Sept. 13, 2005
ORLANDO - The following are quotes from UCF head coach George O'Leary at Tuesday's press luncheon.
Opening Statement: Let me cover South Florida first. It is a pleasure to play them and this is a game we would like to see be a traditional game. It is only natural being that it is two hours away. You are always looking for a 12th game and there is one right down the street. I think it will be a great game for both schools. Financially and recruiting-wise, I think both schools will benefit from it. I know our players look forward to it. Whenever you play in-state schools, there are a lot of teammates and friends on the same team. It leads to a lot of fun, but hopefully not a lot of extracurricular activities. We have had a good week of practice. We are healthy. Going into the game we are looking to get some consistency in our run game, consistency in the pass game and continually look for big plays. Injury-wise, we had a week off; we are healthy, as we have been since preseason. We are looking forward to playing the game.
Question: Are there any obstacles in scheduling USF each year?
Answer: I think everyone at UCF would like to see it every year. I think when you have 11 games, I could see the problem, but once you go to a 12th game, it seems to be a natural fit. Instead of looking in Utah or California to play a game, you have one (game) two hours down the street. They have a stadium over there that will hopefully bring their crowd and our crowd. It will be a great crowd to watch the game. I don't foresee any problems. There is none at our end.
Question: Do you think UCF and USF are both trying to become the next big program in the state, and if so, is there a race to get there?
Answer: I think right now with South Florida, Jim (Leavitt) has been there for a number of years, so I think he has the players that he recruited. They went to the BIG EAST, which I think is good for them. Again, to be one of those guys (like Florida, Florida State); you have to beat one of those guys, consistently. There is no rivalry. When I was at Georgia Tech, people used to talk about the Georgia-Georgia Tech rivalry, but we lost nine times in a row. A rivalry is when you have competition. To get in that degree with those schools, you have to win and you have compete against them. You have to play them, you have to get better each year and you have to beat them. You are not going in for a money game, you are playing to win. I think both schools are doing the same thing. They are recruiting players from in-state and out-of-state, I think Jim had done a little more in-state, after looking at his depth chart. It is not easy, because you have three pretty good football teams in-state already, but you have to keep fighting. I told our players that you have to keep working each and every game. We are going to play Florida and Miami. We are playing those teams in the future and we will have our opportunity.
Question: Is there advantage to getting this extra week and half to prepare?
Answer: You know what happens, coaches over coach. The big thing is that you have to make sure you continue to get better within your team. You can't worry about adding this or adding that. The players have to perform with speed. It is not necessarily how much you have in the game plan, but the quality of the game plan.
Question: Would you have liked to have seen the bye week a little later on in the season?
Answer: It really doesn't make any difference. I would just assume play. Normally if you have a bye, you would like to have it midseason, so in case you have injuries you can get healthy a little bit. That is about the time the players start to wear down, so you would like to get healthy then. I wouldn't mind playing 12 in row either. I think it is hard to have a week off after a loss. That game a week ago Thursday was a great film session. There were a lot of corrections that could be made. There are some things you can't correct, like speed or getting beat by speed. The things we got beat on were poor awareness. Those are tapes you want to watch because you know they can help the kids play better.
Question: USF played four quarterbacks last week. Do they run different offenses with each different quarterback?
Answer: I think they played one (Courtney Denson) to start against Penn State. He is more of a running type quarterback; play action quarterback. Then three (Pat Julmiste) went in and sort of settled the team down a little bit. They run the same offense. I think the play calling changes with each one they play. They have pretty good receivers and they have a good running back. They mix it up and they share personnel. I think the play calling changes with whoever is out there. It is the same offense but they may be more geared to the run or the option, as compared to the drop-back game or the draw game.