So glad we didn't come out of half time and do worse......like we used to!!! 
Oh happy day! Nice win!
Oh happy day! Nice win!
We were so used to the second half crash with GOL!
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Yes, must have had the worst halftime pep talk and coaching adjustments in college football. UCF was lucky if it even scored in the 3rd quarters.
Was going to mention Frost must have really good half time adjustment plans and/or talks. No deflating yet.
and it wasn't just our last coach that had bad quarters. Seems like we can say the decades old culture has been swept away.
Just checked the season stats: UCF outscored opponents almost 2 to 1 in the 4th quarter (41-22), 48-31 in the 3rd quarter, 52 to 30 in the 2nd. Only in quarter 1 are we even (28-28) and low scoring. And UCF is 16 of 17 in the Red Zone, with 12 of those 16 being TDs. That's nice efficiency. Also, out rushing opponents 2-to-1, with almost half that surrendered to Maryland.
We always played not to lose against teams we were better than. This drove me nuts because eventually they always got back in the game. I love that frost won't take his foot off the pedal.
Worse yet, when you fail to put teams away, you don't get your younger players PT. Top programs are ranked every year because they just reload after graduation. GOL had this rep of alternating good-bad years because starters had to play the whole game. The Fiesta Bowl year was so absurdly unlikely because of lack of injuries and two (2) perfectly-timed bye weeks to heal up as well as rest.
Particularly the 3rd quarter. Poor 3rd quarter performance is usually poor coaching. So far it is refreshing to see a reversal of that trend.
Recall how Frost kept insisting he made no halftime adjustments against SCSt? I think he says that to provide future opponents with minimal info about how he operates.
You guys don't go back far enough. We did play football before GOL, and it looked about the same- fighting unbelievably hard against a better team and then the next week barely getting by a team from a lower league. It's been happening since the 80s, probably before.
Not sure what UCF team you were watching but we were not relevant as a program until around 2007. It was not coaching so much as we did not have the horses to finish the race. That was when we got our OCS and won our first championship. Membership in CUSA was key. Until then we were the cute little school that played tough but could never quite win anything. Oh yeah, we were "that place that Daunte Culpepper played". Hopefully we will be soon be known as the place Scott Frost began his meteoric rise in the college coaching ranks
Nice try. The decade before the C-USA (which is now half of the AAC) was enjoyed years of success, even after Daunte. Half those teams would have beaten GOL's sub-500 teams he had every other year in the C-USA.
What was different? Two things. Today, non-P-5 conferences fight over schools to join them; UCF had to beg, and could only get into the MAC (football only) conference of directional schools that survives mainly on big checks from losing to Big 10 schools. And nobody wanted to play us after UCF put the scare into them with near upsets.
Secondly, there weren't nearly as many bowls or teams (now are 30 more FBS schools). UCF finish 9-2 in the 90s and thought they had a lock on a bowl. Nope. By the time we joined the C-USA, conferences had so many bowls tie-ins that they often didn't have enough bowl-qualifying teams to fill them all. Hence, the recent reduction to 5-wins to qualify.
Nice Try? Try Nice re-writing history. There were no "years of success". There was a lot of "almost winning against big programs" and a mix of wins and losses against teams that if we lost to under GOL or Frost people would be jumping off of bridges. 1998 was the best season prior to CUSA and we went 9-2 without a single win against a P-5 program. Other than that we had a bunch of 7 and 6 win seasons against crappy competition. If you want to crow about "almost beating UGA and almost beating Auburn and playing GT into the 4th quarter..etc etc.. have at it. I gave up on that years ago when I finally learned (after 2 decades of hearing it) what a load of crap the "sleeping giant" moniker was.
We were approached to be in CUSA when it started but Gene McDowell was set on UCF joining a bigger conference. What a mistake that was.So later we had to join the MAC which was better than being independent. Nobody was scared of us, that was just UCF fans talking. Nobody gave a S*#t about us because we were irrelevant. It was not until we got into a conference and starting competing for championships that anyone even began to give us any notice.
The obsession we have as a fanbase with the old coach is ridiculous. He's gone. He's not coming back except in statue form. There are so many awesome things happening now. Enjoy it. Move on.
NO YEARS OF SUCCESS....I beg to differ Sir!
