Ties run deep between GT and UCF
Georgia Tech and Central Florida have not met on the football field in over 20 years and a lot has changed during that time and the two programs have intertwined on some level with several current Jacket staffers being for Knights assistants and the athletic director being the former AD at UCF as well, but at the center of all of it is former Jackets' and Knights' head coach George O'Leary.
O'Leary worked at Georgia Tech as a defensive coordinator and later a head coach from 1987-91 and then 1994-2001. In 2004 he took over UCF and helped propel the program upward in the conference landscape from Conference USA to the American Conference where they went to the Fiesta Bowl in his first season. His final five years at Georgia Tech were also strong with winning records each season and five straight top 25 finishes before he left for Notre Dame. The less said about that the better.
O'Leary will be honored at halftime of Saturday's game as he is entering the Georgia Tech Sports Hall of Fame this year.
Current Jackets' head coach Geoff Collins served as a graduate assistant and then tight ends coach until O'Leary's departure from Tech. They reunited at Central Florida where Collins became a linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator for two years.
"I had two years at UCF and I was coaching for George O'Leary so that was really more like 14 years down there coaching for Coach O'Leary. He's going to be at the game this week. He's going to be honored for the Georgia Tech Hall of Fame. I'm tremendously blessed that I'm in this position because of George O'Leary and he means the world to me and he means the world to my family," Collin said. "I think it's a perfect time because he had such a great run here and he had such a great run of building that program the right way. I've got a tremendous amount of respect for (UCF) and tremendous amount of respect for the program that is being built there and has been built there."
Offensive line coach Brent Key played and GA'd for O'Leary at Tech and coached under him for over 10 years starting as a graduate assistant working up to an offensive line coach and ultimately becoming his final offensive coordinator in Orlando.
Tech defensive ends/outside linebackers coach Marco Coleman played for O'Leary when he was the defensive coordinator and current Jacket defensive coordinator Andrew Thacker was a graduate assistant in 2015 at UCF.
"Coach O'Leary is a legend. What does he teach you? This ain't easy. Football ain't easy," Thacker said of the lessons learned under O'Leary. "It is difficult it is demanding, it is a violent physical sport. There are no excuses in this. All the lessons that you learn about in life about adversity, about responding, about discipline, he creates he demands those things and he treats everybody the same. He treats everybody fairly. That may be good or bad at moments. He treats everybody the same and creates a very tough environment. So you think about toughness, you think about discipline, you think about doing your job when you talk about George O'Leary. Sincerely one of the coaching legends in this profession and I'm so fortunate to work underneath him early in my professional (career) and he's been a big deal here at Georgia Tech."
Tech QC/Offensive Analyst Will Glover also played for O'Leary and worked for him as a graduate assistant and a QB at UCF early in his coaching career as well.
The ties also go the other way outside the O'Leary tree. Current Tech running backs coach Tashard Choice played for current UCF head coach Josh Heupel at Oklahoma when he as an assistant coach and Choice told the story on GT60 this week of how Heupel helped get him into coaching after his NFL career ended and hooked him with North Texas coach Seth Littrell who gave Choice his break as a graduate assistant in 2017 and then as the on the field coach in Denton. Choice's performance there caught the attention of Collins and led to his hiring at Georgia Tech.
Collins and UCF defensive coordinator Randy Shannon were co-DCs at Florida in 2015 and 2016 before Collins left to become the head coach at Temple. So clearly this will be a little more personal than most one or two-off non-conference games.
