Forget the Monkey; it's the Year of Redemption

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Big Guy isn't finished with George O'Leary just yet. That much was evident when lightning struck for at least the second time in the life of the Central Florida coach.

Eight months after his strip-club scandal at Alabama, Texas-El Paso gave Mike Price a ring.(Getty Images)

Across from the shiny new football complex O'Leary inherited is a stand of pine trees, as native as Disney to this part of the country. The trees also serve as kindling under the right circumstances.

"I'm sitting in the office and lightning hits the trees and caused a fire across the street," O'Leary said of the June blaze. "The secretary called the police. By the time I get out to look at it after the meeting, flames are shooting over the trees."

If not for some quick action by the fire department diverting the flames away from the complex, well, let's just say O'Leary is familiar with things burning to the ground.

Since leaving Georgia Tech in 2001, O'Leary, 58, has been a survivor in any way the word can be interpreted. He was nationally disgraced because of a couple of small erroneous entries in his resume when he was hired at Notre Dame. He retreated to the safety of the NFL as a defensive assistant with Minnesota.

Shortly after Central Florida came calling with a job offer, O'Leary suffered a heart attack that required surgery, the insertion of a stint and a lifestyle change. And just in case O'Leary didn't get that message from above, Hurricane Charley moved through Orlando. It tore the roof off a student rec center and knocked down some of those pine trees that the fire couldn't burn down.

O'Leary isn't necessarily the poster guy in this college football season filled with extreme career makeovers, but he's a damn good place to start. Thanks to guys like him, the word of the day, the month and the season is redemption.

Webster's defines it as "release from sin." There is literally, a Second Chance Crew around the country this year that have rebounded better than Ben Wallace. From Hawaii to El Paso, Austin to Lincoln, some of the sports' key figures have been given a whopper of a mulligan.

A compendium of this season's redeemed:

• Clemson's Tommy Bowden went from extreme hot seat to nine victories after a season-ending five-game winning streak. The glittering Bowden legacy lives, but only as long as Saturday perhaps, if the Tigers lose to Wake Forest.

• Nebraska's Bill Callahan went from unemployed to trusted keeper of the Nebraska flame in the space of nine days in January. He not only is changing an offense but also a culture.