O'Leary A Miserable Recruiter!!!

[UCFBS]

Im saying GOL and most of the staff needs to go. Its under his watch not Key's.

So forget the past 3 years (and 4 out of 5), a divisional title and 2 (3) conference titles, 2 of our best recruiting seasons (per both Rivals and ESPN) ever, just after 5 games?

I'll ask it again ...

Do you expect any other coach to want to come here, when they know that after even 3 divisional/conference titles in a row, you can and will be fired after just a couple of loses against poor and/or FCS teams?

This is what I don't understand ...

Even if you guys end up being 100% correct that GoL, Key, etc... will eventually lead us into a new, 17 game losing streak, that you would have fired them after just a couple loses, despite the 3 years prior?

Because that's what you've been arguing, after FIU and even more so after Furman ... Now, Now, Now.

 

[ucfversusbcs]

So forget the past 3 years (and 4 out of 5), a divisional title and 2 (3) conference titles, 2 of our best recruiting seasons (per both Rivals and ESPN) ever, just after 5 games?

I'll ask it again ...

Do you expect any other coach to want to come here, when they know that after even 3 divisional/conference titles in a row, you can and will be fired after just a couple of loses against poor and/or FCS teams?

This is what I don't understand ...

Even if you guys end up being 100% correct that GoL, Key, etc... will eventually lead us into a new, 17 game losing streak, that you would have fired them after just a couple loses, despite the 3 years prior?

Because that's what you've been arguing, after FIU and even more so after Furman ... Now, Now, Now.

If you dont understand that GOL was brought in for reasons besides coaching a football team i dont know what to tell you.
We have given him 12 years to do that.

Let me add if we;re in a P5 conference id be happy to keep him around and give him a chance but he wasnt hired to maintain a P5 school.

 

[sirdingydang]

This thread hurts my whole life. I've never been vocal in opposition to O'Leary. However, every single one of jets and knightman's points is spot on. I actually REALLY like Key and actually, unlike many others, think he is a good offensive line coach. And I think his inability to give fill attention to the o line is part of the problem. The other part is them just not being smart enough/talented to compete at the level they should. That ALL falls on O'Leary. You have to have foresight and the vision to recruit to replace those who leave due to graduation it NFL, injury, etc. We clearly didn't do that. That's coaching. You can keep claiming it's something else and that others who are successful are cheaters or whatever, but the simple, plain as day truth is that O'Leary's time is up. This ALL falls on him. If you blame the players not learning or executing, that's the coaching not recruiting better players. You Always have to factor for recruiting duds. But to have multiple recruiting classes not contribute a single, solid player for us is shot ml wholly unacceptable.

 

[UCFBS]

If you dont understand that GOL was brought in for reasons besides coaching a football team i dont know what to tell you.

I'd say he's achieved great success against nearly all of the G5 then.

We have given him 12 years to do that.

And we're now into a down year, a really bad one, his worst since 2004, possibly even as bad as before his time ... like 1994-1995 disappointment levels.

So ...

Let me add if we;re in a P5 conference id be happy to keep him around and give him a chance but he wasnt hired to maintain a P5 school.

Oh, wow. Really? I think that says everything.

I.e., if you think we have a different coach when G5, then I think you're really not on the same page as a lot of people who have actually built this program.

I appreciate you admitting this, but it's also why I really understand why the program ignores you, and for good reasons. I mean, the few times I've had to approve of people's termination (and I'm the last person who does), it's because they say, "Oh, if it was X, I would do Y." Makes my choice to finally agree to letting them go much easier.

Because they should have been focused on and doing "Y" in the first place, regardless.

In fact ... to take it further, that attitude is the epitome of what George means when he says ... "It's not who you're playing, but that your playing." So, to me, now you're basically saying GoL would be fine if we were a P5. But here's the thing ...

He's managed to build some killer, ball-control, defense-oriented teams as a G5 ... that have kept P5s from destroying us like back when we had Coach K. That has allowed us to keep some of the nation's highest scoring teams down, and beatable too.

Ball control defenses do win championships.

 

[mattropolis]

After the Fiesta Bowl win, the last 2 years should've been a recruiting bonanza for UCF. He is just a miserable recruiter.There are more than enough good players here in Florida,yet O'Leary doesn't bother to recruit here nearly as much as he should.There is no excuse for this ineptitude! UCF sorely needs a new coach who is a strong recruiter.

You're an idiot. Boise State can't recruit any better than us either. It has little to do with coaches, and a lot to do with P5 money and exposure versus G5.

 

[sirdingydang]

You're an idiot. Boise State can't recruit any better than us either. It has little to do with coaches, and a lot to do with P5 money and exposure versus G5.

Nothing you say after this stupid remark carries any weight at all.

 

[UCFBS]

This thread hurts my whole life. I've never been vocal in opposition to O'Leary. However, every single one of jets and knightman's points is spot on ... but the simple, plain as day truth is that O'Leary's time is up. This ALL falls on him. If you blame the players not learning or executing, that's the coaching not recruiting better players.

Who says they aren't good?
What about lack of experience?

Is GoL blaming the players?
Or just the active roster we are currently dealing with, and their lack of experience?

Why can't we wait 2 years to find out how good they are?
We may still fire GoL before then ...

But I'm not judging the last 2 classes he recruited until they are actually upperclassmen.

You Always have to factor for recruiting duds. But to have multiple recruiting classes not contribute a single, solid player for us is shot ml wholly unacceptable.

I think it also has a lot to do with their age. We had some lower ranked recruiting classes immediately after the NCAA investigation. We've also had some unplanned attrition.

The result is what we have ... 3rd youngest class before injuries, and the most injuries and freshmen rotated in of anyone in all of NCAA.

 

[UCFBS]

Nothing you say after this stupid remark carries any weight at all.

While it is a bit too much of an "absolute," it is still largely true.

