C-DOA Media Day. GOL still not talking......

[Triple B]

I'm sorry, I haven't been on much cause my computer decide to wear some concrete shoes.

I couldn't tell you if a transcript was ever created or who had it.  I'll keep on the lookout.  Stuff could pop up now or a few months in the future.  You know that.

What about showing us where the OS brought up GOL's little blips at Ga Tech that _EI alluded to up therer? If there is some type of vendetta against GOL that surely would have been brought up ...... wouldn't it?

[DawgPound]

Not neccessarily.  The OS doesn't want to be written off by the general public and be accused of digging too deep.  There is a chance that if they brought GT stories into the mix, it could hurt their perceived credibility with the general public.  By keeping it to his UCF tenure, the locals connect with the story and the OS can use it as a boost.

[___ Eats It]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/40240-george-oleary-and-ucf-time-to-come-clean

George O’Leary and UCF: Time to Come Clean

Ereck Plancher, a freshman football player at UCF, is dead. Despite months of investigating, there are still questions unanswered. At the center of the controversy, writes Tim Pollock, is George O’Leary.

by Tim Pollock (Senior Writer)

Back in March of this year, on the 18th to be exact, University of Central Florida (UCF) freshman wide receiver Ereck Plancher died after a conditioning workout, continuing the ugly trend of amateur and professional athletes dying on the fields they love.   

Many stories have been written about Plancher since his death.  The 19-year-old from Naples is described by those close to him as a loyal son, a great friend, and a hard worker.  In short, Ereck Plancher was loved by manyâ€â€and for all the right reasons.   

And while it would never hurt to write another story about this remarkable young man, I will not attempt to do that.  Words and memoriesâ€â€which the Orlando Sentinel has graciously chronicled in written and video formâ€â€from Ereck Plancher’s friends are much more meaningful.   

Sadly, this will be about Plancher’s coach, George O’Leary. 

If you have not seen this story, there are several issues at play surrounding Plancher’s death.  But these are the two items that seem to loom the largest.

1.) Plancher came to UCF with a diagnosed case of sickle-cell trait, which hampers cells from carrying oxygen. 

2.) Ereck Plancher was gasping for breath and staggering moments before his collapse and eventual death.   

UCF at first denied knowing about Plancher’s sickle-cell trait.  Unfortunately, it turns out they did.   

Second, O’Leary and his coaching staff have gone on record saying the workout the players went through the day of Plancher’s death was not rigorous.  Speaking anonymously, several UCF players have insisted much to the contrary.  The players claim the workout was extremely intenseâ€â€and that Plancher was visibly and clearly unable to keep up with his teammates.         

Call me crazy, but I tend to believe the players, especially with the way O’Leary and UCF have handledâ€â€or perhaps mishandled would be more appropriateâ€â€the situation.  The entire scenario doesn’t add up, and it makes UCF look foolish and terribly afraid to admit the facts. 

UCF wants national exposure, but not this kind.       

And George O’Leary is leading the charge, making things worse with each passing minute. 

Like any good paper, the Orlando Sentinel did its own investigation into Plancher’s death.  Because so many questions simply were not answered by UCF, the paper published a handful of critical columnsâ€â€and rightfully so.   

To show his disdain for the paper’s writers, O’Leary stubbornly refused to speak with any representative from the Sentinel at last week’s Florida Sports Writers Association media days.       

While I disagree with his actions, I am not trying to paint O’Leary as some sort of Jack Nicholson-like Colonel Jessup ordering “Code Reds†to his platoon leaders and then covering up dirty details.   

On second thought, maybe I am.   

O’Leary is no stranger to controversy, but this situation is unlike anything he has ever facedâ€â€and it appears the coach is not equipped to manage it.       

Not only is O’Leary refusing to speak to the only paper that actually knows his program well, he has also banned any UCF players from speaking to the Sentinel.   

The question is: Why?  What is there to hide?     

Why drag family and friends into this even further?  Why carry on this painful and emotional memory?  Why inviteâ€â€heck, practically beg forâ€â€lawsuits? 

Regrettably, with all the attention the story has received, people are likely going to lose their jobs.   

But not O’Leary.   

Perhaps George O’Leary forgets that not too long ago, he wasn’t such a big deal.

After the embarrassing Resume Gate fiasco at Notre Dame, no big program would dare to touch him.  Desperate for a big-name and a better football team, UCF took a chance on O’Leary.   

And since then, the school has backed their coach on nearly every issue possible. 

They supported him when UCF professors protested O’Leary’s hiring and gigantic salary.  They backed him when O’Leary posted a winless (0-11) first season.  They were patient as he built the team into what he wanted, and they supported O’Leary’s wish for an on-campus stadium. 

O’Leary no doubt ruffled some feathers along the wayâ€â€nothing new for big time college coachesâ€â€but for the most part, UCF’s belief in O’Leary has paid off, as the team and its fan base are both much improved, and much more a part of the national landscape of college football. 

But now it’s time for UCF to take a stand.   

It is time they order O’Leary to make peace with the hometown paper that covers his football team.  It is time they insist O’Leary make a public acknowledgement of his seemingly insensitive mishandling of the situation.   

And it’s time UCF itself sets the record straight once and for all about what happened on March 18th. 

After all, this isn’t about college football, or George O’Leary’s ego, or even about the University of Central Florida. 

It’s about respecting the memory of Ereck Plancherâ€â€a good kid who died way too early.

[crambone]

Wow...nice article.

[Bull Martin]

But now it’s time for UCF to take a stand.     

