ESPN's Mike Tirico talked with former Notre Dame and Georgia Tech coach George O'Leary for the Sunday Conversation on SportsCenter.

Among many other things, O'Leary told Tirico he was asked to resign as Notre Dame football coach after admitting he lied about his background, contradicting the school's statement that he offered to resign.

O'Leary resigned as the Irish coach on Dec. 14 -- five days after he was hired away from Georgia Tech.

Here is the full transcript of the conversation:

Mike Tirico: George, I guess it comes back to two significant things, so I want to go through each one step by step. First the playing at New Hampshire became more than it actually was. Did you know as you were going Thursday or during the last five or six years of your coaching career here at Georgia Tech, that your playing record said you were a letterman and said you played for a couple of years at New Hampshire when in fact you hadn't?

George O'Leary:Yes, I did. It's something I did 22 years ago and after I was working at Syracuse, sort of for a press guide. It wasn't on a résumé and it's something that was wrong and I shouldn't have done. I did attend the University of New Hampshire and went through preseason and was ineligible that year and decided not to play football.

Tirico: Tough out.

O'Leary: That's something I shouldn't have done and it sort of carried me through the 22 years and it's something I should have stricken from my record.

Tirico: You said that it was not on your résumé, that it was on a bio sheet that was filled out for a media guide. Did you ever have to put together a résumé for Frank Maloney, the guy who hired you at Syracuse?

O'Leary: I've never done a résumé. Frank had hired me in January of 1980. I was working already, on the road recruiting and doing those things when I filled that out -- it was really a press guide bio -- in April and it's something that, as I said earlier, that I shouldn't have done. I puffed it a lit...I puffed it a lot and it stayed with me throughout my press guides.

Tirico: So you filled it out after you had the job?

O'Leary: Right.

Tirico: You knew it was there and you knew it didn't go away in your résumé. Was there a time when you thought, 'Let me go back and clean this up now when nobody might notice it'?

	New Notre Dame football coach George O'Leary speaks with the media at his introduction during a press conference Sunday, Dec. 9, 2001, in South Bend, Ind.

O'Leary: I did, and at the time, when do you do it? Then it became sort of immaterial to me because no one had ever asked for any résumés in any job I was ever concerned with. It was never asked, anything about my playing time or anything. It was really one press guide led to another press guide and it's something obviously I was wrong in. I should have stricken it from my bio in the press guides, but I've never done a résumé or been involved with a résumé with any job I've been involved with.

Tirico: Never? Let's go from Syracuse to Georgia Tech. When you come here, you never applied for those jobs, you were sought out for those jobs?

O'Leary: Well, at Syracuse, Frank Maloney called me and asked me if I'd like to come on the staff and, of course, a high school coach, I did that, and there was never a résumé involved at all. It was more interviewing and what position I'd coach and where I'd recruit. From there, Bobby Ross called. In fact, one year he wanted me to go down to Maryland and we couldn't work it out.

Tirico: That's when Bobby was the head coach at Maryland?

O'Leary: Head coach at Maryland and then the next year I was at the national convention and Coach Ross took the Georgia Tech job and called me and asked me if I'd come down as the defensive coordinator and actually offered me the job on the phone. So, again, no résumé involved. I basically had the job, came down and met with coach and saw the campus and took the job as defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech.

Tirico: How did the NYU masters in education part become a part of your résumé as you went through these stops?

O'Leary: I went back and, with council, tried to check on the records at Georgia Tech and in 1987, in the spring guide, it's not there and there's no paper trail on it either. Then in the fall press guide of '87, it appears and obviously it had to come from me as far as speaking to somebody, but there's no paper trail on that at all in '87.

Tirico: So you didn't write down on a résumé or, excuse me, an application, when you got to Georgia Tech "I have a master's."

O'Leary: No, I didn't and there's no paper trail. I've checked on it with council and there's nothing there except it appears in the fall press guide of 1987 at Georgia Tech.

Tirico: So if you filled out something that may have said you went to NYU for some secondary level education past your college degree that it became from taking some classes to you had your masters.

O'Leary: Right.

Tirico: Somewhere in there.

