Celebrating Mediocrity: The George O'Leary statue

You see I can whitewash history too. The idea of George O'Leary getting statue was first brought up by some writer for the college paper. I laughed, the idea about honoring George O'Leary with a statue was ludicrous. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think it was a practical idea. Never did I think my beloved university would ever stoop to those lengths. But here we are. UCF honoring O'Leary with a statue following the worst season in program history. And all I can ask is why? Why are we honoring this man that was mediocre on the field and even worse off of it. 

O'Leary always treated the fans like we were stupid. That he was Bear Bryant reincarnated. That the fans did not deserve him. He was above us. Oh and he wasn't afraid to mention that in his interviews. He lectured the fans about attendance. Hell he even begged fans of FSU and UF to become UCF fans. That he wanted "Gator-Knights". What George were we not good enough for you? You see George seemed to forget that UCF saved him. Rescued him from being blacklisted from college football following the resume scandal. UCF athletic director Steve Orsini saved O'Leary's coaching career. And how did George repay UCF? With scandal.

There is a segment of the UCF fandom that likes to pretend that Ereck Plancher was no big deal. In fact some will even go so far as to not refer to Plancher by name. That eight years have passed and it's time to move on. That is utter bullshit. You see no one knows exactly what happened the day Ereck Plancher died. No one knows for sure if O'Leary knew that Plancher suffered from Sickle Cell Anemia. Or if George verbally berated Plancher for not being tough when Plancher collapsed on the practice field. All we do know is that a young man is dead. A kid who was living the dream of going to college and playing the sport he loved. Ereck Plancher never graduated. He will never get to play in the NFL or hang out with friends. Ereck Plancher died unnecessarily. Ereck Plancher should always be mentioned when talking about O'Leary.  And that should be on the statue in big bold letters right next to George's accomplishments. 

I do not usually moralize when it comes to sports. In fact I think that Barry Bonds should be in the Hall of Fame and that Lance Armstrong is still the greatest athlete I have seen. But when it comes to O'Leary I can not help but moralize. It hurts me to my soul that this man is the face of my alma mater. That UCF is now forever mentioned with George. I can not shake my gross distaste of him. His morals, his views, everything. Let us not forget that in the years following Ereck Plancher's death he questioned player's toughness. The 60 + year old man that had a player die on his watch is questioning college kids about toughness. I don't know if it was ignorance or arrogance, but whatever the case it shows George's lack of accountability. You see George never admitted when he was wrong. It was always the player's fault when the team would lose. He was the equivalent of Mike Rice minus the video. 

 Now some will say, what about the Joe Paterno statue? After all Joe Paterno knew about Sandusky for years. Well Penn State tore that statue down. Intelligent minds prevailed.  I can only hope that the same can be said for UCF. 

But let's talk about George the football coach. There has never been a more mediocre coach to be honored by a statue. Yes he served 11 years as football coach. Oh wait I mean 10 since he quit in the middle of last season. His record at UCF was an underwhelming 81-72(yes, I credited him with the 4 additional losses even though he quit last year). Yes he did win 4 conference titles and a BCS game, however he also a has the dubious honor of having 2 winless seasons under his belt. George O'Leary is nothing without Dave Huxtable and/or Charlie Taaffe. Can you name for me please another program that would honor a head coach that has 2 winless seasons? Let us not forget that prior to Bortles, Perriman, Hall, etc that George never strung back to back winning seasons together. You see George was not very good until the classes of 2010-2011 arrived. These players saved him from being fired. 

Fans will claim that George O'Leary built UCF. That UCF could not have gotten Scott Frost had it not been for what George built. But what these fans have forgotten is that he nearly destroyed the program. UCF stopped recruiting the state of Florida, in O'Leary's final years at the school. He torched every relationship he had with the Orlando and south Florida high schools. He ignored local recruits in favor of kids from out of state(go look up Paxton Lynch's recruitment and who O'Leary signed instead of Lynch). In fact UCF had more Florida based recruits in Frost's few months on the job than in O'Leary's last 2 recruiting classes. That is unbelievably bad and got away from UCF's identity. 

Then there was Brent Key. The golden child in O'Leary's eyes. His presumed  successor. Key had played for O'Leary at Georgia Tech  and came to UCF as offensive line coach. Key had proven on multiple occasions to not be worthy of his vast promotions. Yet there he was climbing up the coaching ranks while other deserving coaches( Tyson Summers), left the program. Primarily because Key played for O'Leary. George was more interested in protecting his good ole boy network than getting the right man for the job,  Luckily, Key was such a failure as offensive coordinator last year that he was fired and is now Alabama's problem now. But imagine if Key had been moderately successful and if George had stayed as athletic director. The damage that would have been done would have been catastrophic. 

George demeaned toughness of his players, yet when the road got rough he packed his bags and left. Yes, he did help to give UCF national spotlight, but he almost destroyed the program. So if the school wants to honor a mediocre coach with a statue that is fine. But let us not pretend that George is in the same class as Bobby Bowden or Spurrier. 

As George got older he tried to be like Bobby and Spurrier with remarks that some had dubbed "George-isms". Of course O'Leary lacked the wit and charm of either of these men. George desperately wanted to be like these two. He wanted to become the beloved college football coach figure and failed. What he failed to grasp was that two court cases, treating the fanbase like idiots, and not being that good of a football coach made him(and by extension UCF)  a punching bag rather than beloved.

 I will never forget the headlines after UCF won the Fiesta Bowl. I had hoped that it would be about the underdog nature of the team. The players that had been neglected by big programs and came to UCF. How this was the ultimate college football underdog. Instead they were about George and his failures in and off the field. Maybe that's why I am bitter, because instead of celebrating this team of players that I loved, it was all about George. 

So here we are the day I never thought was possible. George O'Leary is getting a statue and I can't help but feel dirty.