You are right we did get into the Division II playoffs a few times
This is true, but we beat those teams in dominant fashion. Despite who was QB we won those games by 20 points or so. That is a big thing
1994 - Sports Illustrated Cover
1997 - started out best 0-3 team in the nation, throttled top 30 Toledo to close out season
1998 - 9-2 season, Daunte puts UCF on the map, season ruined by last second loss to Auburn and Miami reclaiming 3rd best team in Florida with upset over UCLA
2000 to 2003 - media darlings as next big program/sleeping giant - although being challenged by emerging South Florida
2004 - We thought GOL was going to turn those close losses to wins, but he wanted to overhaul the program and the kids involved and it took longer to get back to where were at and finally win big games.
Fortunately Scott Frost isnt doing the same thing or we'd be Southern Miss post-Fedora 0-23 era.
If we beat Tulane this week they go to 3-3, so no dice. If Temple loses to Memphis this week, they'll have a losing record. UCONN is 2-3, so even if they win the next 2 games a loss to UCF would put them at .500. So UCF just has to beat Houston to get credit for a win.
Nice to humiliate ECU. Hope they regroup and came back and beat duh*bulls...Go Pirates!
Because of the 0-12 finish last year, demands to beat P5 teams are not a big deal to me this year. Demands to beat teams with a winning record isnt a big deal either. We're actually doing better than i expected. As for the ECU win, that is one of the best wins we've had over them ever.
If we finish strong and have big wins, i'll expect them to carry the conference and participate in taking down P5 teams like its conference mates have been doing the last two years.
If we finish strong and have big wins, i'll expect them to carry the conference and participate in taking down P5 teams like its conference mates have been doing the last two years.
Sports Illustrated Cover
What are you talking about?
1997 - started out best 0-3 team in the nation, throttled top 30 Toledo to close out season. 5-7 season with wins over Samford, Kent, Idaho and E. Michigan. Lost to La-Monroe. Wow what a season. Now you know why USF fans call us UCiF
1998 - 9-2 season, Daunte puts UCF on the map, season ruined by last second loss to Auburn and Miami reclaiming 3rd best team in Florida with upset over UCLA
2000 to 2003 - media darlings as next big program/sleeping giant - although being challenged by emerging South Florida. We were the sleeping giant once again. Heard this since the 80s. It is a nice way to say that you are really inferior. Wins against MAC teams and losses against our only 2 P-5 match ups. I was at the Auburn game and we should have won but coaching, and Daunte, screwed the pooch. Auburn went on to win all of three games that season. The reason we did not get the bid to the bowl in Hawaii was that we were not In a conference, we were irrelevant and our wins were not against good teams.
2004 - We thought GOL was going to turn those close losses to wins, but he wanted to overhaul the program and the kids involved and it took longer to get back to where were at and finally win big games. I'm sorry did I miss something? We went 3-9 in 2003 Our program was in shambles, there was no discipline and our team sucked. The program needed a complete overhaul and that is what it got.
Fortunately Scott Frost isnt doing the same thing or we'd be Southern Miss post-Fedora 0-23 era.
Man, you can write some revisionist history.
What are you talking about?
1997 - started out best 0-3 team in the nation, throttled top 30 Toledo to close out season. 5-7 season with wins over Samford, Kent, Idaho and E. Michigan. Lost to La-Monroe. Wow what a season. Now you know why USF fans call us UCiF
1998 - 9-2 season, Daunte puts UCF on the map, season ruined by last second loss to Auburn and Miami reclaiming 3rd best team in Florida with upset over UCLA
2000 to 2003 - media darlings as next big program/sleeping giant - although being challenged by emerging South Florida. We were the sleeping giant once again. Heard this since the 80s. It is a nice way to say that you are really inferior. Wins against MAC teams and losses against our only 2 P-5 match ups. I was at the Auburn game and we should have won but coaching, and Daunte, screwed the pooch. Auburn went on to win all of three games that season. The reason we did not get the bid to the bowl in Hawaii was that we were not In a conference, we were irrelevant and our wins were not against good teams.
2004 - We thought GOL was going to turn those close losses to wins, but he wanted to overhaul the program and the kids involved and it took longer to get back to where were at and finally win big games. I'm sorry did I miss something? We went 3-9 in 2003 Our program was in shambles, there was no discipline and our team sucked. The program needed a complete overhaul and that is what it got.
