Wolken: George O'Leary wants to be full-time UCF AD

[junglehusky]

George O'Leary wants to stay on as athletic director at Central Florida

The school was prepared to go through a standard national search for its next athletics director after Todd Stansbury departed for Oregon State earlier this year. Plans changed, however, once O’Leary approached school President John Hitt and other power brokers at UCF with the transition idea. Now the process is on hold as school officials consider the possibility.

Hitt is fiercely loyal to O’Leary, who has built UCF into one of the better football programs outside of a Power 5 conference and led the Knights to a 12-1 season in 2013 including a victory in the Fiesta Bowl.

However, there is significant concern among others at UCF about whether the 69-year old O’Leary, who has no prior experience in athletic administration and has been coaching in either college or the NFL since 1980, is up to the job, particularly with Stansbury and a handful of other senior-level staff members departing in recent weeks, leaving the department short-handed and somewhat in disarray.

“No one (on ground level) tracking with the president on this,” one person said.

This would potentially be a bad time for UCF to have its athletic department in chaos, particularly if the Big 12 decides to expand. Because of its location and large alumni base, UCF is part of a group of teams that constantly comes up in conference realignment speculation.

 

[NYUConn]

I posted the original CBS.com story on the Football thread, but could easily go here too because of Wolken's take.

This is the second year in a row this stuff is coming out in September. GOL needs to really get it together and make a decision on what he wants as his future.