It's very difficult for a G5 to break into the top 50, and you'll rarely seen one in a top 25. You have to go back to the BCS6 for that to happen, when the Big East still existed and had its BCS tie-ins. Boise has totally been in this boat with us, and everyone else ... even Cincy and others who did move to the Big East in '05.

UCF already avoids a lot of recruits because they are not "UCF type players" in the GoL era. We've never been #1 in our conference, and we probably never will be. A great year is when we get near the top 50, and 2010-2011 was probably our best inside ... before all the issues that caused it to tumble well outside the top 50.

Heck, even USF's success in the Big East was built on 3x as many hardship waivers as the #2 user in those years. Transfers to USF were so prevalent even the guys here in the SEC remember those '00 years when they did.

 

[KnightsofGroveland]

You're an idiot. Boise State can't recruit any better than us either. It has little to do with coaches, and a lot to do with P5 money and exposure versus G5.

What are you even saying? That Boise has P5 money and exposure?

 

[sirdingydang]

Who says they aren't good?
What about lack of experience?

Is GoL blaming the players?
Or just the active roster we are currently dealing with, and their lack of experience?

Why can't we wait 2 years to find out how good they are?
We may still fire GoL before then ...

But I'm not judging the last 2 classes he recruited until they are actually upperclassmen.

I think it also has a lot to do with their age. We had some lower ranked recruiting classes immediately after the NCAA investigation. We've also had some unplanned attrition.

The result is what we have ... 3rd youngest class before injuries, and the most injuries and freshmen rotated in of anyone in all of NCAA.

Wait two years? Why should we HAVE to? You ALWAYS plan for attrition, period. We have had freshmen positively contribute in the past. However, almost all of the freshmen and many of the sophomores, hell even the UPPERCLASSMEN who are currently playing are underperforming. What excuse do you have for that?

And you cite lack of experience. As others have pointed out, the players on this team, across the board, seem to be regressing this season as they get more experience. But clearly, none of this has to do with coaching. The coaching staff are merely just victims here, victims of circumstance.

 

[UCFBS]

... But clearly, none of this has to do with coaching. The coaching staff are merely just victims here, victims of circumstance.

Where did I ever say that?!

I said ... GoL can be fired next year, along with Key, and we still won't know. We just won't know how good the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 recruiting classes are until we're 2 years from now and the kids are upperclassmen. I'm not saying don't fire GoL/Key. I'm just saying we will not know about those classes until then.

I also made no attempt to deflect the fact that 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 were not good.

My continued point is that people need to stop lambasting the young talent from these last 2 classes. They haven't had any chance to prove themselves yet. We honestly won't know for another 2 years how good they are ... or aren't.

 

[mattropolis]

There have been many coaches who have been fired after achieving more. What have you done for me lately. Right now, hurting the program. Not to mention all the baggage. If he were clean, I might give him the benefit of the doubt.

They've been fired from P5 programs. I doubt you could find a coach for a G5 program that has won multiple conference titles, has a winning record and was then fired....not moved on to another, better or bigger program, but actually got fired. We'll all be waiting around to see your long list.

 

[UCFBS]

They've been fired from P5 programs. I doubt you could find a coach for a G5 program that has won multiple conference titles, has a winning record and was then fired....not moved on to another, better or bigger program, but actually got fired. We'll all be waiting around to see your long list.

Even most P5 coaches had to have back-to-back losing seasons, especially after having several winning records in prior years. The few times this is not the case is when they take over a winning program and it goes downhill within 3 years, more losses than prior to their arrival, and then a losing season.

Again, Bowden was never better than 5-3 in-conference, and even under 0.500 in conference, plus barely to not much above 0.500 in virtually all of his last 5 years. If GoL had UCF finish barely over 0.500 some 3, and definitely by 4, straight years in-a-row, he'd be gone.

You cannot evaluate a coach based on a single year, especially if he's had success. But what I do think is that GoL might be in trouble next year, because we had both 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 as medicore to poor recruiting seasons, with related attrition and lack of leadership.

Again, we won't know how "good" the last 2 classes really are until they are upperclassmen in 2017. But we're very likely not going to have much production not only this year, but there are still a lot of questions going into 2016 today. We'll see, but odds are he's going to be gone.

But you still cannot "clean house" so soon. You have to give the existing program the chance to bounce back. Otherwise I would not want to come to UCF if we did that to GoL after just a few games ... at least not without some serious infractions or other issues, like grades dropping, GoL hitting a kid, etc...

 

[ucfversusbcs]

I.e., if you think we have a different coach when G5, then I think you're really not on the same page as a lot of people who have actually built this program.

I appreciate you admitting this, but it's also why I really understand why the program ignores you, and for good reasons.

Because they should have been focused on and doing "Y" in the first place, regardless.

In fact ... to take it further, that attitude is the epitome of what George means when he says ... "It's not who you're playing, but that your playing." So, to me, now you're basically saying GoL would be fine if we were a P5.

Well then UCF insider and GOL propaganda pusher tell me what is the page that i should be on with the program?

And when we're playing against teams from a conference we're trying to either join or equate to on a perception basis, we lose more than we win. We are based in a state with fertile recruiting grounds and were trying to follow the success of Florida State and Miami but we lose more than we win.

Why did we move to FBS then if you think the program ignores me. The program obviously didnt ignore someone like me because if that was the case they shouldve stayed at FCS and hired George O'Leary and be happy that "youre playing". Why do they keep groveling to join a big conference? If they want to join a big conference they shouldnt be ignoring "me". Yes I have no problem saying if UCF was in a P5 conference and GOL improved our P5 program i would have no issue because he did what he was hired for. Thats not the case. They hired GOL as the first step in righting a wrong during the 2003 realignment campaign. At least thats what i got out of it when they analyzed his selection. They brought him in to get us into a BCS/AQ/P5 conference and if you cant see it from all the storylines of UCF to the Big East, Big 12 then you must be deaf, dumb and blind.

 

[jetsaholic]

You're an idiot. Boise State can't recruit any better than us either. It has little to do with coaches, and a lot to do with P5 money and exposure versus G5.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sorry, what P5 conference does Boise State belong to?