Fortunately Scott Frost isnt doing the same thing or we'd be Southern Miss post-Fedora 0-23 era.
Man, you can write some revisionist history.
QUOTE="1 of these Knights, post: 911793, member: 10715"]Sports Illustrated Cover
What are you talking about? Feck off. UCF was selected as the preseason No. 1 to start the 1994 season and was on the cover of SI. If you'd take your mouth off of GOLs nuts youd know this. Either that or calm the eff down.
1997 - started out best 0-3 team in the nation, throttled top 30 Toledo to close out season. 5-7 season with wins over Samford, Kent, Idaho and E. Michigan. Lost to La-Monroe. Wow what a season. Now you know why USF fans call us UCiF
A one year old Div 1 program got one vote in the AP and was lauded as the best 0-3 team in 1997. What is it that youre expecting? The narrative here is that we weren't as bad as some of you people claim we were back then.
1998 - 9-2 season, Daunte puts UCF on the map, season ruined by last second loss to Auburn and Miami reclaiming 3rd best team in Florida with upset over UCLA
2000 to 2003 - media darlings as next big program/sleeping giant - although being challenged by emerging South Florida. We were the sleeping giant once again. Heard this since the 80s. It is a nice way to say that you are really inferior. Wins against MAC teams and losses against our only 2 P-5 match ups. I was at the Auburn game and we should have won but coaching, and Daunte, screwed the pooch. Auburn went on to win all of three games that season. The reason we did not get the bid to the bowl in Hawaii was that we were not In a conference, we were irrelevant and our wins were not against good teams.
We had a provisional offer to Hawaii as long as UCLA beat Miami. That didnt happen. Now youre revising with your we're not in a conference claim. While conferences have helped us later, in this scenario we did have an offer as long as UCLA which was a 30 point favorite would live up to its end.
2004 - We thought GOL was going to turn those close losses to wins, but he wanted to overhaul the program and the kids involved and it took longer to get back to where were at and finally win big games. I'm sorry did I miss something? We went 3-9 in 2003 Our program was in shambles, there was no discipline and our team sucked. The program needed a complete overhaul and that is what it got.
Guess what our last year we finished 0-12 and our team quit on the coach. Instead of overhauling the players Coach Frost gave them a chance and were doing alright.
Fortunately Scott Frost isnt doing the same thing or we'd be Southern Miss post-Fedora 0-23 era.
Man, you can write some revisionist history If anyone is making up history its you.
What are you talking about? Feck off. UCF was selected as the preseason No. 1 to start the 1994 season and was on the cover of SI. If you'd take your mouth off of GOLs nuts youd know this. Either that or calm the eff down.
1997 - started out best 0-3 team in the nation, throttled top 30 Toledo to close out season. 5-7 season with wins over Samford, Kent, Idaho and E. Michigan. Lost to La-Monroe. Wow what a season. Now you know why USF fans call us UCiF
A one year old Div 1 program got one vote in the AP and was lauded as the best 0-3 team in 1997. What is it that youre expecting? The narrative here is that we weren't as bad as some of you people claim we were back then.
1998 - 9-2 season, Daunte puts UCF on the map, season ruined by last second loss to Auburn and Miami reclaiming 3rd best team in Florida with upset over UCLA
2000 to 2003 - media darlings as next big program/sleeping giant - although being challenged by emerging South Florida. We were the sleeping giant once again. Heard this since the 80s. It is a nice way to say that you are really inferior. Wins against MAC teams and losses against our only 2 P-5 match ups. I was at the Auburn game and we should have won but coaching, and Daunte, screwed the pooch. Auburn went on to win all of three games that season. The reason we did not get the bid to the bowl in Hawaii was that we were not In a conference, we were irrelevant and our wins were not against good teams.
We had a provisional offer to Hawaii as long as UCLA beat Miami. That didnt happen. Now youre revising with your we're not in a conference claim. While conferences have helped us later, in this scenario we did have an offer as long as UCLA which was a 30 point favorite would live up to its end.
2004 - We thought GOL was going to turn those close losses to wins, but he wanted to overhaul the program and the kids involved and it took longer to get back to where were at and finally win big games. I'm sorry did I miss something? We went 3-9 in 2003 Our program was in shambles, there was no discipline and our team sucked. The program needed a complete overhaul and that is what it got.