O'Leary: See, having been a New York state teacher you have to have 30 hours to be permanently certified beyond your bachelors and I had that. I was permanently certified. So I attended Stony Brook, I attended NYU, taking classes, all right, as far as graduate courses and I have more than 30 hours and also had some other courses regarding coaching that I'd taken, so I had the 30 hours and more to permanently certified. So, again, the master's would be a stretch, but I had the graduate hours beyond my masters, beyond my bachelor's.

Tirico: You have both the football situation and the master's and the basic question that everybody comes back to -- I'm sure you've asked yourself -- why did you lie about those two things?

It was really one press guide led to another press guide and it's something obviously I was wrong in. I should have stricken it from my bio in the press guides, but I've never done a résumé or been involved with a résumé with any job I've been involved with.

O'Leary: Well, you go back to, well really it's four phases I look at. Twenty-two years ago, I got a job. Really, at that time, to puff my bio -- that's all I did with the playing and it really didn't matter because I had the job -- it was insignificant as far as why people hired me. How that appeared in my masters at Georgia Tech was probably by word of mouth in '87 from myself and, really at the time, I'd been through three jobs and not one person ever spoke to me about my education or my playing ability. Everything was focused on my coaching ability and what type of person I was on the field, within the program, with the players and it's something I should've cleaned up, Mike, there's no question about that. I'm wrong in not doing that, but in my mind it had no significance to what I was being hired for.

Tirico: When you hire assistant coaches and you interview them and you've been in interviews for head coaching, do you sit there and go over what did you do 15 years ago as a player? You've been in the interview chair.

O'Leary: Right.

Tirico: When you're trying to hire an assistant coach, do you ask a guy, "Where did you play? How much did you play?"

O'Leary: No, I don't. I base it strictly on his coaching ability, what he's coached, who he's coached, what schools he's been at, what level he's coached at and I never really go into his education and no one has ever gotten into mine as far as any interviews I've been in. Again, it's something that I should've had corrected and I didn't, but there was never a point in any interview I've been at where I walked in with a résumé or was asked for a résumé in any job I've been approached with or position I've had.

Tirico: There are times when there are things that people don't know about you and those things just kind of grow and there's something inside of you, when that's the case, where you say 'Somebody might find out. I've got to come clean, I've got to say something.' If you knew this was out there, did you ever say to yourself 'I just got to get this clean and done now before it comes up,' even though it's 20, 25 years old?

O'Leary: I did. Soon after I left Syracuse, I thought of that and you get tied into it and no one ever made it a major point to talk about it. It wasn't like it was ever brought up as far as the playing at New Hampshire or the master's, which appeared that fall of '87. No one has ever discussed that with me in 15 years and ...

Tirico: Did anyone at either place, Syracuse or Georgia Tech, know that what was on paper wasn't reality?

O'Leary: I don't know that. I can't say that's true, I have no idea.

Tirico: But not that you knew of, nobody knew?

O'Leary: No one that I knew of.

Tirico: Let's go to this week. You go back to the Friday, or really the Thursday before, when the Notre Dame thing starts to become a possibility. The contact is made with your athletic director and now you're moving forward. You meet with the folks from Notre Dame, things go well and Sunday you're in South Bend, the press conference where you're accepting the job. Take me back to the weekend before that, Friday, Saturday, Sunday was there any point in there during the conversations where they said, "Is there anything out there that we don't know about you that's going to hurt us down the line?"

O'Leary: What happened was Thursday night I got a call from the athletic director wanting to visit with me and I did that. I got a call back that Friday night and they were bringing down the full committee to visit with me in Atlanta and I sat with them and really the only thing that I brought up at the time that they might not have known about was an NCAA instance I had with C.J. Williams (When O'Leary improperly loaned Williams money to cover dorm room damage expenses in the spring of 1996), which was on record already. I went through that and that was the only thing that I brought up that they didn't know about, but I had not done a résumé or anything else. Everything was based on what was in that press guide from what I understand.

Tirico: So, in the back of your mind as you're discussing issues with them that might come up, the Notre Dame job, which takes on a life of its own, you're not thinking in the back of your head, 'I've got to tell them something about New Hampshire or NYU?'

