UCF Head Coach George O’Leary Announces Retirement After 48 Years

The Sentinel reports QB coach Danny Barrett will be named the team’s interim coach while ESPN reports the resignation will be official by the school Sunday night.

Following the 2001 season, O’Leary left Georgia Tech to become head coach at Notre Dame.

Overall, O’Leary has compiled a 133-101 record and 11 bowl appearances as a college football head coach dating back to when he took over Georgia Tech’s program in 1995.

Since taking over in 2004, O’Leary took the Knights to unprecedented success during his 81-68 run. Whether I was at Bright House Network Stadium screaming my head off, freezing my butt off twice in Memphis at the Liberty Bowl, or watching the game while crammed inside a friend’s house as we huddled around the TV, I have pretty much gotten to see all of the best moments that George O’Leary helped make happen, and wow, there is much to be thankful for… However, five days after being hired, O’Leary suddenly resigned after admitting to falsifying portions of his academic and athletic experiences.

O’Leary went winless in his first and last seasons at UCF, but whoever steps into the job will have a favorable situation.

“In an effort to allow UCF to accelerate its search for my successor and clarify the facts regarding my future plans, I am retiring effective immediately”.

Coming off back-to-back American Athletic Conference titles, the Knights the started the season with a narrow loss to Florida worldwide. Smith now is an intern on the UCF football staff and has aspirations to coach one day. That season witnessed UCF earn its first national ranking, and it finished No. 20/21 in the country in the final polls. They were the youngest program to ever grab a spot in a Bowl Championship Series game, and they made a statement by topping Baylor, 52-42.

One year later, UCF traveled to its third straight bowl game and claimed back-to-back conference championships in 2014.

Two weeks ago, O’Leary resigned as interim athletic director to focus on football. Since 2007-08, UCF’s April has never dropped below 971 in a single season, while its 994 in 2012-13 tied for the fifth-highest in the country.

It ends a tumultuous season marked by a rash of injuries and dismal on-field play that was punctuated by UCF being ranked last in Football Bowl Subdivision in total offense.

Hometown: Central Islip, New York.