Guess what our last year we finished 0-12 and our team quit on the coach. Instead of overhauling the players Coach Frost gave them a chance and were doing alright.
Fortunately Scott Frost isnt doing the same thing or we'd be Southern Miss post-Fedora 0-23 era.
Man, you can write some revisionist history If anyone is making up history its you.
http://www.ucfknights.com/news/2007/7/18/Division_I_AA_Football_Comes_to_Orlando.aspx
The 1994 preseason was about hype and may have featured UCF's most talented team. Nine players off that roster would go on to sign professional contracts. Sports Illustrated picked UCF to win the Division I-AA championship and most polls slotted the team at No. 1 to start the year.
This thread is funny. Everyone is splitting hairs when you've just got to look at the big picture. Is this win better than that win, etc...? It doesn't matter at this point what we were but what we are today and where we are going. The only thing that has ever mattered is collecting hardware. When you collect hardware you won't care about this one win, or that one loss. You won't care about what uniforms we wear or what color shirt we're supposed to wear while watching the game. We'll just care that our team is back at the top and winning (not just competing) for hardware.
Here's our history in a nutshell (and I can only speak for my knowledge since we were Div-II):
1) We were a solid D-II program but didn't win any hardware. Coach had to cut his own salary and have FSU donate uniforms to us....that's the kind of wanna-be program we had at the time.
2) We were a solid 1-AA program but didn't win any hardware.
3) When we moved to 1-A we became a sham of a program (1996-2003). I've always said, "We had a football team but not a football program." We didn't have the resources allocated to compete...and didn't for the most part. We didn't win any hardware. Other than the aura that surrounded Daunte that's 8 years of suckitude. It makes total sense in the grand scheme of life as we learned a lot of hard lessons as to what it was going to take to become successful. You might say our program was like a "child"....incomplete and trying to learn.
4) 2004....the birth (or re-birth) of UCF Football. The school invests resources and makes the other commitments necessary to give us the opportunity to become a competitive football program at the D-1/FBS level.
5) 2004-2015. Ups and Downs. 3.3 Conference titles and a BCS Bowl victory. Program wins hardware for the first time. It's like a bear tasting blood. You can't stop yearning for hardware once you've had a taste. This was our adolescence.
6) 2016-???. We don't know what we're going to be but from going 0-12 last year to the way we look this year, I'd say we're a year away from competing for hardware again. Let's all hope we now become more consistent, and win hardware. That is the ultimate goal of any program. It's not OK to just win more consistently. We have to set the bar like that to be the very best and we've invested to do so. Let's hope it works out that way. It's time to become an adult.
Here's our history in a nutshell (and I can only speak for my knowledge since we were Div-II):
1) We were a solid D-II program but didn't win any hardware. Coach had to cut his own salary and have FSU donate uniforms to us....that's the kind of wanna-be program we had at the time.
2) We were a solid 1-AA program but didn't win any hardware.
3) When we moved to 1-A we became a sham of a program (1996-2003). I've always said, "We had a football team but not a football program." We didn't have the resources allocated to compete...and didn't for the most part. We didn't win any hardware. Other than the aura that surrounded Daunte that's 8 years of suckitude. It makes total sense in the grand scheme of life as we learned a lot of hard lessons as to what it was going to take to become successful. You might say our program was like a "child"....incomplete and trying to learn.
4) 2004....the birth (or re-birth) of UCF Football. The school invests resources and makes the other commitments necessary to give us the opportunity to become a competitive football program at the D-1/FBS level.
5) 2004-2015. Ups and Downs. 3.3 Conference titles and a BCS Bowl victory. Program wins hardware for the first time. It's like a bear tasting blood. You can't stop yearning for hardware once you've had a taste. This was our adolescence.
6) 2016-???. We don't know what we're going to be but from going 0-12 last year to the way we look this year, I'd say we're a year away from competing for hardware again. Let's all hope we now become more consistent, and win hardware. That is the ultimate goal of any program. It's not OK to just win more consistently. We have to set the bar like that to be the very best and we've invested to do so. Let's hope it works out that way. It's time to become an adult.
Sports Illustrated Cover
What are you talking about? Feck off. UCF was selected as the preseason No. 1 to start the 1994 season and was on the cover of SI. If you'd take your mouth off of GOLs nuts youd know this. Either that or calm the eff down.
