CSNbbs

By John Harris
Gentlemen…play time is over – In all fairness to former head coach Mike Kruczek who was instrumental in helping take the UCF Golden Knights football program to a new level, UCF football is about to get a beautiful comeuppance.

Head coach George O’Leary is not your Sunday-walk-in-the-park, break-out-the-sunscreen, we’re-at-the-beach kind of guy. He's going to be the toughest hombre that these players have seen in quite some time, and the players (and staff) that make it through spring ball and the summer will be ‘conditioned’ like no other team in recent Golden Knight memory.

Put aside all of the Notre Dame jokes and rhetoric, what O’Leary did in his years at Georgia Tech spoke volumes in the coaching community, many of whom thought his ‘departure’ from Notre Dame was an absolute joke. The man can coach, the man can lead, the man will make you respect him. That is why he more than any player, game or opponent, will be the key to UCF’s season. After a season that imploded into an absolute nightmare, with the inmates truly running the asylum, O’Leary’s arrival puts an abrupt end to the ‘circus’ that was 2003.

Spend some practice time at a UCF practice, if you get a chance, it will amaze you the pressure that the Knights are under on a consistent basis. Each drill is competitive, players are moving from drill to drill at breakneck pace, and if players are not discipline or intense, they will wilt under the constant O’Leary glare, and UCF football is going to be better for it. Much, much better.

UAB

What needs working on ... Everything. UAB was totally average in every phase last year and needs something to be able to hang its hat on. This was a good enough team to beat Memphis and come within five points of Southern Miss and three of TCU and Georgia. If the Blazers can get a wee bit of improvement in all phases, this is a team potentially good enough to get to a bowl.

The most important position to watch is ... Offensive tackle. Quarterback Darrell Hackney will be coming back from an injury and needs to be protected, while the running backs aren't good enough to make their own plays without decent blocking up front. The Blazers need help at tackle needing new players to shine all the while developing some depth.

Spring attitude... What is this program going to be? Always good enough to be mediocre, UAB needs to use this spring to finally become a team that matter in the Conference USA race. How do the Blazers do that? They improve on the overall fundamentals to get better in every phase while gaining the confidence that only comes when an experienced team keeps working together.