George O'Leary Retires: Latest Comments, Reaction

UCF head football coach George O'Leary has retired from coaching as of Sunday amid a dreadful season in which the Knights have lost their first eight games.

ESPN's Brett McMurphy initially reported O'Leary would resign. Shannon Green and Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel indicated he would leave coaching altogether and added that quarterbacks coach Danny Barrett will take over his post on an interim basis.

SI.com's Stewart Mandel alluded to how quickly things have gone downhill for O'Leary and the Knights this season:

The 2015 campaign marked O'Leary's 12th season at the helm in Orlando. His tenure ended in unsavory fashion, as UCF fell to Houston 59-10 on Saturday. Otherwise, though, he has a lot to be proud of in building a program that's exploded onto the national scene in recent years.

The apex of O'Leary's tenure came in 2013, when current Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles led the team to a 12-1 record and a triumph in the Fiesta Bowl.

O'Leary, 69, finished with a solid 81-68 record despite the eight defeats this year and the time it took to transform the Knights program. That included an 0-11 mark in his first year, which just goes to show how magnificent of a job he did.

He already resigned as UCF's interim athletics director this month, but O'Leary's departure is nevertheless a surprise considering he signed a lucrative four-year contract extension last May.

O'Leary also experienced success as coach of Georgia Tech, leading the Yellow Jackets to an AP Top 25 ranking in each of his last five seasons from 1997 through 2001.

Note: Coaching record courtesy of Sports-Reference.com.