UCF Trial on the death of Planchard

[Rizman]

The UCF fans must be losing their minds over this one.  If O'Leary did do this, he should be fired. 

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-ucfplanchertrial

...

Anthony Davis said that UCF coach George O’Leary ordered all water and trainers out of the indoor fieldhouse during the practice on March 18, 2008. He also testified during the wrongful death trial in Orlando that the coach was yelling obscenities at Plancher as he told him to get up after falling during an obstacle course drill.

[___ Eats It]

Bear with me on this one... this is not a personal belief, but it is a thought that I have had that might be worthy of some discussion here...

Its no secret that George O'Leary has a ridiculously inflated contract with a shockingly high buy out. 

It's also no secret that he's not well liked by a majority of players and supporters.  He's alienated the media, and offended people at virtually every turn.  Warmth and accessibility, it is safe to say, are not friends of his.

It's also no secret that UCF has done well over the past few years, mainly due to quality hires at key coaching positions.

Given that UCF has a defacto Head Coach in Waiting in Kelly roaming the sidelines who seems committed to UCF, is respected by virtually EVERYONE in the UCF community, and could step in and continue the success that UCF is building...

Does losing the Plancher case help UCF?

UCF loses... has to pay $2M to the Planchers, but UCF can fire O'Leary with cause, avoiding his $5M buyout.  This is a $3M savings.

UCF can elevate Kelly to HC at a substantially cheaper rate, saving money over the next few years. Even at $200K less than O'Leary is making, you're looking at making up a nice chunk of that $2M you're paying the Planchers.

UCF may win back some PR by doing what most outsiders view as "the right thing", promoting from within, and restoring some of the image that O'Leary has tarnished.

Thoughts?

[bulls phanatic]

Hate to say it, buy it would not surprise me at all. He is such a shady character and has been at least since lying about his resume.

[abababa]

As much as I find a lot of discussion on this whole incident distasteful you raise an interesting point. I think Oleary is actually well liked in the UCF community now after last season. If UCF had won under 8-9 games then I think it would be a much different story. He has managed to put UCF's overall talent at a level that should allow them to dominate CUSA in the coming years. He probably only has a few years left before retiring anyhow.

Plus UCF won't pay a cent to the Plancher family, that is all covered by insurance.

[bulls phanatic]

Hard to fire a guy who won a CUSA championship and beat Georgia in a bowl game this year. If he is found guilty, then maybe a different story

[Triple B]

I really have no idea how the majority those over there feel about GOL so I can't really address that... but I do question the part about Kelly being any kind of head coach in waiting. He is way too valuable for them as a recruiter right now. How often does the top recruiter at a football program slip into the hc position when it comes open?

[Guest nybullsfan]

Kind of like when CJL got fired, and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise? Seems reasonable.

[crambone]

The UCF fans must be losing their minds over this one.   If O'Leary did do this, he should be fired. 

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/news?slug=ap-ucfplanchertrial

...

Anthony Davis said that UCF coach George OLeary ordered all water and trainers out of the indoor fieldhouse during the practice on March 18, 2008. He also testified during the wrongful death trial in Orlando that the coach was yelling obscenities at Plancher as he told him to get up after falling during an obstacle course drill.

This is nothing new.  We've known since this happened that some of the last words that Erick Plancher heard were curse words from George O'Leary.  That guy is straight up class, huh?

[crambone]

Kind of like when CJL got fired, and it turned out to be a blessing in disguise? Seems reasonable.

Exactly.  I remember when Slapgate started circulating around the UCF message boards.  Some of them did not want CJL to go because in their opinion he was the thing holding back USF.  They knew that if we got a decent coach who wasn't a weirdo to media or subject to mid-season collapses that it would mean USF would come along further and leave UCF even further in the dust.

That being said, I cannot for the life of me understand why people like O'Leary.  The guy has zero class and is a proven liar.  Only God knows what BS he spits to recruits to get them to commit to UCF.

[South_Florida_Flip]

Hard to fire a guy who won a CUSA championship and beat Georgia in a bowl game this year.

If Anthony Davis' testimony is true, then it's not going to be too difficult to fire O'Leary.