Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ President John C. Hitt wanted an experienced leader with a passion for academics and athletics to serve as his interim director of athletics.<\/p>\n
Enter the most successful football coach in Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ history.<\/p>\n
George O\u2019Leary, in his 12th season as a Knight, will serve as interim director of athletics through the end of 2015. At that time, a decision will be made about how to move forward for 2016 and beyond, Hitt said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge\u2019s leadership and knowledge of athletics \u2013 which includes programs beyond football \u2013 will keep Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ moving forward academically, competitively and in the community,\u201d Hitt said. \u201cHis national connections will also help us continue building the Knights\u2019 reputation around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for O\u2019Leary balancing his coaching and new administrative responsibilities, Hitt said, \u201cGeorge believes, as do I, that our strong athletics and university staffs will ensure he is successful on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary agreed.<\/p>\n
Calling the interim appointment \u201canother great adventure\u201d in his life, O\u2019Leary stressed the five qualities he will bring to the job: leadership, organization, accountability, responsibility and trust.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, I appreciate President Hitt\u2019s trusting me with this interim job. I love Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ and want to help us get better across the board,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. \u201cI have a great interest in the total package as far as Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ is concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knights have won seven American Athletic Conference championships in 2014-15, including the second consecutive conference football title under O\u2019Leary. In addition, Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ boasts the highest Graduation Success Rate for student-athletes of any public NCAA Division I FBS school in the nation.<\/p>\n
Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½\u2019s 95 percent Graduation Success Rate ranks in the top five overall among FBS schools, alongside private institutions Notre Dame, Stanford, Duke and Northwestern.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two important things you need to do in this job,\u201d O\u2019Leary said. \u201cYou have to win so that Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ has the opportunity to become a top national program. And you have to bring in good kids and, hopefully, help make them great young men and women when they graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Leary will begin as interim director of athletics on July 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ President John C. Hitt wanted an experienced leader with a passion for academics and athletics to serve as his interim director of athletics. Enter the most successful football coach in Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ history. George O\u2019Leary, in his 12th season as a Knight, will serve as interim director of athletics through the end of 2015. At that time,…","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":66932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[1939,2510,4857],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-66930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-george-oleary","tag-john-c-hitt","tag-ucf-athletics"],"yoast_head":"\n