UCF Scandal

In our break from the Plancher cover-up we continue our look at shining examples of the UCF football program. This time it’s poster boy for the UCF Home Invasion Task Force, Charles Lee.

From the archives (December 6, 2007):

Former UCF Football Star Charged In Home Invasion

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — From running to the end zone to running from the law, a man considered one of the University of Central Florida’s greatest football players was arrested at his alma mater Wednesday night. Charles Lee, Jr. also played for the Orlando Predators and earned a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Lee was a standout wide receiver. Now he’s in jail accused of stealing $11,000 in a home invasion robbery.The Pegasus Landing Apartments near UCF is just one of the student apartment complexes plagued by robberies and burglaries this semester. Word that a former student and star athlete may be behind some of the crime is both a shock and a relief.There were many touchdowns during the glory days of college for Charles Lee, but Thursday a very different kind of notoriety became part of Lee’s resume. A judge denied bond to the former receiver after his arrest for a home invasion at the Pegasus Landing Apartments.Students are shocked.”To have such a resume like that. You just downgraded yourself. So I wouldn’t be surprised. I think the police did what they had to do,” said student BJ Johnson.Just a few years ago, Lee was a media star, even earning a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just four years ago.

Now, UCF police are trying to figure out how many crimes Lee is connected to.

“One guy was holding me down with his foot, gun to the back of my head. The other guy was going through my drawers and my closet and if I didn’t tell him where my valuables were he would kill me,” robbery victim Nicholas Rind told Eyewitness News in November.Now police will are trying to solve more crimes with Lee behind bars. More charges and arrests may be to come.”It’s a good thing that they caught him, definitely,” said student Mike Willey.

Before his arrest Wednesday night, things seemed to be going downhill for Lee. He’d lost his spot with the Orlando Predators in April and been convicted and sentenced for robbery in June. He also auctioned off his Super Bowl ring just three years after he earned it.Eyewitness News requested an interview with Lee on Thursday. Jail officials said he declined with some very colorful language.

View the entire story at WFTV.com

Yes, it’s been too much on the readers, I see the complaints. We need to cover more than just current scandals and controversies. While I take this Plancher situation very seriously, we can take a respite from it and look at other great moments in UCF history. Without further ado, we knock the dust off the archives and hopefully lighten the mood around here a bit:

From the archives (12/10/05):

Charges filed against former UCF quarterback Culpepper

Jeff Baenen

MINNEAPOLIS - Quarterback Daunte Culpepper and three Minnesota Vikings teammates were charged Thursday with indecent, lewd and disorderly conduct for participating in a bawdy boat party that drew national attention.

Culpepper, a former star quarterback at UCF who is currently on injured reserve, Bryant McKinnie, Fred Smoot and Moe Williams each were charged with three misdemeanors for their behavior aboard a boat on Lake Minnetonka, according to court papers.

If convicted, each player faces up to a maximum of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine for each count.

“The night of the incident, there was no shortage of inappropriate behavior on both boats,” Hennepin County Sheriff Pat McGowan said.

Prosecutor Steve Tallen charged the players based on an investigation by McGowan’s office, which reviewed allegations of lewd and drunken behavior aboard two craft chartered for the outing on Oct. 6.

Crew members complained that some people took off their clothes and engaged in public sex acts during the cruise, according to Stephen Doyle, an attorney representing the boats’ owners, Al & Alma’s Supper Club and Charter Cruises in Mound, Minn.

…Read the entire account at the Central Florida Future.

According to reports on local Orlando television WFTV.com’s site, slated starting running back Phillip Smith has left the UCF Football Program:

First Running Back Kevin Smith leaves school early to head to the NFL. Now, it looks like the man called upon to replace him in the backfield might not be around either. Sources close to the UCF football program tell Channel 9, Phillip Smith is no longer with the team, adding they were not sure if he quit or was kicked off. Phillip Smith was UCF’s 2nd leading rusher last season and was expected to be the starter in 2008, but a leg injury had kept him out of action since the 2nd week of spring practice. When asked if Smith was still on the team, a UCF spokesman told Channel 9 he has no information to confim or deny our report.