O'Leary: No, because it's never been a factor in any conversation I've had with anybody from the athletic director, administrator; it's something that probably at one time I realized something was going to have to be done. It's something that was immaterial to me at the time because there was nothing based on why I was sitting in that room interviewing for a job. In any place I've been, I don't think what was in the press guide had anything to do with why I got a job, what position I attained and that's really the reason it was never brought up. But I did bring up things in that meeting that they may not have known about, the C.J. Williams incident at Georgia Tech being one of them.

Tirico: You have the job, it's Sunday. Now you're doing what every coach does, that 72-hour scramble of going back to your old home, talking to assistants, assessing the situation, the staff, etc. When do you first get wind that something might be up regarding the playing background.

O'Leary: You're exactly right. I displaced two staffs. You know, you sit back and you feel bad about it because I've left two openings at jobs that are outstanding jobs. Wednesday night, the SID came to me and said 'Coach, I'm getting a call from somebody in Manchester about your background at New Hampshire,' and he says it's no big deal. He says let's work through it, but never really expounded more than that and I was on my way out the door. Then, that Thursday, I was recruiting in Washington, I got a call that AP had something on not playing at New Hampshire and I went through that with the fellow that had called me, Lou Nanni, and I said that's right and they had prepared, I guess, a release on it. At that time, he asked is there anything else, I said yes there is. I said the master's. In there, I said have a bachelor's plus so many hours and I said that's the way I filled out the application at Notre Dame -- bachelor's plus so many hours.

Tirico: So the application you filled out at Notre Dame did not say master's at NYU?

I said Kevin, 'Listen, the first thing I don't want to do is embarrass Notre Dame, the credibility of Notre Dame, and the job that he has done in trying to secure a coach and that if this is something that can't be controlled, I will tender my resignation.' He said 'I'll get back to you in 10 minutes.' When he didn't call in 10 minutes, I had a pretty good idea there was a problem

O'Leary: No. In fact, I didn't fill it out until the Wednesday after I took the job on Sunday. Again, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Kevin White and Father Malloy. I truly believe they thought they took -- I still think that they took -- the best guy back to Notre Dame to coach that football team and, again, I should've been more truthful up front about my background regarding playing and the education. Again, I can see why there was credibility lost in that situation, but not through their doing. It was my undoing and when you look back on it, I was initially very hard on myself and I should have been when I made a release last week. But again a lot of those things that were said happened 22 years ago, 15 years ago. My one mistake was having them in there and knowing they were in there and not getting them out of there.

Tirico: Let me come back to what you brought up with the application at Notre Dame as you're filling that out, so you don't fill out that I have a master's from NYU, but that you have the hours.

O'Leary: I have a BS and 30 some hours down there, I have down probably "leading to a master's certification," but I didn't put down master's and there was no place to put down anything regarding playing. It was an application to the school which every employee has to fill out there.

Tirico: Now the phone call comes, you're in Washington and now, as with Notre Dames situations, the media cycle spins really fast.

O'Leary: Right.

Tirico: When did you realize your job was in trouble?

O'Leary: Well, I didn't realize when I spoke to Lou Nanni, who handled the public relations part of Notre Dame. I went over everything with him and he called me back and had two releases -- one based on the University regarding my situation at not having played at New Hampshire and a release by Kevin White. I approved both of them and at that time is when I mentioned to them, they said is there anything else? I said the other one is the master's. I said well that's not what I have. I have a bachelor's plus 30-some hours beyond my bachelor's. So, he started talking fairly quick about being a national media frenzy and AP has it and this and that and I didn't see it as a ... I thought the whole thing was that the academic end of it and in my mind the major reason why this was all occurring. He said he'd get back to me and I got a call from the athletic director Kevin White and he went over things, saying that basically the credibility as far as the efficiency you'd have to be able to do this job with, it was major damage with just the credibility and honesty that took place. At that time I said Kevin, 'Listen, the first thing I don't want to do is embarrass Notre Dame, the credibility of Notre Dame, and the job that he has done in trying to secure a coach and that if this is something that can't be controlled, I will tender my resignation.' He said 'I'll get back to you in 10 minutes.' When he didn't call in 10 minutes, I had a pretty good idea there was a problem.