 

[anon_x731qvsnsyb8i]

WTF am I reading?

When did Boise St. join the P5?..I'm lost.

If they aren't recruiting better...than how the hell are they DOING better in potato-land???

Ah! COACHING.

 

[anon_x731qvsnsyb8i]

The first half of this season alone is grounds for firing at almost ANY P5 school and upper level G5. Especially if the coach see-saws from season to season. In the 10 year tenure there is now enough to see a pattern of inconsistency that a school in Orlando, Florida should not have.


Recruiting has failed...that's on the coaching staff. No one else. There is now a perception issue with GOL himself causing recruits, 2-star recruits..., to jump ship and open their recruitment. Look at USF, and then and our recruiting class. Taggart is doing a MUCH BETTER job than UCF right now.

I'm pretty sure that's factual...

 

[jetsaholic]

The first half of this season alone is grounds for firing at almost ANY P5 school and upper level G5. Especially if the coach see-saws from season to season. In the 10 year tenure there is now enough to see a pattern of inconsistency that a school in Orlando, Florida should not have.


Recruiting has failed...that's on the coaching staff. No one else. There is now a perception issue with GOL himself causing recruits, 2-star recruits..., to jump ship and open their recruitment. Look at USF, and then and our recruiting class. Taggart is doing a MUCH BETTER job than UCF right now.

I'm pretty sure that's factual...

He's won one game. That's way better than how we're doing.

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

Here's why your argument is a steaming pile of shit: Boise State

Boise State is in the middle of fukcing nowhere, full of fat chicks, no beaches and no football talent, A.K.A. Idaho. They haven't had a losing season since 1997. Since 1998, they have a combined record of 187-37 (83% win avg) and have gone 11-5 (69%) in Bowl games, 3 of those wins being at the Fiesta Bowl vs Top 15 FBS opponents (Oklahoma, TCU, Arizona). They have done that with 4 coaches (Dirk Coetter, Dan Hawkins, Chris Petersen & Bryan Harsin).

How do you recruit that quality and quantity of player talent and coaches over a span of almost 20 years to go to west bumblefukc?

Fat chicks do make a difference! Good one!

 

[firm_bizzle]

Fat chicks do make a difference! Good one!

And they play the same level of sh**ty teams that we do.

 

[ucfversusbcs]

Lol Miami has a bunch of South Beach b*** to distract them but won 5 national championships regardless.

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

The first half of this season alone is grounds for firing at almost ANY P5 school and upper level G5. Especially if the coach see-saws from season to season. In the 10 year tenure there is now enough to see a pattern of inconsistency that a school in Orlando, Florida should not have.


Recruiting has failed...that's on the coaching staff. No one else. There is now a perception issue with GOL himself causing recruits, 2-star recruits..., to jump ship and open their recruitment. Look at USF, and then and our recruiting class. Taggart is doing a MUCH BETTER job than UCF right now.

I'm pretty sure that's factual...

Excellent Post! That is my point exactly. We have enough data to show or predict trend for the future. GOL and his football capabilities are not enough to take us to the next level. Nothing personal
1. Can't play 60 minutes..
2. O-Line always a problem with few exceptions. Undersized, etc
3. Terrible decision making, Dinovo, Brent Key, Rocal, recruiting, .....(feel free to add here)
4. Worse in 2nd half
5. Many Losses to horrible teams
6. UCF does well if GOL gets lucky with superstar players.
7. Off season preparation, basics, tackling, this is coaching.

The only way we get to the next level is to do what Florida just did. We're going to accept and me mediocre as long as GOL is here. 10 years is a lot of time to be this bad......and to continue accepting it.

Yes, I know we've had injuries and players let go...but the basics are not here. This is my Opinion from following UCF football for 23 years.

Is cleaning house a gamble? YES, but to stay the same (stay the course) there is no chance to get to the next level.

 

[firm_bizzle]

Excellent Post! That is my point exactly. We have enough data to show or predict trend for the future. GOL and his football capabilities are not enough to take us to the next level. Nothing personal
1. Can't play 60 minutes..
2. O-Line always a problem with few exceptions. Undersized, etc
3. Terrible decision making, Dinovo, Brent Key, Rocal, recruiting, .....(feel free to add here)
4. Worse in 2nd half
5. Many Losses to horrible teams
6. UCF does well if GOL gets lucky with superstar players.
7. Off season preparation, basics, tackling, this is coaching.

The only way we get to the next level is to do what Florida just did. We're going to accept and me mediocre as long as GOL is here. 10 years is a lot of time to be this bad......and to continue accepting it.

Yes, I know we've had injuries and players let go...but the basics are not here. This is my Opinion from following UCF football for 23 years.

Is cleaning house a gamble? YES, but to stay the same (stay the course) there is no chance to get to the next level.

Not to mention the additional baggage which may not be his fault but is persistent with his regime.
-Plancher's death
-Probation
-Racism story
-Speculation regarding his retirement.

 

[anon_x731qvsnsyb8i]

Granted, a lot of schools have cleaned house and didn't fare better.

Other's have prospered. Example:

Auburn. Their success with Chizek was because he got lucky with Cam Newton. Cam was their season. After that? Crash. Dismissed. It was enough to see that when given star players...sure thing, you get wins. What about the rest of the 85% that may not go to the NFL, but could play GOOD NCAA ball?

New coach at Auburn, using mostly same players as the 3 win season? Explosion using creativity, motivation and a different mind-set.

I've been a fan of UCF Football since the day I enrolled in August of 1996. Culpepper was there and it's amazing how much of what we are saying now was said in 2000...and persisted to 2003.

