UCF's O'Leary: 'We know what we're in for'

Georgia officially accepted the invitation to the Liberty Bowl on a Sunday evening teleconference. Head coach Mark Richt was then joined on the call by his once and future counterpart, George O’Leary, the head coach of Central Florida.

“Mark, how are you doing?” O’Leary said after a Liberty Bowl invited the coaches to “exchange pleasantries.”

Richt congratulated O’Leary on winning the Conference USA championship on Saturday, which secured UCF’s berth in the game.

“I’ve always enjoyed Georgia and the way it’s played,” O’Leary said. “We know what we’re in for.”

“There’s no secrets, and it oughta be a good one,” Richt answered.

A few more notes from the call:

- Georgia’s schedule, as outlined by Richt, was as follow: A practice on Saturday, then off until after final exams the following week. They’ll practice until 21st, then let the players go home, then report back on the 26th, and presumably head off to Memphis.

- Richt said the emphasis during the 15 allotted practices would be on preparing to win, and not looking toward 2011.

“The focus is on winning this game,” Richt said. “I know there are other coaches that look at this as a spring ball, or as a chance to get ready for spring ball.”

One of them is his defensive coordinator Todd Grantham, who said after the win over Georgia Tech that he wanted to use some of the time to get a look at younger players. So we'll see how all that turns out.

- Richt is 1-0 against O’Leary, having defeated him in his first year at Georgia, which ended a three-game winning streak for the Yellow Jackets against the Bulldogs.

“Hard-nosed football coach,” Richt said. “Every team he’s ever put out there can play a physical brand of ball.”

O’Leary returned the compliment, saying “They don’t know how good they have it there right now with Mark Richt.”

- Richt has done a bit of informal scouting of UCF: He Tivoed the Conference USA championship game on Saturday and said he was about three—fourths of the way through it.

What stood out to him was freshman quarterback Jeffery Godfrey, a dual-threat who is second on the team in rushing.

“Their young quarterback is really a dynamic guy that can throw and run, and creates a lot of problems for you,” Richt said.

- The two head coaches will travel to Memphis on Thursday for another press conference to promote the game there.

The game is played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Coliseum, which has a listed capacity of 62,380. (Central Florida was just there a week ago, beating Memphis in its regular-season finale.)