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WRALSportsFan

O'Brien Well-Acquainted with O'Leary

By J. Mike Blake

Aug 29, 2007

Recent history suggests that Central Florida is a team that shouldn’t be written off entering Saturday’s contest at N.C. State.

The last two teams from Conference USA’s Eastern Division that faced the Wolfpack, Southern Miss and East Carolina, were the victors in their respective match-ups.
State's humiliating 3-9 season and honorary third-place finish in the Conference USA division last year has players like tight end Marcus Stone eager to take the field.

“I’m ready to see what all the hard work over the summer and camp and working on the fundamentals - I’m waiting to see what it all does,” Stone said.

As one of the co-captains, Stone said he’s not going to let the team overlook this weekend’s showdown with the Golden Knights.

“You always want your team to be on the same page,” Stone said. “Whenever we’re in the locker room talking about the team we’re going to play, if we hear any talk about a [future opponent] … we’ll say something about it.”

Central Florida, 4-8 a year ago, is coached by George O’Leary, a familiar foe to State fans. O’Leary was the head man at Georgia Tech for seven full seasons, with a 36-22 record against ACC competition.

These two Irish coaches have faced each other 11 times, mostly when Tom O’Brien was an offensive coordinator at Virginia, piecing together offensive packages to defeat O’Leary’s Yellow Jacket defense.

“I’ve got a long history with George O’Leary,” O’Brien said. “We had two bouts against each other my first two years at Boston College when he was at Georgia Tech.”

Running back Kevin Smith is Central Florida’s featured tailback. The junior has amassed over 2,000 yards in his career at 4.8 yards per carry.

“They’ll come with a power running game. [O’Leary] believes in running the football and the play-action passing game,” O’Brien said. “Once every quarter the ball’s going to go deep.”

Kyle Israel, the starting quarterback for the Golden Knights, threw six touchdowns and five interceptions after being named the starter late in the year.

However, he did complete 19-22 of his passes in the season finale against UAB.

O’Leary’s specialty is defense. He was a defensive coordinator before taking the head coaching job at Georgia Tech and was also a defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings.

Unpleased with last year’s performance, he brought in a new defensive coordinator this off-season, but quarterback Daniel Evans said this coaching staff will be prepared in its first game for the red and white.

“We know they’ll have some new wrinkles,” Evans said. “What [offensive coordinator Dana] Bible keeps telling us is it’s not really about them, it’s going to be about us running our plays and executing.”

Quick Outs: notes about UCF

- Former N.C. State player Mike Greco is listed as the third-string quarterback for UCF. Greco left the Wolfpack for UCF before last season, and sat out the year in compliance with the NCAA transfer rule. Greco never took a snap for the Pack, but was battling Daniel Evans for the backup quarterback spot before transferring.

- The Golden Knights return eight starters on offense to a unit that scored just 20 touchdowns in 50 red zone trips last year.

- UCF also returns nine starters to the 106th best defense. The team surrendered 28.8 points and 398 yards per game in 2006.

- UCF has lost seven of its last eight season openers.