 

[SCKnight]

UCF was an up and coming program in the early 90s. They were on the cover of SI because they were predicted to win the Div 1AA title two years before they moved up to Div 1 now FBS. I didnt expect them to be world beaters but the intent when deciding to move up was to take advantage of being located in Florida and obtain the same success as the Big Three. Besides you and i both know about their closes losses to teams like South Carolina and Georgia and the halftime lead against Nebraska. Before UCF joined the MAC, they were 10-4 against them. As much as i wished they won a BCS/AQ game before 2000, they were trending upwards.

You, like many others (including me) drank the kool-aid in the 90s. UCF was touted as an up and coming program, a sleeping giant, yada yada yada. It was all words, but meanwhile in the backroom meetings of college athletics UCF was not represented. Nobody in leadership understood the game of college athletics. The truth is that winning big games does not get you crap and "almost winning" games gets you even less. Getting into a conference, creating rivalries, setting TV and bowl money and networking in those circles and working your way up through the ranks is what creates value for a program. Louisville understood that. UCF missed the boat completely on this due to poor leadership. When GOL says that winning the conference is the goal, he is 100% right. Winning any of those big games against USC, UGA or GT would have been nice but would still have made us flash in the pans. It is easy to trend upwards when nobody expects anything from you.


And isnt that why we hired George O'Leary? So he can change that perception of our program, to realize the success our other Florida schools have achieved? If we're really an emergency plan, why dump all this money into a new stadium and arena? I mean Memphis did nothing with the Liberty Bowl and backed into an invite. We're not paying GOL this money so we can be the joke of college football, the school who wants to pay a resume faker 2 million a year. We paid him this because if Notre Dame wanted him, then there must be a reason why.

GOL did change the perception of UCF. You people look back in time through total rose colored glasses. We were less than a joke when GOL came in. Kruz boasted about how UCF would dominate the MAC because he was also drinking the kool-aid. Like so many fans he thought that our location and recruiting etc, automatically equaled wins. He got his hat handed to him by the MAC. We were a joke laughed at by all the MAC programs that were offended by Kruz's comments. Our program had no discipline, our recruiting was in the dumps, we were low. Meanwhile USF was ascending.

As for this radar crap, where were you when Daunte Culpepper and UCF was mentioned in the same sentence on sports broadcasts and other shows because i heard it plenty of times.

Daunte WAS UCF football then. He was the one man show. Without him UCF was nothing. He was a freak, an aberration. Once he left UCF became nothing but "the school where Daunte Culpepper went to school."

Where were you when Coach Kruz turned down the offer to coach Kentucky?

Kruz was never offered the job at Kentucky. He was a candidate but he was not offered the job. The UCF program was in such disarray at the time that many here were hoping he would be offered the job and go. I think a year later he was fired. So again, stop looking at the past with such fond memories.

Look i dont live and breathe UCF football, so if i know about information like that then UCF was a team on the map. The perception of us was a young up and coming program in a fertile recruiting area who will quickly overcome its obstacles. Say what you want about the end of 2003 and the redshirt burning of Steven Moffat, we had more potential as a young program then any of the "smaller" schools back then.

Again with the Kool-Aid. I have been a fan since 1984. I have been around the country going to UCF games. I went to 1-AA playoffs etc.. I drank the Kool-aid at the time. It was complete and utter hogwash. UCF was not on the lips of anyone that mattered. Yes UCF had all the potential in the world, but they were not being used correctly. The only time UCF became relevant to the conference talks or to the football world in general was after we joined CUSA. We began to establish a name among the conference foes, had bowl tie ins, in other words we join the college football world. Are reputation and name in the college football circles is infinitely better than it was in 2003. That most mostly due to the work of Steve Orisini, Dr. Hitt and GOL. The only ones who thought UCF was an up and coming school were UCF fans. To everyone else we were homecoming fodder.

When the Big East conference football program started they invited four time national champions Miami to join. Oh yeah they had a great baskeball program back then. Look im not saying we win national titles, but I think if we held on to beat Nebraska on the road in 1997, held on to beat a crappy Auburn in 1998 and played in the Oahu bowl, beat Georgia on the road in 1999 and had some other losses go our way, the Big East wouldve overlooked our ambitious statements about joining the ACC and SEC and offer us an all school invite. Unfortunately we only had the 2000 victory over Alabama to hang our hats on.

If...if... if.... The only if I think about nowadays is "If we would have joined CUSA in the 90s we would have been better off. The rest is all BS. You win a big game and it is good for a couple of weeks and then forgotten. Win championships, even in lower level conferences, and it means a great deal more.

Isnt this why we hired George O'Leary though? So we can right the ship of our past failures during the 2003 realignment? i thought thats what i read when he was hired. He's established some good things, but he hasnt really advanced us much since he was hired when it comes to results on the field except for one year. Whats sad is he couldnt even get his experienced laden 2014 team to beat a 7-5 young NC State team to end a great five year run for this program. He has only proven that he was lucky to be that good...otherwise his teams were rarely good enough to beat P5 opponents...and good enough to beat a weak conference.

In my opinion you are blinded by short memory loss and reconstruction of history. We are not perfect we have never been perfect. But we are miles ahead of where we were in 2003. What is sad is that you think that somehow UCF was mandated to beat NC State merely because they were 7-5 playing in the ACC. What is sad is that you feel disappointment at winning a second consecutive conference championship with a first year QB at the helm because they lost the bowl game. What is sad is that pretty much every team in the AAC would trade places with UCF's record over the last 5 years if it meant that they had to have one terrible season but to you it is wallowing in mediocrity. You are spoiled little children who don't care about the presents they have already opened at Christmas; they want to know why the next one is not bigger than the last. You think there is a "cure all" for this season, well there is not. Welcome to UCF football, sometimes it sucks to be a knight. In fact for most of the last 30 years it has sucked to be a knight fan. But I love them. The last 5-6 years has been a blessing and a joy. Thank you GOL and thank you Dr. Hitt. You people must turn it into a negative.

