U of Central Florida

Coach,
UCF has been around since the late 1960's. It started as a tech school, and as a teen I saw it get it's start. It's located on the eastside of Orlando. It was nice back then, but it's really a very nice looking place. It would be-it's in Orlando for goodness sake.

For the State of Florida, it is a high academic school. (now please all you nothern school folks understand we are a little slower down here, and I can't make any excuses for it)

It's also affliated with NASA, which is a straight shot down highway 50 from UCF. And a very large, over 50,000 students, making it one of the largest in the Country.

OJW

i think its one of the largest schools in the nation. but the football program leaves something to be desired (tough competition from Miami, FSU, UF and USF with recruting) but as far as academics and college experiances go you're right, theres not many like it. oh and the best part.....the ladies

it does pump out a good NFL player about once a year. Brandon Marshall, Kevin Smith, Dante Culpepper. theres a decent alumni history.

I believe I heard that a very high percentage of UCFs students are commuters. If so (and I may be wrong) could that be hindering recruiting?

OJW and ccox16 have the history right. In '78 they changed the name from Florida Technological University to University of Central Florida. Back then it was definitely more of a commuter school but with so many students there now I'm not sure if that is still true. I was shocked and amazed the last time I was on campus at the changes and that was 4 years ago. Much of it is new as they have been expanding almost continuously for at least the last 20-25 years.

I know the question wasn't about the football program but I have to roll with it. UCF started out in 1979 as a D3 school with a plan to move up through the ranks to being a D1 school eventually. The head coach was Don Jonas of Canadian Football fame, with the first season ending with a 6-2 record. I had the privilege of being on the team for the first two seasons. What a hoot it was! Guys that were looking for a chance to play college football came from all over the place, and as you can imagine it was quite a cast of characters, players and coaching staff alike. We were all paying our own way and doing it for the love of the game, complete with stories I probably should not repeat to protect the guilty. Several of the players on that team have gone into HS coaching, Dan Burke has won a couple of titles down in Florida and the Qb for those first 2 years just won the Florida 6A title, congrats to Cully.

It would be interesting to contrast UCF's progress with USF's, but I don't know the details of how USF got there so fast, it might be an interesting lesson in how programs are built...

Guys, y'all are too funny:

"stories I probably should not repeat to protect the guilty"

UCF= Under construction forever

The USF story is unique because of Jim Leavitt. A "somewhat" energetic little fella'.
He's been there for their 12 seasons, they've only has 2 losing season since that time, and one 6-6 season.
He has done an amazing job, and if he can keep from popping the veins in his neck, will probably be there for a long time.
He's a home-town boy, and loves Tampa.

Tampa and Orlando, while close in milage are world's apart. They might as well be in different states.
I'm not sure UCF could find anyone who is a "home town boy" to coach them, nobody is really from there.
Orlando is such a new town-very international.

OJW

ccox,
that is awesome, I didn't know that.
Hey man, keep you resume polished up, Oleary is a good coach but doesn't seem to be popular with the local mullet wrapper.

I remember going back into the palmetto patches before Disney was built, we went to a little trailer and looked at a model of the place. Who would have thought it would become what it is now.
Wish somebody in my family had enough sense by buy up some of those patches.

OJW

Ya Oleary was pretty much vilified in the media after one of the kids died, and the only reason he was seen as a monster was because he didnt want to talk to the media and "seemed" like he was trying to cover something up. Theres a reason the sentinel is called the "Slantinel". I have met him a few times and yes he does come off gruff but overall a nice guy. I even took their "coaching football" class because I needed an easy summer course. can you believe thats an Upper level course? It was easy as pie. I love going to the games on saturday just for when they play this one song (cant remember the name, Zombie nation I wanna say), everyone in the stands starts jumping up and down its great, its sounds so loud underneath. Another reason UCF doesnt get the respect it should is that they just cant seem to string winning seasons together, we go from having the 2nd leading rusher of all time and winning the division to barely winning a few games the next season. Its a little frustrating.

Which school did you visit?

I cant wait for it to start. Neither can the kids. The upper classmen cant wait to get pads because some of the younger ones have been running their mouth in the wieght room and in their words they cant wait to "Bang" them. and its not like the freshmen dont something to boast about, some of them are actually doing about the same weight as some of the up coming seniors.

Spruce Creek

My school (Olympia) is playing spruce creek for our spring game. as for 7 on 7 ya you can pretty much find one for any week that you want. They have them all over the state.

Coach4life this past year and next im at Olympia two years ago I was at edgewater. Who did you play for?

I played there '84-87, and my son is joining the UCF Knights this fall as a receiver. He is walking on in the 105. Colleges don't typically offer my type of kid at receiver, but LSU had him coming in as a preferred, so I think that helped some. George has been very nice to me each time I have spoken to him. I am excited to see if my son can earn a spot. They think he can play, so we will see. It would be fun to see my son play for the old Black and Gold.

UCF has sure grown since when I played, I was showing my kid around after practice the other day, and where we practiced is now a parking lot! LOL We played so far back that we had to dress in the baseball locker room in shifts...it is definitely a new day out there - it is just absolutely incredible what they have done.

they are going to be sprinkling in the option not sure if its spread though

UCF used to be the Florida Institute of Technology. Like the city of Orlando, it wants to be a big institution and grows to fast without the infrastructure. I think they should rename it to the University of Orlando, because most people don't know where it is, even though it's the 6th or 7th biggest school in the nation.

I have an axe to grind with them because I was rejected there out of high school (because of my 2.3 GPA haha) and ended up getting my $%#! together and going to U of Miami, which is a waaay better school Sorry, I'm still bitter haha!