman left the game early with a broken finger during a lopsided loss at Stanford.
More injuries mounted, then following a one-point loss to FCS-member Furman in Week 3, O’Leary announced that the dismissal of all-conference running back Will Stanback for an undisclosed violation of team rules.
It forced the Knights to play more young players, and the margins of defeat began to grow in subsequent losses to South Carolina (31-14), Tulane (45-31), Connecticut (40-13) and Temple (30-14).
Despite this year’s struggles, O’Leary did take the Knights program to new heights during his tenure.
Calling UCF “a sleeping giant” when he was hired in 2004, he succeeded in helping the school achieve national recognition both on and off the field.
Aside from the bowl appearances, he was the driving force in helping UCF secure private funding to build an on-campus stadium that opened in 2007. The football team has also been cited for its academic success and perennially high graduation rate.
But for all his on-field success, O’Leary also endured his share of high-profile controversies during his UCF tenure.
In 2012 UCF was fined, placed on five years’ probation, and given recruiting limitations stemming from a 2011 NCAA investigation that found the football and basketball programs were involved with runners for sports agents and making cash payments to recruits.
O’Leary wasn’t one of several coaches individually reprimanded for the incident, though it did lead to the resignations of then-athletic director Keith Tribble and assistant football coach David Kelly.
That incident came after freshman football player Ereck Plancher collapsed and died after a preseason conditioning drill in 2008.
Several players testified on behalf of Plancher’s parents during a wrongful death lawsuit against UCF Athletic Association in 2011. The players said in the civil trial that the team was doing intense mat drills, and that the coaching staff berated Plancher minutes before he died.
A jury later awarded Plancher’s family a $10 million judgment after finding UCFAA was negligent and failed to do everything possible to save his life.
O’Leary’s actions are also at the heart of a lawsuit UCFAA is currently facing that was brought by former UCF football assistant coach Paul Ferraro. 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.
O’Leary has denied any wrongdoing.
Contributing: The Associated Press