A Graceful Exit

[HammerB08]

Too often people miss their chance to end something well. O'leary had a good chance to exit gracefully. The reports came out that he would announce his pending retirement following the 2014 season after the Croke Park Classic. It made sense. The team was graduating a ton of talent that helped win at least a share of the 2nd AAC title in a row. O'leary approaching 70 years old. The timing seemed appropriate, particularly after we lost our best returning players on offense and defense early to the NFL. This offseason there were tons of question marks about the upcoming 2015 year - very young team, AD bolts for a P5 school, etc.

Instead of laying out a clear plan for his retirement or focusing on coaching up his very young team, O'leary decided to double down on his responsibilities. He took on the interim AD job in addition to HC duties. I was ok with the idea of GOL as interim AD, provided that there wasn't a corresponding drop off of the football program. The drop off happened immediately and with shocking results. As we all know, the product on the field is entirely unacceptable.

In college football, you either have a clear plan moving forward or you will get killed in recruiting. The negative recruiting will be in full effect this season with the questions surrounding O'leary's role going forward. Hitt needs to go to GOL and force him to make a decision with two demands and an understanding that these two points are not negotiable: 1. You cannot continue to be both HC and AD. 2. Brent Key cannot be the HC of UCF based on his body of work.

A plan must be made and quickly for the good of the program. Make it publicly known that this is the way forward. If a plan is not put in place soon, things could get even uglier and GOL may have blown all of his chances to leave gracefully.

 

[UCFBS]

Too often people miss their chance to end something well. O'leary had a good chance to exit gracefully ...

And had GoL exited after last year, guess what the fans would be saying now?

"GoL left us in a bad spot! He got out because he knew we had a bad team. Sure enough, the second he knew he didn't have a good team, we should have known he would have abandoned us. It's all his fault! He might as well have not even come to our program if he was going to leave us like this."​

This is our fanbase. They will find ways to complain, no matter the cause or reason or timing.

A plan must be made and quickly for the good of the program. Make it publicly known that this is the way forward. If a plan is not put in place soon, things could get even uglier and GOL may have blown all of his chances to leave gracefully.

Yes, it's called a lots of "raw" Freshman talent getting "skool'd" right now. That's all the coaching staff can do.

Throw them into the fire, have them run plays and see how things work ... and don't ... and learn from them.

 

[firm_bizzle]

New assistants all over the place and added responsibility of AD for a 70 year old man is just too much.

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

Too often people miss their chance to end something well. O'leary had a good chance to exit gracefully. The reports came out that he would announce his pending retirement following the 2014 season after the Croke Park Classic. It made sense. The team was graduating a ton of talent that helped win at least a share of the 2nd AAC title in a row. O'leary approaching 70 years old. The timing seemed appropriate, particularly after we lost our best returning players on offense and defense early to the NFL. This offseason there were tons of question marks about the upcoming 2015 year - very young team, AD bolts for a P5 school, etc.

Instead of laying out a clear plan for his retirement or focusing on coaching up his very young team, O'leary decided to double down on his responsibilities. He took on the interim AD job in addition to HC duties. I was ok with the idea of GOL as interim AD, provided that there wasn't a corresponding drop off of the football program. The drop off happened immediately and with shocking results. As we all know, the product on the field is entirely unacceptable.

In college football, you either have a clear plan moving forward or you will get killed in recruiting. The negative recruiting will be in full effect this season with the questions surrounding O'leary's role going forward. Hitt needs to go to GOL and force him to make a decision with two demands and an understanding that these two points are not negotiable: 1. You cannot continue to be both HC and AD. 2. Brent Key cannot be the HC of UCF based on his body of work.

A plan must be made and quickly for the good of the program. Make it publicly known that this is the way forward. If a plan is not put in place soon, things could get even uglier and GOL may have blown all of his chances to leave gracefully.

Agree Hammer. Nice post. Brent Key needs to be relieved of OC immediately.

 

[UCFBS]

Agree Hammer. Nice post. Brent Key needs to be relieved of OC immediately.

Good luck on finding another OC who sees us canning ours after only 3 games ... especially when he has the favor of the AD/HC.

I mean ... even if we could get a new OC next week, how many of you guys would not want to fire the new guy if we lost 3 more games? Or maybe went only 1-4 after 5 more?

That's what I don't undesrtand about our fanbase. It's okay to have high expectations. But to pair them with on-a-whim decisions ... that's deadly to a program!

