O’Leary turns his attention to getting Knights back on track.
Offseason moves and injuries already marked UCF’s 2015 season as one of change, but George O’Leary’s announcement Monday that he’d step down as the school’s interim athletics director suggests this season also is about letting go.
“Right now, I want to coach football and, again, I looked at the AD thing and put my time into it, but it’s not something that basically I’m gonna have a real interest in and that’s why I made that decision,” O’Leary said Monday. “And again, I’ll say it, it was my decision alone in making that, and I’m fulfilling the contract in doing that.”
O’Leary, who recently signed a contract extension through 2020, said he signed a contract with the school that gave him until Oct. 15 to decide whether he wanted to pursue the athletics director position full-time.
UCF has not responded to an Orlando Sentinel public information request submitted in May seeking all football coaches’ contracts.
The school announced it has hired a national search agency to fill the athletics director position while O’Leary focuses on mentoring the football team.
Grant Heston, UCF vice president for communications and marketing, will oversee the search and athletics department operations for the university.
Brad Stricklin, executive senior associate athletics director, will serve as interim athletics director.
“I thank George for his service and dedication in this interim role,” UCF president John Hitt said in a news release.
“Our national search will allow us to hire an outstanding leader who can build on the success we’ve achieved academically, competitively and in the community.”
The news comes just a few days after the 0-6 Knights posted a 40-13 loss to UConn, one of the worst losses in school history at Bright House Networks Stadium before an announced crowd of 26,669 fans.
That turnout was the lowest at a home game since Nov. 25, 2011, when UCF beat UTEP 31-14 in front of 21,127.
O’Leary replaced Todd Stansbury, who left to lead Oregon State’s athletic department this summer. UCF president John Hitt told the Orlando Sentinel last month O’Leary’s term would run through December, and then the school would evaluate his performance to see if the football coach still wanted to pursue the job full-time.
He became the first acting head coach to juggle athletic director duties at UCF since Gene McDowell and was among a small fraternity of football coaches who have taken on the daunting challenge, including Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin and Tom Osborne at Nebraska.
The dual role initially presented an exciting new challenge for the 69-year-old coach.
But O’Leary’s attention was drawn farther into football as the Knights started to collapse as the young team tried to cope with an excessive amount of injuries to starters.
Overall, UCF has used 26 first-time starters this season, the most of any team in the nation.
“You know what the challenge is ... [it’s] what we’re used to,” O’Leary said. “We’re used to 30 wins in the last three years and all [of a] sudden it’s like a culture shock the other way. You’re losing and so you’re trying to change that type of thing. Same with our fan base. You know, they’re basically spoiled a little bit as far as some things, and we’re going through some growing pains right now, which is what it amounts to, but the kids, you just got to everyday go on the field and get one step better.”
UCF will try to take the next step forward at undefeated Temple Saturday. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. and the game will air on CBS Sports Network.