Tirico: I know by your nature and your upbringing, and the positions you coached in college, defensive line coach, at heart you're a fighter.

O'Leary: Right.

Tirico: If there's something that if in your heart you believe is not something that should keep you from being a head coach, you'd probably fight for your right to do it. Why did you so quickly say if that's the case I'll resign?

O'Leary: Because I was under the impression, and I still am, that Notre Dame was first and foremost in my mind as far as the credibility of that institution and the embarrassment I probably have caused them. That's why when they asked, when they called back and asked for a one-sentence resignation letter, I said fine and you'd have it. I faxed it to them immediately and that was it. It was not based on myself, but based solely on Notre Dame and the respect I had for them and what they had done and sort of the respect I had for Father Malloy and Kevin White as far as the time they spent with me. I, in no way wanted to embarrass that school because I believed in that school and what they stood for and I thought at that time besides having to defend me as a head coach and the credibility of myself as a head coach, that the best thing for all parties concerned was to at least offer my resignation.

Tirico: In your terms, did they force you to resign or did you resign?

O'Leary: I was asked for my resignation, which, I wasn't going to fight . Kevin was very sick over it and we didn't spend much time on the phone discussing it. I don't hold any animosity toward Notre Dame at all. I think they did what they had to do based on the facts they had, based on the facts that I had some untruths in my bio and it was a sad day. I was sitting, one o'clock in a hotel room in Washington, D.C., by myself trying to get the pilot so I could fly back to South Bend.

Tirico: What did you do when you got back there?

O'Leary: I was with one of the other coaches that I took on the road with me. I went back and went to the place, my residence, and packed up. I tried to get stuff from my office and sent the other coach by to get it and had the plane there waiting for me and it took me back to Atlanta and I've been here since.

Tirico: I'm sure you got to pick up the phone and make some calls, and start calling your wife and start calling your kids.

We just need to move on, but it's tough. It's hard getting sleep because you're just thinking back, "What if?" and that bugs you. It'll bug you for a long time.

O'Leary: Well, the first call I made was to my wife after I resigned, to explain to her and she couldn't believe it. The next call was to my counsel, let him know what had taken place. The next one was to some of the coaches that I had hired and let them know to keep the job they had, that things weren't going to work out and I just resigned and was heading back to South Bend, then to Atlanta.

Tirico: That small circle of family and coaching friends, coaching acquaintances, it's a number of phone calls, that had to be a hard few hours for you.

O'Leary: It really was. This occurred between 8 and 12:15 or 12;30 on Thursday night and I sat there, just sitting on the bed staring. I was sort of in shock. You know, you worked all your life for a job that, you know, 16 hours a day, it was the job that you had basically coached all your life for and all of a sudden it was taken from you and you had just left a great job. Now you're sitting there wondering where you're going next and probably understanding what was about to take place with the national media and, again, I don't know if there's much room left on the dart board after this week, but I'm very sorry for not correcting what I should've corrected. I think I'm paying a dear price for it, but again, my make-up, I'll dust off and move on and just see where things end up from there. I was more concerned about my family and the embarrassment to them as far as how they were handling it. I'm very resilient and it's a tough deal, but I think that's part of life and you just have to move on from there.

Tirico: In the week you were back in Atlanta, did you avoid TV and newspapers and radio totally? Or did you hear about and see some stuff yourself?

O'Leary: I pretty much got in town Friday morning about 9 o'clock after the news broke and I drove right out to my lake house. I wasn't getting on the phone, I wasn't watching TV, I wasn't reading any papers and really still haven't. I was sort of just sitting there staring, you know, what happened? It was almost like a dream that won't go away. But I was wrong in what I did and I think the lesson learned that what you put down, you better be accurate in. But the thing that I look at with the whole thing, Mike, is that not one thing that I put down on paper ever got me a job. I mean not one time did I ever turn in a résumé and not one time was I ever asked about anything and not one time did I try to use any of that stuff to try and advance myself. I already had the jobs and they were just things that trailed with me in a bio. My mistake is I should have gotten rid of them. I should have done the right thing and I basically didn't do it.

