That was about as pathetic a display as I have ever seen. This was UAB for crying out loud! And we cannot even SCORE?? Thank God we didn’t beat ECU. I would hate to take THAT into the off season knowing we had a chance to win the East. I know Greco was not exactly Steve Young out there this year, but he was STILL head and shoulders above anyone else we had. If he would have played QB all year this year, and we ran some type of spread option offense to utilize his running abilities, I am convinced we would be playing next week. But even with the offense we were running, I think he would have gotten the job done if he wasn’t constantly being benched. If George O’Leary is still coaching this team next season, I do not have much hope for improvement. I thought a guy with his reputation would be able to bring in talent. I don’t see much talent here. We’ve got lineman who can’t block, receivers who can’t catch, quarterbacks who can get a pass within five yards of anybody in a gold jersey, it’s pitiful!
Tomorrow the Knights take on UAB in the final home game of the season. It’s a vert winnable game. A game quite frankly we SHOULD win. Taking a look at the C-USA standings you will see that East Carolina has wrapped up the East. ECU has 2 losses. Everyone else including UCF has at least four. So do you realize what that means? It means the 13-10 loss in OT we had vs. ECU is the ONLY THING that will cost us another trip to the Championship Game as long as we beat UAB. THAT’S IT!! We win that game and we would have been the East Champs again. We beat ECU, both of us would have three losses right now and WE would own the tie breaker by winning the head to head matchup. As bad as we have been on offense all year, we were THAT close to winning the East and going to the C-USA Championship game. That proves right there that there is NO excuse for UCF not DOMINATING this conference. That game came down to O’Leary not having the guts to go for 4th and inches in the 4th quarter. Had we gotten that first down, gone down and kicked a field goal, we are playing for a championship tomorrow. Now do you think we need a new coach?
OK you O’Leary apologists out there. You know who you are. The ones who think 5-7 deserves one more year. Right now according to Rivals, UCF is #76 in the nation in recruiting for next year. #76!! How can a school with brand new state of the art facilities in Orlando Florida be #76?? Any coach that had any kind of reputation for winning should be able to land at least a top 40 class at UCF. Right now at least half the teams in Conference USA are ahead of us. It starts with recruiting people. You can’t win the Daytona 500 in a Pinto. You need players. We need to get somebody in here that will land some three and four star players. Not have them de-commit and go to Ga Tech.
It’s all my fault. Had I put up the site one week earlier, maybe we’d be playing for a bowl bid next week. Oh well, congrats to the Knights on their second straight win. Hopefully, next week we can make it three in a row. But this only PROVES that we should have been a bowl team this year. No excuses. We need new leadership.
So far in the two weeks since the site has been up there have been over 700 visitors. That’s a start. But a disturbing trend is that since the win on Saturday, things have slowed down. As evidence by the current poll question, many of you feel like if we win the last two games we need to give O’Leary more time. I have only one question for you people. WHY? Let’s say we go 5-7 and next year we win C-USA. Sounds great right? What about the 2010 season? If we go 5-7 again or worse, we really haven’t improved at all. We’d still be on the “every other year” track. And we would have lost two more years. Two years we could’ve been building for the type of program we all know can be built here. Don’t fall for this. Remember two years ago we won our games against Memphis and UAB too. We ended up 4-8 but we ended on a good note. We then had an outstanding year last year. Now look at us. Back in the same boat we were in in ‘06. I do not want to go there again in 2010. Do you?
I know what you’re thinking out there. You’re thinking that I’m going to say that I was hoping we’d lose so we can get rid of O’Leary. Well you’re wrong. I don’t root against the Knights. I hope we win out and finish 5-7. I congratulate the team and the coaches on their win today. That includes O’Leary. If he does that more consistently, I’d be in his corner.
However, he does not do this consistently. This game proves that we have NO BUSINESS being 3-7. Marshall was at home fighting to become bowl eligible. It was Homecoming. And it was nasty out there. We had every reason to get crushed. And we win rather easily. So now we are 3-7. We’ve got two winnable games left. So now let’s look back at the season and think about why we’ll be home for the Holidays. Two Overtime losses, a 20-14 loss at Miami, a 17-6 loss at home vs So Miss that was closer than the score. ONE of those games goes in the win column and we would still be alive. That’s not even bringing up the fact we were up at the half against BC and Tulsa. It also doesn’t bring up that we got blown out by a team that hadn’t won a game in over a year in UTEP. We had a defense this year capable of winning eight or nine games. A mediocre offense to go with it and we win 7 easily. This is why we need new coaching.
UCF is a 7.5 point underdog vs. Marshall. Has UCF been within 30 points on the road out of the state this year? Nope. So here’s a Christmas present from me to you. Or at least a tip for helping you make some Christmas shopping cash. Find someone who will give you Marshall and give the points. No way we cover.
Here are the email addresses we need to start flooding with protests.
I knew this would happen. O’Leary supporters and fans of other schools calling us whiners and saying we’re a bunch of crybabies for wanting the coach replaced a year out from a championship. Well to those people I would like to bring up Philip Fulmer. Were Tennessee fans wrong to want him fired? After all, UT played in the SEC Championship Game just last year. I know because I remember stopping on University Avenue to eat after we had just won the C-USA Championship Game and there they were on TV giving the eventual National Champ, LSU, all they could handle. Now, 10 games later , Fulmer is cleaning out his desk.