With information from UCF at a premium these days as the athletic administration continues a “lock-down” on the media, we may not know for several days, if ever, the reason for Smith’s departure. Smith’s departure makes it two Knights to leave the program after the death of Ereck Plancher and the subsequent media firestorm over UCF’s handling of the death itself.

The Orlando Sentinel UCF beat writer Kyle Hightower published an open letter to UCF fans in which he attempted to explain the media responsibility and interest in the untimely death of UCF football player Ereck Plancher. This excerpt alone explains the reason Hightower and his paper have not rested on this story:

“Bottom line, players described a version of events that was different from what George O’Leary and Keith Tribble told the media. We NEVER have said which account is right/wrong or tried to blame ANYONE in anything we have written. “

Therein lies the problem. A coach with limited credibility when it comes to telling the truth describes a situation far differently than the players. The players’ description likely puts UCF in NCAA violation and O’Leary a knowing participant in the eventual collapse of Plancher.

Lying on one’s resume is one thing. Lying at the scene of a young man’s death is fully another. It remains to be seen if that is the case - and the Sentinel is the major party pursuing the truth, or at least trying to reconcile the two sides.

UCF hired O’Leary knowing the faults he’d presented in the past from lying to physically abusing his players. The administration to this day defends that decision and allegedly is crawling in bed right along side their hire, O’Leary.

Kudos to the Orlando Sentinel for seeking the truth, regardless of the maelstrom of insults and profanity being tossed their way by UCF fans.

Plancher story has not ended

Sports columnist Pete Kerasotis

COCOA — Anything written right now about Ereck Plancher needs ellipses dots.

You know what I mean. Those three little dots . . . that indicate a sentence, or a story, is not complete.

This story is not complete. It might never be. The only thing we know for sure is that Ereck Plancher is dead.

Goodness, we don’t even have the autopsy report yet. How can you possibly put a period at the end of a sentence when we still don’t know why or how Ereck Plancher died?

What we do know is that the UCF football player collapsed March 18 during an offseason, on-campus workout, and was pronounced dead about an hour later at Florida Hospital East.

When he spoke to local boosters Thursday night, UCF head coach George O’Leary referred to it as “the incident.” It seemed odd, how O’Leary chose not to say Ereck Plancher’s name, but rather call the player’s death “the incident.”

…

What we do know, though, is that UCF changed its initial depiction of the workout, doubling its duration from the originally stated 10 minutes and 26 seconds, to 20 minutes.

There’s also criticism that in its internal investigation, UCF didn’t interview any of its players. I’ve been told from university spokespeople that this is protocol, and that they also wanted to honor the players’ grieving process.

But wouldn’t you want to be the ones interviewing your players about a teammate’s death, rather than the local newspaper?

Listen, it isn’t uncommon for authorities to tactfully interview grieving family and friends about a death that needs explanation. They do it all the time. UCF should’ve done that, too, and done it right away. They didn’t.

Now it is a month to the day later, and when I asked UCF spokesperson Grant Heston Thursday afternoon exactly how many players the university had interviewed to try to determine what happened, he said he thought there was one player.

One?

“I’ll get back with you on that,” he said.

Later, he sent me an e-mail telling me he was still trying to find that information. At 9:22 p.m., he sent another e-mail telling me he was still “looking into” my question.

I still don’t have an answer.

“I’m confident,” O’Leary said, “that in the long run things will come out that will prove what I said to be true.”

You know what that means?

To be continued . . .

Read the full story at FloridaToday.com

The Naples News has published an editorial calling on a full investigation into the death of Ereck Plancher. The paper’s editorial suggests perhaps the NCAA or even Florida’s Governor - Charlie Crist - may need to get involved.

There is too much at stake and one young man has died. As more time passes, recollections and will become diluted. UCF should be pressing forward and providing objective answers. The Naples News agrees:

Editorial: Football star’s death

UCF, or higher authority, must settle discrepancies

6:29 p.m., Monday, April 14, 2008

Until now, last month’s death of former Lely High School football star Ereck Plancher, 19, while practicing at the University of Central Florida, has been regarded as one of those tragedies that too often are part of life. A strong young person with a bright future is suddenly and unexpectedly snatched from our midst.

