O’Leary mum - barred players from speaking with Sentinel
Monday, July 21st, 2008
|Sentinel Staff WriterJuly 21, 2008
UCF Coach George O’Leary declined to answer questions from the Orlando Sentinel and barred his players from granting interviews with the newspaper during Conference USA media day on Sunday.
He also refused to speak with other reporters if a representative from the Sentinel was present at the UCF table during the only session for print reporters at media day.
O’Leary said last week he would not speak with the Sentinel until the newspaper corrected errors in its coverage of Ereck Plancher’s death.
The newspaper has asked UCF officials to outline the mistakes, but the school has declined to discuss the errors in detail.
Conference USA officials and Ryan Powell, the media relations representative for the UCF football team, attempted to mediate the situation and allow a reporter to sit at the UCF table without asking questions, but O’Leary would not change his stance.
“We are sensitive to the needs of the Orlando Sentinel to cover the University of Central Florida, and we’re also sensitive to the passion Coach O’Leary brings to his job,” Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky said. “It’s our hope that this issue can be resolved so that Central Florida fans can enjoy coverage of their team throughout the football season.”
What gives with this guy and this school? A player dies and the head coach pouts about errors in the reporting but refuses to identify the errors? Sounds like a smokescreen to me. There is too much that does not add up.