George O’Leary stepping down as UCF athletic director

George O’Leary is stepping down as the University of Central Florida’s athletic director, but will continue as the Knights head football coach.

An official announcement from the school is expected at a Monday afternoon news conference. Previous reports indicated that O’Leary wanted to take the full-time athletic director gig, but it appears the school plans to look elsewhere. He will remain UCF’s football coach. He was hired at UCF in 2006.

O’Leary replaced Todd Stansbury, who left to lead Oregon State’s athletic department this summer.

UCF’s season-to-date has been one embarrassment after another, with the Knights opening the campaign with an upset loss to double-digit underdog FIU before going on to lose to FCS Furman and suffer blowout losses to Tulane and UConn. The latest gaffe was a 40-13 drubbing by Connecticut in front of a mostly empty stadium in Orlando on Saturday.

“They basically [have] to understand theres a trust factor and you have to trust your teammates to get things done”, said head coach GeorgeO’Leary.

O’Leary took over as UCF’s interim athletic director in June, but will remove himself from the role immediately.