ORLANDO, Fla. – The win-less Knights will now be led by interim head coach Danny Barrett, who spoke to the media on Monday about his new position.
“I’ve been in a similar situation before, my first couple years of coaching where an incident like [O’Leary’s retirement] happened,” coach Barrett said. “But it wasn’t done the right way, so I had a sincere conversation with Coach O’Leary. Obviously this is not something that he wanted to do, but at the same time he did wish me well and said go get ‘em.”
Coach Barrett began his coaching career in the CFL in 1997 as a quarterbacks coach for the Calgary Stampeders, which was the same position he held with the Knights this season up until George O’Leary’s retirement. In Calgary, Barrett coached and helped develop eventual NFL pro-bowler Jeff Garcia to his first professional accolade as the division’s top player.
Following the 1997 season, Barrett found himself as the assistant offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the B.C. Lions. In his second season with the Lions, Barrett actually had to suit up as the team’s backup quarterback for 15 games while serving as the team’s wide receivers coach. His work with the Lions over those two seasons would land Barrett his first ever head coaching position with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Roughriders steadily improved under Barrett’s six seasons with the team while only managing one winning record, but he helped right the sinking ship and brought them to the West Final after nine consecutive losing seasons. Immediately following Barrett’s departure from the Roughriders, the team managed to win a Grey Cup for the first time in nearly 20 years.
“To date, I’m the only one on the [UCF] staff that has previous head coaching experience and I think it makes a difference to leave [the coordinators] in play so we can keep our defense and offense in tact with what they are doing,” coach Barrett said.
Barrett actually made his way to college coaching when he accepted a position as the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach at the University of Buffalo under Turner Gill. The University of Buffalo won their first ever MAC championship and went to their first-ever bowl game under Gill and Barrett. In 2009, Turner Gill accepted the Kansas Jayhawks head coaching position and the interim head coach label fell on Barrett for the first time.
However, in just a short eight days, Buffalo hired Cincinnati’s offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn to be the university’s next head coach which left Danny Barrett looking for another job.
The Boynton Beach native found his next position with Bethune-Cookman as their quarterback coach where he helped run ‘Speedway’ offense. The ‘Speedway’ offense was a quicker version of the spread offense that Bethune-Cookman ran to a lot of success in 2010 as they reached the FCS postseason and won a share of the MEAC Championship.
“I’m all about winning, that’s the only reason I came [to UCF], because this is a winning institution,” Barrett said. “That’s the only reason I stayed with previous opportunities to leave, I stayed here because this is a winning program and we are going to continue to try to get back on track.”
Barrett was brought on by George O’Leary in 2011 to be the running backs coach for UCF and while at that position he coached three consecutive all-conference first team running backs. Those running backs names are certainly familiar to the UCF faithful: Latavius Murray, Storm Johnson, and the recently dismissed Will Stanback.
“Coach Barrett has always been a very organized guy and he’s always been pinpoint accurate with his things that he does. He makes that everybody’s on point, so it’s just more of the same,” senior Cedric Thompson said.
Danny Barrett’s toughest test now will be in steering the Knights back in the right direction after this rough start and keeping the team focused going forward.
“What you have to do now is make sure the players understand what’s going on, its business as usual for us as coaches and it always will be,” Barrett said. “But for a young man 17-18 years old, his world just got turned upside down and where does he go next? So it’s my job and the rest of these coaches to make sure these players still feel as though they have a legitimate opportunity to one, get that degree and eventually play for championships.”
While the team continues to deal with the departure of George O’Leary, Danny Barrett will try to get the team on track and ready to face his alma mater Cincinnati in his first game as the Knight’s interim head coach this Saturday at 12 p.m.
Photo Credit: Aileen Perilla