Easy Boy. I don't think UCF was ever on the cover of SI. We were picked preseason to win the Division 2 playoffs (or 1-AA) whatever it was. But we were never on SI cover. If you could get a copy of that I would like to see it, because it would be news to me.
1997 - started out best 0-3 team in the nation, throttled top 30 Toledo to close out season. 5-7 season with wins over Samford, Kent, Idaho and E. Michigan. Lost to La-Monroe. Wow what a season. Now you know why USF fans call us UCiF
A one year old Div 1 program got one vote in the AP and was lauded as the best 0-3 team in 1997. What is it that youre expecting? The narrative here is that we weren't as bad as some of you people claim we were back then.
I dont think it was that we were bad, but that we were irrelevant to division 1 college football. Waxing nostalgic about being 0-3 is akin to USF fans crowing about being ranked #2 for a week. Only UCF fans can see anything great about being the best 0-3 team in the country. We could not finish, and like it or not that is the legacy.
1998 - 9-2 season, Daunte puts UCF on the map, season ruined by last second loss to Auburn and Miami reclaiming 3rd best team in Florida with upset over UCLA
2000 to 2003 - media darlings as next big program/sleeping giant - although being challenged by emerging South Florida. We were the sleeping giant once again. Heard this since the 80s. It is a nice way to say that you are really inferior. Wins against MAC teams and losses against our only 2 P-5 match ups. I was at the Auburn game and we should have won but coaching, and Daunte, screwed the pooch. Auburn went on to win all of three games that season. The reason we did not get the bid to the bowl in Hawaii was that we were not In a conference, we were irrelevant and our wins were not against good teams.
We had a provisional offer to Hawaii as long as UCLA beat Miami. That didnt happen. Now youre revising with your we're not in a conference claim. While conferences have helped us later, in this scenario we did have an offer as long as UCLA which was a 30 point favorite would live up to its end.
Yes we had a provisional bowl bid but that was only because there was no other alternative. Hawaii was not really excited about UCF. When Miami beat UCLA it pushed enough teams around so that Hawaii was able to secure Colorado instead of UCF. I think the point here is that it was the strength of Daunte Culpepper as a storyline that got UCF their provisional bid. Duante was a serious Heisman candidate and it was his story that was selling UCF, not our record or the strength of our victories. Had UCF been in a conference they would have been in a bowl earlier.
2004 - We thought GOL was going to turn those close losses to wins, but he wanted to overhaul the program and the kids involved and it took longer to get back to where were at and finally win big games. I'm sorry did I miss something? We went 3-9 in 2003 Our program was in shambles, there was no discipline and our team sucked. The program needed a complete overhaul and that is what it got.
Guess what our last year we finished 0-12 and our team quit on the coach. Instead of overhauling the players Coach Frost gave them a chance and were doing alright.
Scott Frost did not need to overhaul the program, just motivate the players. Huge difference from 2003. A universe of difference. No way that Scott Frost agrees to be the coach at UCF in 2003. He came into a program with discipline, good grades, good facilities, good players, all of who were completely demoralized by the previous year. He has done a great job at resuscitating this program. He is an amazing coach and everyone is on board.
Fortunately Scott Frost isnt doing the same thing or we'd be Southern Miss post-Fedora 0-23 era.
Man, you can write some revisionist history If anyone is making up history its you.[/QUOTE]
What are you talking about? Feck off. UCF was selected as the preseason No. 1 to start the 1994 season and was on the cover of SI. If you'd take your mouth off of GOLs nuts youd know this. Either that or calm the eff down.
Easy Boy. I don't think UCF was ever on the cover of SI. We were picked preseason to win the Division 2 playoffs (or 1-AA) whatever it was. But we were never on SI cover. If you could get a copy of that I would like to see it, because it would be news to me.
1997 - started out best 0-3 team in the nation, throttled top 30 Toledo to close out season. 5-7 season with wins over Samford, Kent, Idaho and E. Michigan. Lost to La-Monroe. Wow what a season. Now you know why USF fans call us UCiF
A one year old Div 1 program got one vote in the AP and was lauded as the best 0-3 team in 1997. What is it that youre expecting? The narrative here is that we weren't as bad as some of you people claim we were back then.
I dont think it was that we were bad, but that we were irrelevant to division 1 college football. Waxing nostalgic about being 0-3 is akin to USF fans crowing about being ranked #2 for a week. Only UCF fans can see anything great about being the best 0-3 team in the country. We could not finish, and like it or not that is the legacy.
