CSTV Halftime

[Pony_Fan]

They just did a halftime report on UCF. They were 0-11 last year.


National Coach of the Year? Look at O'Leary

BY MIKE BIANCHI

The Orlando Sentinel


ORLANDO, Fla. - They talk about "the look."

It is the stern, steely, cocked-eyebrow look that George O'Leary gives his UCF players when they have made a mistake.

"He doesn't have to say anything," defensive end Glenroy Watkins says. "He just gives you that look, and you know."

O'Leary has that look all right - the look of a man who deserves to be Coach of the Year. Not the state Coach of the Year. Not the Conference USA Coach of the Year.

The National Coach of the Year.

And don't think it's just me - the bandwagon hometown columnist_who believes it. The thought has crossed the mind of many national football writers who are as blown away and bowled over as the rest of us about Central Florida's monster turnaround.

"From where that program was to where it is now, how can you not vote O'Leary Coach of the Year?" says Matt Hayes, college football writer for The Sporting News.

"This is as dramatic a turnaround as college football has seen in a long, long time," says Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "O'Leary at least has to be in the conversation for Coach of the Year."

Adds Dennis Dodd of CBS Sportsline: "People have brought up the obvious choices _Steve Spurrier and Joe Paterno - as Coach of the Year candidates. To me, O'Leary is a thinking man's candidate. I don't know how you can discount a coach who has gone from 0-11 to the biggest turnaround in his conference's history."

The answer is: you simply cannot discount it. I don't care what league you're in, when you take a program that is bereft of talent and discipline and in two years turn it into a team one victory away from playing in the conference championship game, you've done an amazing coaching job.

Who would have ever thought that once-woebegone UCF would have the same record at this point as Florida and Florida State? There has been much consternation in Gainesville and Tallahassee about the "depth-depleted" Gators and Seminoles having to play so many young, inexperienced players. Such whining is laughable when you look at what O'Leary is doing with a team that only has 10 seniors and starts seven freshmen. Even more impressive than O'Leary being able to win with such a young team is the fact that he's done it despite the Knights having to play seven of their 11 games on the road.

This is not a knock on Spurrier, Paterno, Charlie Weis and Mike Shula - all of whom have done fantastic jobs and deserve consideration for Coach of the Year. But just because they have bigger jobs doesn't mean they've done a better one.

The fact is, nobody has done more with less_less resources, less talent, less fans_than George O'Leary.

From 0-11 to Oh-we're-in-heaven. From a national-worst 17-game losing streak to what may soon be the biggest turnaround in the history of college football. Even Spurrier, never one to heap praise on opposing coaches, has marveled from afar at the job O'Leary has done.

"Certainly, UCF had a chance to beat us," remembers Spurrier, whose team defeated UCF, 24-15, in the season opener. "We had to have a goal-line stand late in that game to hold them off. I congratulate Coach George on being 7-3. They've had a remarkable season."

If this keeps us, Coach George may soon become King George. And what a crowning and deserving achievement it would be if he won Coach of the Year.

George O'Leary once left the profession at rock bottom, his name tainted by a resume scandal.

He now deserves to be at the top of the profession, his name engraved on a trophy.