UCF Head Coach George O’Leary Plotting Retirement
UCF head coach George O'Leary is plotting his retirement. O'Leary is looking to become the school's full-time athletic director.
UCF head coach George O’Leary wants to retire from the sidelines at the end of the 2015 season, reports indicate. But O’Leary doesn’t plan on ending his affiliation with the Knights.
The 69-year-old O’Leary, who has helped transform UCF into a perennial winner, on the field and in the classroom, over the past decade, was named interim athletic director on June 23 after Todd Stansbury left for the same position at Oregon State. And in O’Leary’s succession plan, he wants to remove the ‘interim’ from his title, and then name his replacement, in all likelihood offensive coordinator Brent Key.
Considering what O’Leary has meant to this university during its current growth spurt, UCF would be nuts to end its affiliation with a man who’s helped upgrade the facilities and put the school on the athletic map. True, O’Leary has an imperfect past, yet he’s rallied from the embarrassment of the Notre Dame resume scandal to become the face of UCF.
While O’Leary has no administrative experience, he does have the backing of school president John Hitt, which is invaluable. O’Leary will pitch hard to remain with the school. And if it winds up being he and Key together again in 2016, it’ll be great news for the ongoing success of the football program.