 

[anon_x731qvsnsyb8i]

UCF was an up and coming program in the early 90s. They were on the cover of SI because they were predicted to win the Div 1AA title two years before they moved up to Div 1 now FBS. I didnt expect them to be world beaters but the intent when deciding to move up was to take advantage of being located in Florida and obtain the same success as the Big Three. Besides you and i both know about their closes losses to teams like South Carolina and Georgia and the halftime lead against Nebraska. Before UCF joined the MAC, they were 10-4 against them. As much as i wished they won a BCS/AQ game before 2000, they were trending upwards.

You, like many others (including me) drank the kool-aid in the 90s. UCF was touted as an up and coming program, a sleeping giant, yada yada yada. It was all words, but meanwhile in the backroom meetings of college athletics UCF was not represented. Nobody in leadership understood the game of college athletics. The truth is that winning big games does not get you crap and "almost winning" games gets you even less. Getting into a conference, creating rivalries, setting TV and bowl money and networking in those circles and working your way up through the ranks is what creates value for a program. Louisville understood that. UCF missed the boat completely on this due to poor leadership. When GOL says that winning the conference is the goal, he is 100% right. Winning any of those big games against USC, UGA or GT would have been nice but would still have made us flash in the pans. It is easy to trend upwards when nobody expects anything from you.


And isnt that why we hired George O'Leary? So he can change that perception of our program, to realize the success our other Florida schools have achieved? If we're really an emergency plan, why dump all this money into a new stadium and arena? I mean Memphis did nothing with the Liberty Bowl and backed into an invite. We're not paying GOL this money so we can be the joke of college football, the school who wants to pay a resume faker 2 million a year. We paid him this because if Notre Dame wanted him, then there must be a reason why.

GOL did change the perception of UCF. You people look back in time through total rose colored glasses. We were less than a joke when GOL came in. Kruz boasted about how UCF would dominate the MAC because he was also drinking the kool-aid. Like so many fans he thought that our location and recruiting etc, automatically equaled wins. He got his hat handed to him by the MAC. We were a joke laughed at by all the MAC programs that were offended by Kruz's comments. Our program had no discipline, our recruiting was in the dumps, we were low. Meanwhile USF was ascending.

As for this radar crap, where were you when Daunte Culpepper and UCF was mentioned in the same sentence on sports broadcasts and other shows because i heard it plenty of times.

Daunte WAS UCF football then. He was the one man show. Without him UCF was nothing. He was a freak, an aberration. Once he left UCF became nothing but "the school where Daunte Culpepper went to school."

Where were you when Coach Kruz turned down the offer to coach Kentucky?

Kruz was never offered the job at Kentucky. He was a candidate but he was not offered the job. The UCF program was in such disarray at the time that many here were hoping he would be offered the job and go. I think a year later he was fired. So again, stop looking at the past with such fond memories.

Look i dont live and breathe UCF football, so if i know about information like that then UCF was a team on the map. The perception of us was a young up and coming program in a fertile recruiting area who will quickly overcome its obstacles. Say what you want about the end of 2003 and the redshirt burning of Steven Moffat, we had more potential as a young program then any of the "smaller" schools back then.

Again with the Kool-Aid. I have been a fan since 1984. I have been around the country going to UCF games. I went to 1-AA playoffs etc.. I drank the Kool-aid at the time. It was complete and utter hogwash. UCF was not on the lips of anyone that mattered. Yes UCF had all the potential in the world, but they were not being used correctly. The only time UCF became relevant to the conference talks or to the football world in general was after we joined CUSA. We began to establish a name among the conference foes, had bowl tie ins, in other words we join the college football world. Are reputation and name in the college football circles is infinitely better than it was in 2003. That most mostly due to the work of Steve Orisini, Dr. Hitt and GOL. The only ones who thought UCF was an up and coming school were UCF fans. To everyone else we were homecoming fodder.

When the Big East conference football program started they invited four time national champions Miami to join. Oh yeah they had a great baskeball program back then. Look im not saying we win national titles, but I think if we held on to beat Nebraska on the road in 1997, held on to beat a crappy Auburn in 1998 and played in the Oahu bowl, beat Georgia on the road in 1999 and had some other losses go our way, the Big East wouldve overlooked our ambitious statements about joining the ACC and SEC and offer us an all school invite. Unfortunately we only had the 2000 victory over Alabama to hang our hats on.

If...if... if.... The only if I think about nowadays is "If we would have joined CUSA in the 90s we would have been better off. The rest is all BS. You win a big game and it is good for a couple of weeks and then forgotten. Win championships, even in lower level conferences, and it means a great deal more.

Isnt this why we hired George O'Leary though? So we can right the ship of our past failures during the 2003 realignment? i thought thats what i read when he was hired. He's established some good things, but he hasnt really advanced us much since he was hired when it comes to results on the field except for one year. Whats sad is he couldnt even get his experienced laden 2014 team to beat a 7-5 young NC State team to end a great five year run for this program. He has only proven that he was lucky to be that good...otherwise his teams were rarely good enough to beat P5 opponents...and good enough to beat a weak conference.

In my opinion you are blinded by short memory loss and reconstruction of history. We are not perfect we have never been perfect. But we are miles ahead of where we were in 2003. What is sad is that you think that somehow UCF was mandated to beat NC State merely because they were 7-5 playing in the ACC. What is sad is that you feel disappointment at winning a second consecutive conference championship with a first year QB at the helm because they lost the bowl game. What is sad is that pretty much every team in the AAC would trade places with UCF's record over the last 5 years if it meant that they had to have one terrible season but to you it is wallowing in mediocrity. You are spoiled little children who don't care about the presents they have already opened at Christmas; they want to know why the next one is not bigger than the last. You think there is a "cure all" for this season, well there is not. Welcome to UCF football, sometimes it sucks to be a knight. In fact for most of the last 30 years it has sucked to be a knight fan. But I love them. The last 5-6 years has been a blessing and a joy. Thank you GOL and thank you Dr. Hitt. You people must turn it into a negative.

Cool. We should still fire GOL. Take a shot with a new system and Coach, we know where the current system is trending already. Besides, he's retiring soon anyway. Now's a good time.