Tirico: Now you got to try to go forward.

O'Leary: Right.

Tirico: And you've got to try and exist and can't sit in a room and stare forever. Things like this when you're at the bottom, you usually find a positive to pull yourself up by. What's been the positive this week that's gotten George O'Leary day to day to day?

O'Leary: Probably my family and friends, they've been very supportive. Everything's out there that is out there and I'm here because I want to set the record straight and how it transpired. I've never, never been one for self pity and I won't do that. I'm admitting my mistake and I know I can coach again. I know I can do the right things. I've run the clean programs and I've taken a hit throughout the years on my graduation rate and things of that sort and really unduly, because the NCAA lists a 33 percent graduation rate and my academic people, of the players I recruited, 143 of them since I've been at Georgia Tech, something like 87 percent of them are on target to graduate.

Tirico: So how do the numbers not sync up? Is it going back? You're talking about just the players you've recruited here? For that 143 number?

O'Leary: That 143 number is what I've recruited. The number they're giving on the 33 percent were there already when I arrived. Anytime when you have a coaching change, there's transition. There are players that don't want to do some things that probably I want done, so you're going to lose some players that may have transferred to other schools in good standing and graduated, but they still count against the graduation rate. But of the players that I've recruited since I've been at Georgia Tech 87 percent, from what my academic people have given me, were on target to graduate, which is what I've always run a program based on. Academics are important to me and graduation is important to me and obviously winning football games has been, but they've been in that order. That's how I've run the programs that I've been involved with.

Tirico: Did Notre Dame bring up the academics during the interview process?

O'Leary: They brought up two factors during the interview process -- the academic situation with the NCAA, the 33 percent graduation rate, and I told them that I had records on that as far as where I stood with academics and the players that I recruited and graduation and that basically that wasn't my watch when I took over. Now the players were there, but any time someone comes in new you're going to lose some players that were there for maybe a reason that a coach was there, or lose some players cause they don't want to run the offense or defense you're getting involved with. So there are a lot of reasons that happened there and I thought when that 33 percent came out the Atlanta Journal, Georgia Tech wrote a response to that, that's documented its fact, it's in the paper, so that was clarified, but they did ask that, yes.

Tirico: They were satisfied with your response?

O'Leary: Yes, they were. Yes they were.

Tirico: Coaches, any guys who you've been influential in their life, pick up the phone this week and find you, get a hold of you?

O'Leary: I would say the number on it is over a hundred of them that have made calls, that either left messages or given their input as to what they thought of the whole situation. It's the same thing I would do for anybody that I ever worked with or been acquainted with. They called to let us know, hey, there's a road uphill and they understand what took place and how quickly it took place and the shock of something like that. As I said, it's like a dream that won't go away for a while, but I'm back now. I'm basically trying to get things done the right way. That's why I'm here and I think things will move on and I'll be better for it.

Tirico: I want to come back to a couple of items with Georgia Tech. First off, as we sit and speak, the job is still open, there's still an interim head coach and they've said publicly that you wouldn't come back as the head coach. Did that hurt you given what you've meant to this school over the last few years?

O'Leary: Well, I think Georgia Tech read the papers and got one view of what actually transpired and I understand why they wouldn't want me back. I would think that they would look into the allegations before they make statements like that, but again, I understand. What the public knows is only what they read right now. I think basically they made a statement and I don't know if they did. You know, you're saying they did, but that's something that I haven't even thought about. I've been just trying to deal with this situation and get it right.

Tirico: There has been stories of documentation of a résumé that was put into your file because one was eventually needed once you came back to Georgia Tech to be the head coach here.

O'Leary: Right.

Tirico: That résumé includes obviously the playing situation, but more importantly the masters. Did you write or type a résumé that you handed to the folks at Georgia Tech that stated I have a master's?

O'Leary: That's one thing that's the grey area of all this situation. I'm pretty sure of what happened because, see, I was made interim head coach with three games left that year. Then soon after that, I was named head coach and was never asked for a résumé by anyone on any committee. At that time, it was Homer Rice. The one thing in '87 was there wasn't any paper work on anything, but in '94, there's a piece of paper that's a résumé and I don't know how that got there. Obviously I either had it done or -- but I don't know why I would have had it done, no one had asked for any. So that's the only thing that shows up again as far as any type of résumé in any of the situations that I've ever been involved with.

