George O’Leary will be remembered as the most iconic head coach in UCF football history, even after the disheartening demise of a season gone totally awry.
His 12 year tenure over the Knights vaulted the program to heights that had never been grazed by the state’s largest university, ushering in a proud era of a sustained winning culture, NFL transitions, and national recognition.
The age of O’Leary was one of perpetual growth. After starting his career with the Knights with a winless season, he turned the entire organization around in 2005 with the school’s first bowl game appearance and victory. He captained four conference championship teams, seven appearances in bowl games and a BCS victory in the 2013 season’s Fiesta Bowl – the only BCS appearance ever by UCF.
O’Leary’s second season wrought the Knights’ first bowl game appearance, a 49-48 loss to Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl. Not until their fourth bowl game in 2010 did UCF finally win in the post season, capped by a No. 24 national ranking.
It was the Fiesta Bowl victory against Baylor that truly put Knights’ football on the map. UCF became a national phenomenon that season by upsetting the heavily favorited Bears and saw their quarterback drafted at the highest spot by any Knight in history when Blake Bortles went No. 3 to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In fact, two of the three first round draft picks to ever leave the school emerged from the guidance of O’Leary after Breshad Perriman was drafted by the Ravens in the first round of 2015. 16 total Knights were drafted in his 12 years and many have made significant impacts within the NFL.
His 81 program wins are the second most in program history, but were done against better competition than the teams captained by Gene McDowell. O’Leary kept the team moving upwards through the college football ranks as he orchestrated the construction of a brand new on-campus stadium complete with upgraded facilities and two conference moves; first into Conference USA and then into the American Athletic Conference.
Bright House Networks Stadium was completed after his arrival and in large part because of his heavy lobbying for the venue. In order to truly compete with the national powerhouses, the Knights needed an equally impressive venue to play in, a venue that would assist in both recruiting and in media rights deals.
George O’Leary oversaw a transformation from NCAA obscurity to the forefront of college football outside of the power-five conferences. His legacy is in the exponential growth over 12 seasons, the legitimization of a program that had never known true success.