 

[firm_bizzle]

UCF was an up and coming program in the early 90s. They were on the cover of SI because they were predicted to win the Div 1AA title two years before they moved up to Div 1 now FBS. I didnt expect them to be world beaters but the intent when deciding to move up was to take advantage of being located in Florida and obtain the same success as the Big Three. Besides you and i both know about their closes losses to teams like South Carolina and Georgia and the halftime lead against Nebraska. Before UCF joined the MAC, they were 10-4 against them. As much as i wished they won a BCS/AQ game before 2000, they were trending upwards.

You, like many others (including me) drank the kool-aid in the 90s. UCF was touted as an up and coming program, a sleeping giant, yada yada yada. It was all words, but meanwhile in the backroom meetings of college athletics UCF was not represented. Nobody in leadership understood the game of college athletics. The truth is that winning big games does not get you crap and "almost winning" games gets you even less. Getting into a conference, creating rivalries, setting TV and bowl money and networking in those circles and working your way up through the ranks is what creates value for a program. Louisville understood that. UCF missed the boat completely on this due to poor leadership. When GOL says that winning the conference is the goal, he is 100% right. Winning any of those big games against USC, UGA or GT would have been nice but would still have made us flash in the pans. It is easy to trend upwards when nobody expects anything from you.


And isnt that why we hired George O'Leary? So he can change that perception of our program, to realize the success our other Florida schools have achieved? If we're really an emergency plan, why dump all this money into a new stadium and arena? I mean Memphis did nothing with the Liberty Bowl and backed into an invite. We're not paying GOL this money so we can be the joke of college football, the school who wants to pay a resume faker 2 million a year. We paid him this because if Notre Dame wanted him, then there must be a reason why.

GOL did change the perception of UCF. You people look back in time through total rose colored glasses. We were less than a joke when GOL came in. Kruz boasted about how UCF would dominate the MAC because he was also drinking the kool-aid. Like so many fans he thought that our location and recruiting etc, automatically equaled wins. He got his hat handed to him by the MAC. We were a joke laughed at by all the MAC programs that were offended by Kruz's comments. Our program had no discipline, our recruiting was in the dumps, we were low. Meanwhile USF was ascending.

As for this radar crap, where were you when Daunte Culpepper and UCF was mentioned in the same sentence on sports broadcasts and other shows because i heard it plenty of times.

Daunte WAS UCF football then. He was the one man show. Without him UCF was nothing. He was a freak, an aberration. Once he left UCF became nothing but "the school where Daunte Culpepper went to school."

Where were you when Coach Kruz turned down the offer to coach Kentucky?

Kruz was never offered the job at Kentucky. He was a candidate but he was not offered the job. The UCF program was in such disarray at the time that many here were hoping he would be offered the job and go. I think a year later he was fired. So again, stop looking at the past with such fond memories.

Look i dont live and breathe UCF football, so if i know about information like that then UCF was a team on the map. The perception of us was a young up and coming program in a fertile recruiting area who will quickly overcome its obstacles. Say what you want about the end of 2003 and the redshirt burning of Steven Moffat, we had more potential as a young program then any of the "smaller" schools back then.

Again with the Kool-Aid. I have been a fan since 1984. I have been around the country going to UCF games. I went to 1-AA playoffs etc.. I drank the Kool-aid at the time. It was complete and utter hogwash. UCF was not on the lips of anyone that mattered. Yes UCF had all the potential in the world, but they were not being used correctly. The only time UCF became relevant to the conference talks or to the football world in general was after we joined CUSA. We began to establish a name among the conference foes, had bowl tie ins, in other words we join the college football world. Are reputation and name in the college football circles is infinitely better than it was in 2003. That most mostly due to the work of Steve Orisini, Dr. Hitt and GOL. The only ones who thought UCF was an up and coming school were UCF fans. To everyone else we were homecoming fodder.

When the Big East conference football program started they invited four time national champions Miami to join. Oh yeah they had a great baskeball program back then. Look im not saying we win national titles, but I think if we held on to beat Nebraska on the road in 1997, held on to beat a crappy Auburn in 1998 and played in the Oahu bowl, beat Georgia on the road in 1999 and had some other losses go our way, the Big East wouldve overlooked our ambitious statements about joining the ACC and SEC and offer us an all school invite. Unfortunately we only had the 2000 victory over Alabama to hang our hats on.

If...if... if.... The only if I think about nowadays is "If we would have joined CUSA in the 90s we would have been better off. The rest is all BS. You win a big game and it is good for a couple of weeks and then forgotten. Win championships, even in lower level conferences, and it means a great deal more.

Isnt this why we hired George O'Leary though? So we can right the ship of our past failures during the 2003 realignment? i thought thats what i read when he was hired. He's established some good things, but he hasnt really advanced us much since he was hired when it comes to results on the field except for one year. Whats sad is he couldnt even get his experienced laden 2014 team to beat a 7-5 young NC State team to end a great five year run for this program. He has only proven that he was lucky to be that good...otherwise his teams were rarely good enough to beat P5 opponents...and good enough to beat a weak conference.

In my opinion you are blinded by short memory loss and reconstruction of history. We are not perfect we have never been perfect. But we are miles ahead of where we were in 2003. What is sad is that you think that somehow UCF was mandated to beat NC State merely because they were 7-5 playing in the ACC. What is sad is that you feel disappointment at winning a second consecutive conference championship with a first year QB at the helm because they lost the bowl game. What is sad is that pretty much every team in the AAC would trade places with UCF's record over the last 5 years if it meant that they had to have one terrible season but to you it is wallowing in mediocrity. You are spoiled little children who don't care about the presents they have already opened at Christmas; they want to know why the next one is not bigger than the last. You think there is a "cure all" for this season, well there is not. Welcome to UCF football, sometimes it sucks to be a knight. In fact for most of the last 30 years it has sucked to be a knight fan. But I love them. The last 5-6 years has been a blessing and a joy. Thank you GOL and thank you Dr. Hitt. You people must turn it into a negative.

