UCF president denies George O’Leary retirement rumor
Late last week UCF Knights football became national headlines as Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman indicated that head coach George O’Leary was strongly considering retirement during the 2014 season. In fact, the plan was in place to retire following UCF’s season-opener against Penn State in Dublin, Ireland.
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In his place would step 36-year-old wonder coach Brent Key, who has been tapped as assistant head coach of offense along with his duties as offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator.
However, no such plan exists nor have discussions about O’Leary retiring taken place according to both athletic director Todd Stansbury and now president John C. Hitt.
The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Hitt doesn’t see the Feldman report happening, telling the paper that no such discussions have ever happened.
"“Coach O’Leary would never quit after one game in a season,” Hitt said. “Whoever wrote that doesn’t know George O’Leary. (Athletic Director) Todd Stansbury nor I have ever had any sort of conversation with Coach O’Leary about him retiring. George will retire when he retires. We hope his health stays great. He’s often said when he has two straight days when he goes to work and doesn’t have fun then he’ll retire.”"
In fact, Hitt is hoping that O’Leary continues coaching “for a good, long while,” according to Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel.
O’Leary has led a complete turnaround of the Knights’ program, going from 0-11 in his first season in 2004 to winning the 2014 Fiesta Bowl 52-45 over the Baylor Bears.
It does appear that Key would be a strong candidate when O’Leary does eventually retire (he is 69 years old), and Hitt indicated he saw him as a future head coach.
“He’s going to become somebody’s head coach,” said Hitt to Bianchi.