It is time they order O’Leary to make peace with the hometown paper that covers his football team.  It is time they insist O’Leary make a public acknowledgement of his seemingly insensitive mishandling of the situation.     

And it’s time UCF itself sets the record straight once and for all about what happened on March 18th.   

After all, this isn’t about college football, or George O’Leary’s ego, or even about the University of Central Florida.   

It’s about respecting the memory of Ereck Plancherâ€â€a good kid who died way too early.

The article was good until this.  What happened to journalistic integrity?  The author is presenting opinions as facts.

All he had to do was form them into questions. ex:

"When is the time for UCF to take a stand?" or "Is it time for UCF to take a stand?" or "How much is enough?"

This article pushes me more towards UCF's side.  The Sentinel is clearly trying to overhype the situation to sell papers.  It's a shame.

[Knight_Light]

Here's actually a good, fair column.

Of course its not from Orlando...but from all places...LAKELAND!

http://www.theledger.com/article/20080723/NEWS/807230360/1341/SPORTS19&title=Tragedy_Swirls_Around_UCF

Best line:

The problem with playing the blame game is that of necessity, you create your own agenda. If you believe someone is responsible for a harmful action, then your focus is on proving that point.

[crambone]

Lakeland rules!

[Knight_Light]

One brave and lone wolf the sentinel, new high profile columnist Scott Maxwell wrote this in his blog today:

Taken from Scott Maxwell's column today:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_local_namesblog/2008/07/sports-staff-an.html

Anyone who's even glanced at our sports section in the past week can see that our sports writers and UCF football coach George O'Leary are having a spat. We've spilled oodles of ink on this one. And while I'm sometimes loathe to agree with the comments filling our online message boards, I'm prone to understand one of the primary questions readers have raised about this story: Who cares?

I mean, really. Today's headline read: "'George O'Leary's snub of Sentinel hurts everyone." Just reading that, you might not gather what this story is really about -- a kid who died.

At least it should be. But that's not how it's starting to look. And that's what concerns me. (Read on ...)

Let me be clear: It looks like UCF has made a number of mistakes in the handling of the death of Ereck Plancher. And our writers have every right -- even an obligation-- to highlight the fact that O'Leary and/or UCF officials have been and are being less than forthcoming about the most serious of issues: the death of a human being. If the school's keeping information secret, we should cover the hell out of that story -- but in a manner that doesn't make it look like it's all about us.

No newspaper or writer is entitled to any sort of God-given access to any one individual. What we are entitled to is public information at a public university. And we should be as aggressive as possible in ascertaining and publishing that information. That is, in fact, what writers like Kyle Hightower ( 'Medical Examiner releases full autopsy...' and ''The final workout of Ereck Plancher'') have been doing.

But to repeatedly write about O'Leary "snubbing the Sentinel" runs the risk of undermining the solid work we've been doing -- and of trivializing a tragedy.

One of the strangest things about this is that our sports guys are going bonkers over something that's completely routine on the metro/government side of the newsroom. When you write something people don't like, they often don't talk to you. Heck, there were entire months when I covered Mel Martinez, back when he was county chairman, when he didn't want to talk to me. But we didn't write two sentences about it. The way that was handled was usually pretty simple: 'Martinez declined to comment.' That's because the issue isn't newspaper-source relations. It's the story. And I always figured that, as long as Martinez and the county were providing us with each and every piece of public information that we were entitled to; and as long as he was talking to some media -- even if it was someone other than me -- he was meeting his obligation.

I like our sports guys. Mike Bianchi is one of the most entertaining writers we have. He's passionate about what he writes. And he's even written some poignant pieces about this very issue ('Deadly football drills should be outlawed.'). All around, most of our sports scribes eat, drink and breathe the things they write about. And I believe that, institutionally, our collective heart in the right place. But, going forward, I sure hope we cover this story in a manner that makes it clear to our readers that we understand this story is about a 19-year-old who collapsed and died during an off-season workout ... not about us.

[SANJAY]

That's great and I see the need for the media not to make itself the story.  But don't you think the OS has to explain to its readers why there is no news to print about UCF from the CUSA Media Days?  The lack of comment prior to media days wasn't as big an issue until GOL refused to answer any questions (presumably unrelated to Plancher also, and those dealing solely with footbal) from the OS reporters, or even if the OS reporters were present.  The OS shouldn't tell its readers "hey this is why we have no information about the local program" but btw read the El Paso Sun-Times for news on UCF?

[Knight_Light]

That's great and I see the need for the media not to make itself the story.  But don't you think the OS has to explain to its readers why there is no news to print about UCF from the CUSA Media Days? 

FYI...new ucf beat writer did have 1-2 articles and 1-2 blogs about ucf info from the media days.

Just like how Scott Maxwell basically said above...one can easily write a story, full of info, even without direct in-person quotes from one individual:

No newspaper or writer is entitled to any sort of God-given access to any one individual. What we are entitled to is public information at a public university.

One of the strangest things about this is that our sports guys are going bonkers over something that's completely routine on the metro/government side of the newsroom. When you write something people don't like, they often don't talk to you. Heck, there were entire months when I covered Mel Martinez, back when he was county chairman, when he didn't want to talk to me. But we didn't write two sentences about it. The way that was handled was usually pretty simple: 'Martinez declined to comment.' That's because the issue isn't newspaper-source relations. It's the story. And I always figured that, as long as Martinez and the county were providing us with each and every piece of public information that we were entitled to; and as long as he was talking to some media -- even if it was someone other than me -- he was meeting his obligation.