But now, Plancher’s death takes on another perspective, that of a tragedy that might have been avoided.

Four teammates — speaking under condition of anonymity — tell the Orlando Sentinel newspaper that Plancher was struggling to keep up with the rigor of the team’s workout that day and he was being scolded by the coach. He denies cursing at Plancher, but recalled telling people around him, “He’s better than that,” the Sentinel says.

In football there is nothing wrong with a hard workout. But why the differing stories? UCF officials call the workout routine while the interviewed players call it unusually tough, with other players vomiting and Plancher showing the most signs of distress.

There are NCAA rules for how strenuous springtime workouts can be, and UCF says the ill-fated March 18 indoor, air-conditioned session was within bounds.

Plancher’s loved ones say they want the truth. We all want to make sure of that. UCF also needs to know everything about what happened. The safety of future players and the integrity of its athletic program are at stake.

If the university is unable to conduct a timely and objective investigation, then someone else — such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, perhaps — ought to be recruited.

Gov. Charlie Crist, by virtue of being the No. 1 elected official in a state where UCF is a prominent member of the public university system, ought to be in the wings ready to step in, if needed.

Nothing that anyone can do can bring back Ereck Plancher. Yet, the new comments from his teammates are serious. His legacy merits answers.

NaplesNews.com

Today’s entry in the Orlando Sentinel provides commentary from two of the players earlier reported the exercises were much more intense than UCF reported. This belief, if widely held by the UCF players, could be very detrimental to program and its student-athletes.

“After the funeral, we tried to move on and focus on football,” one player said. “We have a lot of work to do as a team, but it’s been hard because the coaches said a lot of things about what happened that day that weren’t true. I’m really angry they didn’t just tell the truth.”

This needs to be rectified. This is not about George O’Leary and the program. It’s not about lies. It’s about the death of a young man. A death that will remain a mystery if the truth is subdued.

Read the whole story in today’s Orlando Sentinel.

It is interesting that the only player to come forward to speak with the coaches on the Plancher situation, Cliff McCray, has decided to leave the program. He also turned down a follow-up meeting with Coach George O’Leary and instead talked with his parents.

From the Orlando Sentinel (April 14, 2008):

O’Leary denied the four players’ accounts (see earlier articles in which players claimed the football activity was more intense than UCF admits). He said he asked players to talk with coaches if they wanted to speak about what happened the day Plancher died. He said McCray is the only player who came forward and met with coaches.

And now he’s gone.

Read the full account on the Orlando Sentinel

Excerpt from Orlando Sentinel:

Plancher’s high school football coach Chris Metzger, along with numerous friends and family members, told the Sentinel Plancher collapsed during a UCF workout in late March or early April 2007. UCF coaches and trainers said they have no knowledge of Plancher collapsing, but they did have a note on his file that he needed water during a workout in summer 2007.

Read the entire report on Plancher at the Orlando Sentinel

For former UCF QB Steven Moffett, motivation different than intimidation

Shannon J. Owens
April 13, 2008

Says Moffett (in quotes):  “[O’Leary] said I wasn’t worth [expletive] and I’d never play here,” said Moffett, who was recruited by former coach Mike Kruczek.

Some call that incentive. I call that abuse. And that is the kind of environment Moffett said he and his teammates practiced in daily.

Moffett, 23, turned down offers from Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Southern Mississippi for the opportunity to blossom under a Kruczek spread offense that would allow the athletic 6-foot-2 quarterback to throw the ball.

He considered transferring to Southern Miss when O’Leary arrived at UCF, but decided to stay so he could prove his worth to the new football coach.

But he would not get that affirmation. Instead, he says he was barraged with curses — the nicest one, he says, was “you stupid [expletive] idiot.” When the team lost, he said O’Leary would single him out as the reason for the loss.

Isn’t football supposed to be a team sport? “It doesn’t make you feel good at all,” he said. “I think he wanted me to snap on him, but I never did.”

“He’s a good coach, but he’s a disrespectful person,” Moffett said.

Entire report on the Orlando Sentinel