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.

Congratulations to Coach O’Leary and the Knights on a HUGE win on Saturday! We at fireoleary.com will give it one more year (as if we have a choice anyway). If the Knights and Coach O’Leary have a successful season next year, proving they can get off the every other year roller coaster, we will suspend efforts to remove O’Leary as head coach. We will now be rooting like mad for East Carolina to lose tonight to keep the Knights’ conference title hopes alive. Should we win the C-USA East, I will gladly eat my words on George getting us eliminated in September.  Again, congrats to the Knights on beating the first ranked opponent in school history. Now that we all know it can be done, let’s do it again! GO TULSA!

This week will be a perfect opportunity to grade the Knights and O’Leary. We will see whether O’Leary’s style of football can truly succeed in this conference. Houston, a top 15 team, comes to Bright House Stadium. Houston is your typical C-USA team. They have a superb offense, and not much defense. If you saw highlights of their last game against Tulsa, you know what I mean. They scored 10 points in the last 27 seconds to pull out a 46-45 win.  As we all know, UCF couldn’t score 46 points in a month. But, when not playing the #2 team in the nation, it takes a while to score that many on UCF’s defense too. This game is the irresistable force vs. the immovable object.  It will be interesting to see who will have their way. One thing we will know for sure is how UCF will stand after the game. If the Knights win and it’s a low scoring game, then O’Leary can claim that his style CAN succeed in this conference. If Houston wins in a shootout, the naysayers will be able to point out that you must have a high powered offense in this league.  As good as UCF’s defense is, I don’t think we can totlally shut down their offense. We must score some points.

This is it George. Saturday UCF visits Texas. #2 Texas. You want to prove to us that you are the right man for this job? Here’s your chance. I’m not asking you to beat Texas. That’s just silly. Just show some fight. Hang in there and scare them. Show us some of what we saw in the 90s when we went to #1 Nebraska and led them at halftime. Wyoming was leading Texas late in the first half. Show us we’re at least as good as Wyoming.Tell you what George. Beat Texas and the site comes down on Sunday.

What a game!! Congrats to the Knights! Way to hang in there! That game probably just put UCF in a Bowl Game! Unbelievable!

Rivals.com has USF and UCF meeting in the St. Pete Bowl on December 19. That could be a career saver for O’Leary. Or it could possibly be a death blow. To finally win a bowl game AND beat USF would kill two birds with one stone. Away goes two of the biggest criticisms against Coach O. But yet another Bowl loss and yet another against USF, could be a killer. My guess is UCF won’t want any part of that game. Tribble will probably hold out for the GMAC Bowl or Hawaii Bowl. Anything that won’t put us in with USF. He doesn’t want that kind of pressure.

Well somebody in his camp does. I know this for a fact. I’ve been on many “fire-the-coach” websites before. ALL of them use school or team logos on them. Nobody cares. Here’s an example. www.firemarkricht.net 

Notice the “Mad G” at the top? Well I had a UCF logo and got a letter from a law firm out of Atlanta telling me to take it down. So obviously we have ruffled some feathers in the pro O’Leary camp. They notice us. Don’t think they don’t. I preview all of your comments before I allow them on the site. I don’t let all of them on. Some of the ones I don’t I know are from the pro O’Leary side. If they made an argument for him I would post them. But all they do is attack me. This isn’t about me. It’s about George. Whether you know it or not, we are making a difference.  George says he doesn’t read the message boards. But apparently he knows they exist. Maybe if he wants to keep his job for a few more years, we’ve at least lit a fire under his butt. maybe he’ll start recruiting like he wants it. Maybe he’ll coach like he wants it. Whatever it takes to win. If George starts winning, he can stay as far as I’m concerened.