 

[HammerB08]

And had GoL exited after last year, guess what the fans would be saying now?

"GoL left us in a bad spot! He got out because he knew we had a bad team. Sure enough, the second he knew he didn't have a good team, we should have known he would have abandoned us. It's all his fault! He might as well have not even come to our program if he was going to leave us like this."​

This is our fanbase. They will find ways to complain, no matter the cause or reason or timing.

I don't think that's unique to the UCF fanbase. There's also no way to know if we would've lost to Furman and FIU at home if another head coach, one that isn't also juggling the responsibilities of an AD, had been brought in immediately following the 2014 season. What we do know is that we've got a 2015 team completely unprepared to play at the FBS level, an elderly head coach who is also trying to perform new additional duties as interim AD, and no idea what the plan moving forward is.

 

[UCFBS]

I don't think that's unique to the UCF fanbase. There's also no way to know if we would've lost to Furman and FIU at home if another head coach, one that isn't also juggling the responsibilities of an AD, had been brought in immediately following the 2014 season. What we do know is that we've got a 2015 team completely unprepared to play at the FBS level, an elderly head coach who is also trying to perform new additional duties as interim AD, and no idea what the plan moving forward is.

Ummm ... we're not the first G5 to go through this. In fact, I'd say half of the G5 has gone through this ... with one, important difference.

Virtually none of them have had our type of conference success the immediately preceding 3 years.

It's amazing how subjective and blinding 3 hard, horrendous losses have made people. Heck, just the FIU game was just a prelude.

 

[Victorywayucf]

Good luck on finding another OC who sees us canning ours after only 3 games ... especially when he has the favor of the AD/HC.

I mean ... even if we could get a new OC next week, how many of you guys would not want to fire the new guy if we lost 3 more games? Or maybe went only 1-4 after 5 more?

That's what I don't undesrtand about our fanbase. It's okay to have high expectations. But to pair them with on-a-whim decisions ... that's deadly to a program!

Hey dipshit. Danny Barrett has experience as an oc and interim head coach experience. But you would know that if you weren't too busy hoping onto the team after 2013 and actually did research. But I'm sure that would require you to actually know how to use google, something you clearly are not mentally capable of.

 

[UCFBS]

Hey dipshit. Danny Barrett has experience as an oc and interim head coach experience.

So ... who are the 2 names I posted before ... ones I said I'd prefer instead of Key?

But ... according to many here ... they want to "clean house." So Barrett or even UCF alum Beckton wouldn't be an option. So please keep your assumptions in check about me.

But you would know that if you weren't too busy hoping onto the team after 2013 and actually did research.

Really?

Victorywayucf
Joined: Sep 5, 2015​

UCFBS
Joined: Oct 21, 2001​

But I'm sure that would require you to actually know how to use google, something you clearly are not mentally capable of.

That's funny ... because other people have accused me of getting my knowledge out of Google, because I couldn't possibly know some things.

I even had someone charge I got my ideas from Google, because they found an article that had the same ideas. Unfortunately for them, they didn't check the author before quoting the magazine.

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

Good luck on finding another OC who sees us canning ours after only 3 games ... especially when he has the favor of the AD/HC.

I mean ... even if we could get a new OC next week, how many of you guys would not want to fire the new guy if we lost 3 more games? Or maybe went only 1-4 after 5 more?

That's what I don't undesrtand about our fanbase. It's okay to have high expectations. But to pair them with on-a-whim decisions ... that's deadly to a program!

Good point. But isn't KEY deadly to the program right now? We either rebuild or put up with Oleary. If we give him a pass/ rebuild year, what's to come next year. I just honestly don't see Brent key as OC. It's really bad. Would you agree?

 

[UCFBS]

Good point. But isn't KEY deadly to the program right now? We either rebuild or put up with Oleary. If we give him a pass/ rebuild year, what's to come next year. I just honestly don't see Brent key as OC. It's really bad. Would you agree?

How "deadly" was Taffe? Short-term memories ...

 

[HammerB08]

Good point. But isn't KEY deadly to the program right now? We either rebuild or put up with Oleary. If we give him a pass/ rebuild year, what's to come next year. I just honestly don't see Brent key as OC. It's really bad. Would you agree?

Forget OC, I'm just trying to make sure Key isn't handed HC! That can't be part of the plan from what we've seen thusfar.