I can almost smell the grills and the kegs! Looking at the schedule, I can see some opportunities for big wins. NC St and Kansas St won’t be easy, but they are beatable. Two wins over BCS Conference teams would be sweet! The C-USA schedule looks rough though. @ Houston will be a tough road game. @ Marshall will be another one. We do get UAB, ECU and USM at home, so we better take advantage there.

Congrats to UCF for getting South Carolina to agree to a home and home starting in 2013. Getting big time programs to Orlando can only help recruiting. Can’t wait for that one.

The pressure needs to be ramped up on ol’ George. This is one of the “even years” when UCF typically goes into the tank. O’Leay’s record in even years:

2004- 011

2006- 4-8

2008 4-8

That’s a 3-9 average. UCF cannot afford a 3-9 this year. Not with all the conference shake-ups going on. The Knights are perhaps in prime position to secure a Big East invite. With East Carolina losing everyone including the coach, UCF needs to win the East. It won’t be a cakewalk. Marshall looks to be better. So Miss is always tough. But UCF should still be beating these schools. If we aren’t in year 7, then we need to cut our losses and get a new coach.

Congratulations to second round draft pick of the Buffalo Bills, D-Lineman Torell Troup. Troup joins former Knights such as Duante Culpepper, Asante Samuel, Kevin Smith, Atari Bigby, Travis Fisher, Brandon Marshall, Mike Walker, Matt Prater and many others as a growing presence in the NFL. We know you’ll do great!

Let’s hope so. So far the reports out of spring practice are positive. Calabrese will have to get it done this year. There won’t be a Hodges there to bail us out. The running game should be very good with Harvey and company. So the passing game should be able to go up top when other teams stack eight in the box. With that four star WR we have coming in, we better get some long TDs this year.

UCF has fired head basketball coach Kirk Speraw after 17 seasons. Speraw has led UCF to four NCAA tournament appearances but has not really been competitive in Conference USA. So the question now is, why is the basketball program expected to “compete at the highest level” according to AD Keith Tribble, but not the football program?

Clearly he does not believe the football team is competing at the highest level? Does he? Hey Keith. You aren’t going to let 17 years go by on this one are you? I’m not getting any younger. Neither are the rest of the fans.

Just got my first of many emails about buying season tickets this year. The ad pretty much lays out that the goal this year is the Conference USA Championship. We as fans need to hold O’Leary to this. If we come up short, do not let him excuse his way out of it. We don’t want to listen to him blame the players for making dumb plays. You are supposed to coach them not to make those plays George! If we do our normal every other year flop, I expect a change to be made.

Going into Signing Day, UCF is ranked at #65 on rivals.com. Let’s see where the Knights end up at the end of the day. Right now two C-USA schools are ranked ahead of UCF. Houston is at #44 and Southern Miss is at #61. Hopefully UCF can rally past USM at least and finish #1 in the East. I will hold judgment until the end of the day. But let’s just say #65 is not makijg me all warm and fuzzy inside. Stay Tuned.

With Skip Holtz leaving for USF and with most of the East Carolina players graduating, there is absolutely no reason UCF should not at least win the C-USA East in 2010. None. We play ECU at home, USM at home and we have experience at the skill positions. If we do not win the East this year, we need to think seriously about making a change for 2011.

Looking at the list of recruits we have, I am kind of liking it. Every player is from Florida or Georgia except for 1 player from Arizona. We have a 4 star WR from South Florida and a 4 star LB. And we are ranked #53 in the nation. USF is #54.

Here’s to hoping everyone has a great New Year and that it will be the last one that GOL is UCF’s coach! (Clink)

Now that the depression of that awful bowl game has subsided, I am back and gatting fired up actually about next year. So Merry Christmas everyone from fireoleary.com and we will see you after all the presents have been opened. Maybe next year Santa will put a new coach under our tree.

Another 8-5. Another Bowl loss. So I guess you can pencil us in for 4-8 next year? I’m out. I’m tired of beating my head against the wall. You guys can have it.

The game is a sellout! Looks like the Knights will have the crowd on its side. (The ones in Gold) A win in this game could be large for recruiting. With the game being on prime time in the Tampa area, and with Leavitt being a player abuser, maybe we can make some noise over in the Tampa Bay area.

It’s the end of another football season for UCF. Man these things are short! We got one more week to get behind the Knights (not the Scarlet ones) and judging from reports I’ve been getting, the UCF fans are excited about this game. It looks as if we will have a considerable home field advantage in St. Pete. After this week it’s time to then turn our attention to recruiting, which at last glance, rivals had us down to #70. That’s not going to cut it. But we’ll worry about that next week. For this week we will focus on Gold over Scarlet. GO UCF!

Well there goes the guy at the top of my list to become UCF’s next coach. I hope he has success at Louisville. It’s not like we were in the market for a new coach now anyway I guess.  Time to come up with a new list for next year. I know you guys might think I’m nuts but I’m thing Steve Kragthorpe. I know he failed at Louisville but he was hell on wheels at Tulsa. He was their coach when we lost to them in the ‘05 C-USA Title Game. That team was unstoppable that day. He blistered the defenses in this league, which ok who doesn’t (besides George). But he did his magic at a tiny school in Tulsa OK. What could he accomplish here? Something to think about.

In a battle of the Knights, the (formerly) Golden Knights of UCF will meet the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers in St. Pete’s Tropicana Field on Dec. 19th.  Check the shop for some t-shirts for the big game. Looking forward to seeing you there.

We know where. We just don’t know who. Either way it’s a good deal for the Knights. We will be playing a BCS conference team in a bowl game for the second time. THe first time the Knights fell a bit short two years ago at the Liberty Bowl against Mississippi State. Let’s hope this time it goes better. It looks like the Knights will either face USF or Rutgers. Hopefully we will know soon.

See what happens when you bring back the black jerseys? Great things. Congrats Knights. Remember what UAB did last year. Payback time!

UCF Obviously must win it’s last two games. This Saturday the Knights take on Tulane at home. Next week they travel to UAB. The other games that must go our way are this week Southern Miss must lose to Tulsa and East Carolina must lose to UAB. Tulsa didn’t help us out last week. In fact they didn’t put up much of a fight at all. After the heartbreaker to Houston, they may be throwing in the towel.

If those games go our way this week, then we need in addition to winning against UAB, we need Southern Miss to beat East Carolina. If those five games go our way then the Gators won’t be the only Florida team playing for a conference title in two weeks. If I was In Vegas I would bet $50 on us to win the East, just because the odds would be steep. I would not bet $1000 because whatever you bet on us, you’re throwing your money away. But a slim chance is better than none. As long as we do our part and win the last two games, I won’t complain.