O'Leary freezing out the Sentinel

Pretty simple answer here. Don't quote O'Leary at all. Quote players. Quote assistants. Quote the guy holding the first down stick. I wouldn't even mention O'Leary in a story if I was the Sentinel. The guy is lucky to have a job after the Notre Dame incident.

 

Prez is right on the money. Went through this kind of situation on my first college beat and just quoted everybody but the head coach for about a year. Eventually his ego got the best of him and we mended the fence.

 

Not a bad idea, but the way coaches like to control things today, he probably wouldn't let the Sentinel even look at any of them, let alone, interview them.

 

Rest assured, UCF needs all the coverage it can get.

You can't say this to a SEC, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, etc etc. school.

But you can say it to UCF.

 

The national media sure won't be beating down O'Leary's door, that's for certain

 

Especially since Smith took off (after originally saying he was coming back). He was probably their lone story of national relevance.

 

Because...if anyone can recognize an error by now in something printed on paper, you'd figure it would be George O'Leary.

 

Honest question: Would you trust that what you're reading on fan sites and message boards as fact, and particularly in something this touchy and not what happened to Terry Tailback at practice?

I'm only saying that because in our market people will read and listen to those, and I know dang well the level of reporting they're getting isn't what it should be. Of course, that's a whole other conversation that's been beaten to death many times over.

 

Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment. I read some of the comments.

Sigh.

 

Not on fan sites. But if there's a news-first, non-entertainment-oriented blog or something of the sort out there covering the site, yeah, I'd trust it.

 

That, almost word for word, is what is published on our local "community" Web site about my paper on a daily basis.

Everyone hates their local paper - until it's gone.

 

Biased against O'Leary? Geez, give me a break. I don't catch everything the Sentinel writes during the football season, but except for this incident, he's received almost nothing but positive coverage during his tenure, even during the 0-11 season.

If I remember correctly, their columnists pushed for UCF to lock him up long term and has had nothing but praise for all the upgrades to the program that have come under his watch.

I like O'Leary and support what he's done to the program since he go there. And I can understand him being sensitive to reports that make him look responsible. But come on. A player of his dies at practice, he and/or university get caught in misstatements and he doesn't think the local newspaper isn't going to dig into it. Gee, wasn't it a newspaper that dug up the lies on the resume.