1998 - 9-2 season, Daunte puts UCF on the map, season ruined by last second loss to Auburn and Miami reclaiming 3rd best team in Florida with upset over UCLA
2000 to 2003 - media darlings as next big program/sleeping giant - although being challenged by emerging South Florida. We were the sleeping giant once again. Heard this since the 80s. It is a nice way to say that you are really inferior. Wins against MAC teams and losses against our only 2 P-5 match ups. I was at the Auburn game and we should have won but coaching, and Daunte, screwed the pooch. Auburn went on to win all of three games that season. The reason we did not get the bid to the bowl in Hawaii was that we were not In a conference, we were irrelevant and our wins were not against good teams.
We had a provisional offer to Hawaii as long as UCLA beat Miami. That didnt happen. Now youre revising with your we're not in a conference claim. While conferences have helped us later, in this scenario we did have an offer as long as UCLA which was a 30 point favorite would live up to its end.
Yes we had a provisional bowl bid but that was only because there was no other alternative. Hawaii was not really excited about UCF. When Miami beat UCLA it pushed enough teams around so that Hawaii was able to secure Colorado instead of UCF. I think the point here is that it was the strength of Daunte Culpepper as a storyline that got UCF their provisional bid. Duante was a serious Heisman candidate and it was his story that was selling UCF, not our record or the strength of our victories. Had UCF been in a conference they would have been in a bowl earlier.
2004 - We thought GOL was going to turn those close losses to wins, but he wanted to overhaul the program and the kids involved and it took longer to get back to where were at and finally win big games. I'm sorry did I miss something? We went 3-9 in 2003 Our program was in shambles, there was no discipline and our team sucked. The program needed a complete overhaul and that is what it got.
Guess what our last year we finished 0-12 and our team quit on the coach. Instead of overhauling the players Coach Frost gave them a chance and were doing alright.
Scott Frost did not need to overhaul the program, just motivate the players. Huge difference from 2003. A universe of difference. No way that Scott Frost agrees to be the coach at UCF in 2003. He came into a program with discipline, good grades, good facilities, good players, all of who were completely demoralized by the previous year. He has done a great job at resuscitating this program. He is an amazing coach and everyone is on board.
Fortunately Scott Frost isnt doing the same thing or we'd be Southern Miss post-Fedora 0-23 era.
Man, you can write some revisionist history If anyone is making up history its you.[/QUOTE]
This is a good synopsis of the UCF football history. Not to go all "UCFHonors" on you but I have a pretty complete UCF football resume'. Some highlights: I was there when Eddie O'Brian kicked his 54 yard FG to beat Bethune CC for the first time. I watched Wofford embarrass us at homecoming before the biggest crowd in UCF history (there to see the beach boys afterwards). I watched when we played the Moscow Bears because the team we were supposed to play backed out on us. I was in Statesboro when GA. Southern buried us in the playoffs (again). I was there in Youngstown when we upset the #1 team in the freezing cold to advance in the playoffs. I was there for the noise penalty game. I watched Daunte trip over his own player going in for the winning score against Ole' Miss; when UGA called a complete BS pass interference call at UGA, When the DB fell down and allowed Auburn a 60 yard bomb to win in the last seconds; when we self destructed at home blowing leads against Syracuse and VT; When we took GT, USC and Neb to the wire. In addition I have seen away games at BYU, UT, BC, AZ, PSU, Wisc, TX and UF. I have told myself every kind of lie that UCF fans have told themselves over the years about how we were the next big thing, sleeping giant, best 0-3 team etc. etc..
But with all of that, it was not until the Liberty Bowl win in 2010 did I believe that UCF had actually accomplished something truly relevant. I cried with joy and relief in Memphis at finally having something real for UCF. This was UCF's coming out party. Everything that had come before was smoke and mirrors.
Had Gene McDowell not been forced out as a result of cell-phone gate things might have been different. However our program began to spiral down after he left. He recruited Daunte and it was Duante that held up the program for a while after he left, but once Duante was gone we began our slow spiral down into the abyss and we as fans did not even know it. I don't think many people appreciate the shape our program was in in 2003. As Matt says we were a sham of a program. UCF fans had been drinking the Koolaide for years; being told that we were growing as a program. The truth was that we were "playing" at being a program. It was not until Steve Sloan and GOL that our program finally grew up. It was not until the Liberty Bowl that I realized as a fan how hollow our program had become, and how far up we had come.