At the end of the day Kruc winning percentage was 54.45% and GOL is 55.48%
Hundreds of millions of dollars later even you can't defend that.

 

[jetsaholic]

At the end of the day Kruc winning percentage was 54.45% and GOL is 55.48%
Hundreds of millions of dollars later even you can't defend that.

#dropsmicandwalksaway

 

[EngAlum98]

At the end of the day Kruc winning percentage was 54.45% and GOL is 55.48%
Hundreds of millions of dollars later even you can't defend that.

The only really good season Kruz has was when he took over McDowell's team at the start of the season. After that, his ok seasons were padded with 1-AA's and sub-par MAC teams like Western Michigan. His last season only saw wins against two last place MAC teams and barely beat 1-AA FAU while losing to a MAC school that was losing to 1-AA schools.... not to mention all of the disciplinary and grade issues he was having.

 

[anon_x731qvsnsyb8i]

The only really good season Kruz has was when he took over McDowell's team at the start of the season. After that, his ok seasons were padded with 1-AA's and sub-par MAC teams like Western Michigan. His last season only saw wins against two last place MAC teams and barely beat 1-AA FAU while losing to a MAC school that was losing to 1-AA schools.... not to mention all of the disciplinary and grade issues he was having.

What's your point?

 

[Gwoz]

The only really good season Kruz has was when he took over McDowell's team at the start of the season. After that, his ok seasons were padded with 1-AA's and sub-par MAC teams like Western Michigan.

If you make that argument than you have to factor in UCF only defeated 1 team that finished .500 or above in 2010, and 2013 5 wins came against teams that had 3 or less wins. GOL best seasons were certainly helped by easier schedules.

 

[SCKnight]

At the end of the day Kruc winning percentage was 54.45% and GOL is 55.48%
Hundreds of millions of dollars later even you can't defend that.

I can defend it all day. Winning percentage of what? Meaning what? What did winning percentage mean to UCF during the Kruz Era? Nothing. Did we go to a bowl game? Nope. did we win a MAC championships Nope. Did we beat any P5 programs? Yes, one time against a 3-8 Alabama team. A victory that is completely forgotten and meaningless in the light of recent UCF history. What did we gain from GOL for millions (not hundreds of millions)? Relevance. Like it or not we are relevant in realignment discussions. More than your heroes at Boise.

 

[KnightsofGroveland]

The only really good season Kruz has was when he took over McDowell's team at the start of the season. After that, his ok seasons were padded with 1-AA's and sub-par MAC teams like Western Michigan. His last season only saw wins against two last place MAC teams and barely beat 1-AA FAU while losing to a MAC school that was losing to 1-AA schools.... not to mention all of the disciplinary and grade issues he was having.

A 1-AA team that he still beat. And MAC teams that he still beat. What is our record after 11 years again?

 

[EngAlum98]

If you make that argument than you have to factor in UCF only defeated 1 team that finished .500 or above in 2010, and 2013 5 wins came against teams that had 3 or less wins. GOL best seasons were certainly helped by easier schedules.

No I don't. Because in those years, GOL beat teams way better than Kruz EVER beat. Kruz didn't beat anyone with a heartbeat.

 

[SCKnight]

A 1-AA team that he still beat. And MAC teams that he still beat. What is our record after 11 years again?

You mean our record of championships, bowl games , top 10 finishes and top 25 finishes? I am sure that is what you mean because you do remember that we won the league championship last year and went to bowl game and lots of stuff that most AAC teams did not get to do. Oh yeah, we beat BYU too. Was that so long ago that you had forgotten? Oh yeah we also beat a couple of top 10 teams, won a BCS Bowl and all in the last two years. What a disaster!!

 

[Poolside Knight]

and putting the Program in a position to win 4 or less games 2 years later is a sign of bad coaching.

not to mention that 3 games during that magical year were late 4th quarter games vs some of the worst teams in the nation, with the talent on the field it was bad gameday coaching by GOL to ever have those games get to that point where Bortles had to bail UCF out

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

UCF was an up and coming program in the early 90s. They were on the cover of SI because they were predicted to win the Div 1AA title two years before they moved up to Div 1 now FBS. I didnt expect them to be world beaters but the intent when deciding to move up was to take advantage of being located in Florida and obtain the same success as the Big Three. Besides you and i both know about their closes losses to teams like South Carolina and Georgia and the halftime lead against Nebraska. Before UCF joined the MAC, they were 10-4 against them. As much as i wished they won a BCS/AQ game before 2000, they were trending upwards.

You, like many others (including me) drank the kool-aid in the 90s. UCF was touted as an up and coming program, a sleeping giant, yada yada yada. It was all words, but meanwhile in the backroom meetings of college athletics UCF was not represented. Nobody in leadership understood the game of college athletics. The truth is that winning big games does not get you crap and "almost winning" games gets you even less. Getting into a conference, creating rivalries, setting TV and bowl money and networking in those circles and working your way up through the ranks is what creates value for a program. Louisville understood that. UCF missed the boat completely on this due to poor leadership. When GOL says that winning the conference is the goal, he is 100% right. Winning any of those big games against USC, UGA or GT would have been nice but would still have made us flash in the pans. It is easy to trend upwards when nobody expects anything from you.


And isnt that why we hired George O'Leary? So he can change that perception of our program, to realize the success our other Florida schools have achieved? If we're really an emergency plan, why dump all this money into a new stadium and arena? I mean Memphis did nothing with the Liberty Bowl and backed into an invite. We're not paying GOL this money so we can be the joke of college football, the school who wants to pay a resume faker 2 million a year. We paid him this because if Notre Dame wanted him, then there must be a reason why.