You see, at UT, they EXPECT to compete, not just hope to compete, for championships every year. Notice I didn’t say they expect to WIN championships, but they expect to be in the running. When that does not happen for the second time in four years, they kick their second all time winningest coach to the curb. A coach that ten years ago went undefeated and won the BCS National Title, is shown the door. UT fans probably would have been happy had the Vols beaten UCLA, Wyoming, and two out of four against Florida, Georgia, Auburn, and Alabama. Had they beaten let’s say, the two weakest of the four, Auburn and Georgia, they would not be in the running for the SEC Title. However, the fans would be more than happy. But they do not and should not accept 3-7. Nor should we.
You can’t just fire the old coach and automatically have a better program. The critical part is to hire the right coach to take over. I would like to see the job go to Charlie Strong. He’s been the Defensive Co-ordinator for a National Champion and by the start of the season next year it may be two. Hopefully if we do go that route, we won’t make the announcement until after Florida finishes their season. I hate it when teams hire an assistant and he starts coaching his new team while his old team still has a huge game to play. I know a new coach needs to get his staff together as soon as possible and start recruiting but I think back to when Georgia hired Mark Richt when FSU had a BCS Title game to play. It cost the Noles a championship. But Charlie Strong is the guy I would like us to hire as soon as the Gators are done.
Same story different day. We’ve been what? Five games without an offensive score after halftime? That’s just downright pathetic. Hey Coach! Ever heard of a screen pass? How about some gadget plays? A draw? Do something!! Anything!! What you’re doing now? IT AINT WORKING!! And why is it our opponents make this game look easy but we look like we’re trying to invent a time machine out there? Here’s a clue genius. When the Southern Miss punter runs to his right EVERY SINGLE TIME and kicks a low line drive that hits 15 yards in front of Burnett, you’re only weapon, how about trying to rush the punt and BLOCK ONE!! I get home and turn on the Gator game and guess what? Vanderbilt is doing the SAME THING and guess what UF did? YEAHHH!! They rushed in and blocked not one but TWO Vandy punts. WOW!! Amazing huh? Or here’s another suggestion. Have Joe move to his left and up about fifteen yards. This is not BRAIN SURGERY!!
Here’s another brilliant idea. You know that slant you threw to #9 last week that went for a touchdown? HOW ABOUT WE TRY THAT PLAY AGAIN AT LEAST ONE EFFING TIME!! It’s not like we have a plethera of plays that we have go for touchdowns. It wouldn’t seem like you would forget the ONE PLAY that works!!
Let’s see if the Knights have any fight left in them. It’s a must win to keep their slim bowl hopes alive. it will also be difficult coming off such a tough loss only six days ago. The team had a short week to prepare so we’ll see what they’re made of today. Hopefully the crowd will be a bit larger and louder than it was on Sunday. GO KNIGHTS!!
I’m sitting in the cool damp air on Sunday night at the Trampoline watching the Knights take on the Pirates. It’s a defensive struggle (duh) and the Knights have the ball around midfield half way through the 4th quarter. Watching this game unfold a nagging question kept popping into my head. “How were we going to find a way to lose this one” just kept repeating itself over and over in my brain. On third down I got my answer. Greco scrambles for a first down. Or so we thought. “upon further review” the refs decide to move the ball back a couple of feet and call it 4th down. I said to the man next to me “we need to go for it here”. He agreed with me but other people around us said we needed to punt. “No way” we said. “We have to keep the ball, and at least burn some more clock and hopefully get close enough to kick a field goal.” We said. The “punt” people said “no we don’t. we need to pin them back deep.” Now there are valid arguments either way. But I ask myself what do successful teams do in this situation. What would Spurrier do? What would Meyer do? What would Carroll do? What would Stoops do? Those coaches in that situation I believe would go for it. If you can’t look your guys in the eye and tell them we need a half yard to win this game, and have the confidence you can do it, then you’ve got no business playing or coaching this game. Coaches who punt in that situation? I’m guessing Fulmer would. Maybe Rich Brooks. Ron Zook. Of course the botched punt a few minutes later would be blamed for the loss. But if we go for the first down and make it, then kick the field goal, that play wouldn’t matter. If you go for it in that spot, you’re telling your defense who has only given up three points in 50+ minutes of football “I know you won’t let them in the end zone” if we don’t make it. I believe we need a coach who feels this way.
I guess this guy didn’t have much confidence in any of our QBs getting him the ball?
http://ucf.scout.com/a.z?s=339&p=2&c=808341
2004: 0-11 O’Leary’s first year. He can’t even win a single game. Not even in the MAC.
2005: A pretty good year. We start off 0-2 including getting spanked by USF which runs our losing skid to 17 straight, but then turn it around in time to win the East division in our first season in Conference USA. We finish the regular season 8-3 but we lose in the Championship game at home to Tulsa. Then we go to our first bowl game and lose to Nevada when we miss an extra point in OT. Final record- 8 wins five losses. Not too bad.
Welcome to our site. Let me start off by saying this is not a “I hate anyone” bashfest. It’s not personal. I’m sure Coach O’Leary is a fine man and he’s done a lot of great things at UCF. This is about looking to the future and where we are and where we want to be. In the 1990s we had a football team that could play ANYBODY in the nation and scare the hell out of them. I don’t have to go through the list of “moral victories” do I? Every time we came so close to pulling off the “big upset” it burned me up inside. The one thought that got me through it was “just wait about ten years or so”. Well here we are. Is this what we were waiting for?
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