You could say it used to be mad love.
Not anymore.
Ping of WKMG broke things wide open with his report earlier on Monday that GOL was essentially "forced out" and that he felt "betrayed" by Dr. Hitt. I had heard similar earlier in the day from a source I'm pretty sure was Ping's. As I'm writing this, I watched Pat Clarke's report on WESH during the 11 p.m. broadcast and he repeated the same.
Ping offered additional commentary at 11 p.m. blasting the move and saying, "UCF fumbled this one away."
As for me and how I feel, what's done is done. I'm all about celebrating everything GOL has done for the program and focusing on the next step, but since the cat is out of the bag I'll relay how I heard things went down, this coming from a source extremely close to GOL.
Dr. Hitt met with GOL for an extended period of time on Saturday following the Houston game. Given what we know now about the contract, Hitt wanted that information public so everybody would know this was GOL's final year. First, Hitt asked GOL to release his contract. GOL said no. Hitt then requested that GOL announce his retirement at Monday's press conference, to come out and say this would be his final season. He said no. GOL had no intention of being a "lame duck coach."
Hitt then said he would have no choice but to announce on Monday that the school would not be renewing the contract.
In what GOL viewed as a no-win scenario, he then enlisted the guidance of his agent to negotiate an exit. As I figured, just based on his comments in the past, GOL never wanted to be a lame duck coach. He couldn't coach the last four games with everybody knowing this would be it.
The words "hurt" and "disrespectful" were used. It's bad enough in GOL's eyes the program is slipping away - the Brent Key succession plan obviously off the table - but now he feels he was being forced out. He still wanted to coach the last four games, just not as a lame duck.
The relations between the football side (GOL) and the university side (Hitt, Heston) turned chilly in a hurry.
Another grievance was the selection of an interim head coach. Naturally, GOL suggested Brent Key. At some point during the course of negotiations that persisted through Sunday morning, Danny Barrett was called by the university and offered the opportunity to be interim coach. I'm not sure how wide the circle was at that point, but Barrett had no idea what was going on, that GOL's resignation was imminent. He was shocked and had to ask GOL what was happening.
When everything was finally agreed upon on Sunday, the plan was to keep a lid on it until the 5:30 team meeting. Somebody, it's unknown who, leaked the news to Brett McMurphy of ESPN. GOL was not happy about that.
It is what it is. Even the press release was a point of negotiation with both parties wanting facts portrayed in a certain way.
So that said, I do sincerely believe GOL will be observing the program from afar, at least here in the short term. Fences will need to be mended. Maybe administration at the top would have to change.
What do I think? It's just sad that it had to come to this. It's sad UCF is 0-8 and GOL couldn't get a proper send-off. Hindsight is always 20/20, but GOL could have gone out on top after 2013 or 2014. If he had, I truly believe Brent Key would be head coach today.
But Hitt had to do what he felt he had to do. He always knew this was GOL's last season. Maybe he was never on board with the Key plan to begin with - despite signing the HCIW clause - but after the first month of the season it was apparent that wasn't an acceptable option. The wheels began rolling to begin a search for not just a new AD, but a new coach.
The external pressures became too much. The lack of athletics leadership with a void at the AD spot compounded matters. Boosters and fans demanded answers. Hitt had to do something. People needed to know. More importantly, potential head coach candidates needed to know.
With all due respect to the future AD, this search is way more important. It looks to be a competitive offseason for coaching hires and UCF can't afford to be slowed down by a coach who wants to wait until Black Friday to announce his retirement. It wouldn't surprise me if the coach search process was started weeks ago, in fact, I've heard it was.
Unless it's Schiano, the next head coach is likely currently coaching elsewhere. Even if that coach couldn't be realistically hired until early December, at least he knows in the back of his mind that UCF is an available option. Maybe this coach tells his agent, 'Keep your ears open to that job.' Maybe UCF gets surprised here with a candidate one wouldn't normally think would be interested. That's why you need to make an announcement now.
What happens in the next 30 to 45 days is critical. UCF can't afford to make a mistake. The Big 12 - last I heard - was still moving full steam towards expansion. Whether everybody agrees on the same two candidates is another story, but there was a concern BYU and Cincinnati might be pulling ahead. This season certainly doesn't help. But what UCF does here with the AD and coaching hires could go a long way to showing the Powers That Be that things have stabilized in Orlando and the program should quickly return to prominence.