GOL did change the perception of UCF. You people look back in time through total rose colored glasses. We were less than a joke when GOL came in. Kruz boasted about how UCF would dominate the MAC because he was also drinking the kool-aid. Like so many fans he thought that our location and recruiting etc, automatically equaled wins. He got his hat handed to him by the MAC. We were a joke laughed at by all the MAC programs that were offended by Kruz's comments. Our program had no discipline, our recruiting was in the dumps, we were low. Meanwhile USF was ascending.

As for this radar crap, where were you when Daunte Culpepper and UCF was mentioned in the same sentence on sports broadcasts and other shows because i heard it plenty of times.

Daunte WAS UCF football then. He was the one man show. Without him UCF was nothing. He was a freak, an aberration. Once he left UCF became nothing but "the school where Daunte Culpepper went to school."

Where were you when Coach Kruz turned down the offer to coach Kentucky?

Kruz was never offered the job at Kentucky. He was a candidate but he was not offered the job. The UCF program was in such disarray at the time that many here were hoping he would be offered the job and go. I think a year later he was fired. So again, stop looking at the past with such fond memories.

Look i dont live and breathe UCF football, so if i know about information like that then UCF was a team on the map. The perception of us was a young up and coming program in a fertile recruiting area who will quickly overcome its obstacles. Say what you want about the end of 2003 and the redshirt burning of Steven Moffat, we had more potential as a young program then any of the "smaller" schools back then.

Again with the Kool-Aid. I have been a fan since 1984. I have been around the country going to UCF games. I went to 1-AA playoffs etc.. I drank the Kool-aid at the time. It was complete and utter hogwash. UCF was not on the lips of anyone that mattered. Yes UCF had all the potential in the world, but they were not being used correctly. The only time UCF became relevant to the conference talks or to the football world in general was after we joined CUSA. We began to establish a name among the conference foes, had bowl tie ins, in other words we join the college football world. Are reputation and name in the college football circles is infinitely better than it was in 2003. That most mostly due to the work of Steve Orisini, Dr. Hitt and GOL. The only ones who thought UCF was an up and coming school were UCF fans. To everyone else we were homecoming fodder.

When the Big East conference football program started they invited four time national champions Miami to join. Oh yeah they had a great baskeball program back then. Look im not saying we win national titles, but I think if we held on to beat Nebraska on the road in 1997, held on to beat a crappy Auburn in 1998 and played in the Oahu bowl, beat Georgia on the road in 1999 and had some other losses go our way, the Big East wouldve overlooked our ambitious statements about joining the ACC and SEC and offer us an all school invite. Unfortunately we only had the 2000 victory over Alabama to hang our hats on.

If...if... if.... The only if I think about nowadays is "If we would have joined CUSA in the 90s we would have been better off. The rest is all BS. You win a big game and it is good for a couple of weeks and then forgotten. Win championships, even in lower level conferences, and it means a great deal more.

Isnt this why we hired George O'Leary though? So we can right the ship of our past failures during the 2003 realignment? i thought thats what i read when he was hired. He's established some good things, but he hasnt really advanced us much since he was hired when it comes to results on the field except for one year. Whats sad is he couldnt even get his experienced laden 2014 team to beat a 7-5 young NC State team to end a great five year run for this program. He has only proven that he was lucky to be that good...otherwise his teams were rarely good enough to beat P5 opponents...and good enough to beat a weak conference.

In my opinion you are blinded by short memory loss and reconstruction of history. We are not perfect we have never been perfect. But we are miles ahead of where we were in 2003. What is sad is that you think that somehow UCF was mandated to beat NC State merely because they were 7-5 playing in the ACC. What is sad is that you feel disappointment at winning a second consecutive conference championship with a first year QB at the helm because they lost the bowl game. What is sad is that pretty much every team in the AAC would trade places with UCF's record over the last 5 years if it meant that they had to have one terrible season but to you it is wallowing in mediocrity. You are spoiled little children who don't care about the presents they have already opened at Christmas; they want to know why the next one is not bigger than the last. You think there is a "cure all" for this season, well there is not. Welcome to UCF football, sometimes it sucks to be a knight. In fact for most of the last 30 years it has sucked to be a knight fan. But I love them. The last 5-6 years has been a blessing and a joy. Thank you GOL and thank you Dr. Hitt. You people must turn it into a negative.

Did you read Bianchi's article? And yes you have excellent points...but....this is not just a down season... for various reasons. The 10 years we got from GOL is as far as he can take us in my opinion. And I am basing that on his history of decisions. The people he hires and puts into position are his decisions! I understand that we can't recruit like Florida, but decisions such as putting an offensive line coach as a play caller??? Come on! We have the money to pay smart people! The team missed 15 tackles against Tulane...15!!!! Basics. Yes GOL has done alot......but when do we turn the corner and stop settling for mediocracy? (I know we won the Tostitos bowl and many conference championships) but where is the consistency? The horrible decision to start Dinovo?? wth was that. The ROCAL is our hero?? Have you actually watched the play calling this year? Even if we lost some guys, our recruits should be intelligent enough and coached up enough to run smart plays. Explain the offensive line (which was supposed to improve this year)?? Thank you GOL and Dr, Hitt for everything, but how to we turn the corner?

 

[EngAlum98]

Remember Kruz's great 2000 season when we went 7-4 and beat Alabama? Kruz's other wins were 4 1-AA teams, a 3 win La Tech, and 3 win Eastern Michigan team. What an awesome year that was!!! If you think that was great, you should look at 1999 and 2001. Doozies!!!! Did he beat anyone with a winning record. Oh yeah, 1-AA's. At least by 2002 Kruz was beating bottom feeding MAC teams before falling on his face in 2003.

 

[Knight_Classes_begin_7pm]

Are we happy winning in the AAC, YES......but we're not winning in the AAC now and won't be because we know how GOL works. It will take 3 years to MAYBE get out of this mess. He's too predictable.

 

[EngAlum98]

Are we happy winning in the AAC, YES......but we're not winning in the AAC now and won't be because we know how GOL works. It will take 3 years to MAYBE get out of this mess. He's too predictable.

Your statements are so full of fail, I don't even feel like responding to them.