If you need any more proof of this just look west and see what accomplishments our friends have had in the same time period. Even with every advantage of the CUSA and the Big East and three different coaches including young, up and coming coaches, they have yet to have that solid accomplishment. They are yearning for an AAC division title; some kind of hardware; something real. UCF fans now have many titles and a true signature season in 2013. Something that would never had been possible pre-2004.
More importantly UCF was able to attract a coach like Scott Frost who is the natural progression in the evolution of UCF football. This also would have been impossible in 2003. Let me say this:
I AM GLAD THAT GOL IS GONE! But I am also glad he was here for the time he was here and I am not so short sighted to ignore how he built a "real football program" at UCF.
GOL should have retired around 2010. With the right hire, UCF's life after that would probably turned out the same but without all of the baggage.
Good part of GOL: By hiring a successful P-5 coach, it helped give us credibility with donors and recruits that the program had matured enough to build the on-campus infrastructure that further sold our status. That was the game changer in a state dominated by UF, FSU, and UM. O'Leary had the national networking (despite the Notre Dame thing) to audaciously do what everyone said could not be done: recruit and develop big linemen on both sides of the ball to succeed with a grind-it-out, wear-em-down offense and bend-but-not-break defense that only huge athletic programs did! Until GOL, the conventional wisdom was that upstart programs only win with Boise St./Louisiana Tech high-scoring, razzle-dazzle strategies.
Maybe, Maybe not. No way of knowing. No program is going to remove a coach right after its first big breakthrough, so there really is no purpose in the discussion. If he does retire maybe we end up with Skip Holtz instead of USF and we go down in flames like they did. I like to think that things happen for a reason. We have baggage but have a Fiesta Bowl win. But for 0-12 we dont have Scott Frost. I think it is a good trade off
[/QUOTE]
Before GOL, we weren't so bad when you think of the other programs that existed at the same time. We did alot for a young program and with little resources. Our program before going Division 1 was receiving good press as well. Im not going to get into another GOL and his budget argument because he chose a direction to build this program and UCF went along with it. You can get away with your statement on how no coach wanted a part of our program in 2003. I just know there's 40 plus programs that wouldve killed for our hype at such a young age. There was definitely some positives.
And did well at for a while until we/he crashed and burned. He was allowed one bad year with a minor scandal. GOL was allowed four mediocre/bad years and a couple scandals. Was it worth it to keep him on? Probably. But the wrong AD brought in to clean things up, and then GOL was made the AD. Disaster.
Before GOL, we weren't so bad when you think of the other programs that existed at the same time. We did alot for a young program and with little resources. Our program before going Division 1 was receiving good press as well. Im not going to get into another GOL and his budget argument because he chose a direction to build this program and UCF went along with it. You can get away with your statement on how no coach wanted a part of our program in 2003. I just know there's 40 plus programs that wouldve killed for our hype at such a young age. There was definitely some positives.[/QUOTE]
I think there were positives, I just think they were mostly in the minds of UCF fans. It was all part of the kool-aid. I enjoyed my time as a UCF fan at all points in my life. But man there was a point where I had to ask myself "how much longer do I have to wait"? How many more times do we have to "almost succeed" at something before we can truly celebrate a turning of the program? When can I stop talking about morale victories and start talking about real ones? I can definitively say that that point came while GOL was coach and as a result of his influence on the program. No doubt that GOL also rode the wave of the increase funding and commitment that the school put into the program. But that was also a condition of his hire. I am not convinced at a young up and coming coach would have brought the legitimacy to the program that GOL did.
this depends upon your definition of bad years. If your definition is almost winning some big games or being a scrappy team then yes. For what it is worth that was better than getting creamed like most other small programs did. But Kruz went 9-2 in his first year but then went 4-7, 7-4, 6-5, 7-5, 3-9. One signature win against a P-5 team against Alabama who went 3-8 that year.
I agree that having GOL as AD and Key as head coach in waiting was a disaster. I was very vocal that GOL should not be the AD. It makes me glad for 0-12 as he might still be AD and Key as coach. I think only an absolute disaster would have completely dislodged GOL and it was time for him to go.