Tirico: But that résumé eventually ended up in your file at Georgia Tech once you became the head coach, you did not write it or type it yourself?

O'Leary: No, I can't type (laughs). I'm awful at that, but obviously someone did and more importantly, you know, I think it was taken out of what was in the press guide already. I made a mistake, I knew it was out there and I should have corrected it.

Tirico: You said something earlier when we were speaking of Notre Dame, and you brought to their attention the NYU inaccuracy -- did you come across that as you read your Notre Dame bio? Or did you know, cause I know you're not a guy who sits there and spends a lot of time reading about yourself.

O'Leary: Right

Tirico: Did you re-read that bio once the New Hampshire thing came up and say 'Boy, I better say this,' or you knew it was there and you had to bring it to there attention?

O'Leary: Well no, I tried to bring it to their attention earlier. That's why I filled the application out like I did with a bachelor's and 30. When he said is there anything else, I said that's one thing that's in there I said and that's not accurate and that's when everything started to roll fairly quickly as far as what thoughts were being processed. Again, as I stated earlier, I have no hard feeling at all for Notre Dame. I thought Kevin White and Father Malloy, just very, very solid professionals and they run Notre Dame the way it should be run. I basically had some things in my bio that I should've been more truthful about and brought it to their attention earlier and again, I didn't. As I stated earlier, that's never been a factor in any job I've gotten or any promotion I received. No one has ever asked about your education, your playing. They're more concerned with what you did on the field and how you handled yourself within the program.

Tirico: Can you coach again?

O'Leary: I need to coach again. I don't know when, but I'm not one sit around and say poor old me. I think I made a mistake, a mistake I'm paying very dearly for, but I need to coach. That's the way I'd want to leave my legacy -- coaching again and getting the opportunity to see what I can get done.

Tirico: Can you coach again and demand the accountability that you need to as a head coach, position or head coach or coordinator when the kids, college, pro, whatever they know what's happened here?

O'Leary: I think that's the question that an athletic director has to answer. You know, about the kids and how will they deal with this man now I think they're going to see someone that hasn't changed. I haven't changed since the first day I started coaching as far as how I deal with players, how I deal in a program. Unfortunately, I had some things in my bio that really should have been eliminated, but that didn't effect how I handled the field, the players or why I was hired for jobs. I think given the opportunity again to coach, and they'll be opportunities out there, I'll just make sure it's the right situation and hopefully basically we can get things done right and as I've done with every other program I've been in.

Tirico: We did some checking on other coaches and most of their résumé, like 90 percent that we went through were what they said, their playing, education, etc. Do you think other coaches are worried now when they've seen what's happened to you and some who might have a résumé that's not letter-perfect in accuracy, think they're worried now?

O'Leary: I don't know. I would think so. I would say that when something like this hits national media and there's sort of a frenzy made about it, I would think that anybody that didn't have an accurate résumé in all professions (laughs) not just coaching, I think went back to clean up some things that probably needed to be cleaned up and I'm just so sorry for what has happened with myself and really my family. It was something that could've been easily taken care of and I should've done that because it had no bearing on any job that I was involved in.

Tirico: How about your son, who's a part of this current Georgia Tech football team and he's had that odd year, plus of dad's the head coach but I'm one of the teammates. Now he's got this to deal with, how he doing?

O'Leary: I think Marty, my son's a senior on the team, you know, probably the best news I heard in the last week was when my other son told me that there was a little column saying that Marty's walking around with his head up, practicing hard and just being what I thought he would be. That's when I sort of picked myself up a little bit.

Tirico: I've been in your office, I know there are a lot of Irish sayings, Irish slogans -- this job meant a lot to you. Having it for five days was better than not having it at all, but this has got to hurt more than anything else that has ever happened professionally to you.

O'Leary: Well it has. It's a big loss, it really is. But more so out of how hard you've worked to get to that point and how quickly it disappeared. I mean, I left a great job to another great job and within a week here, you're not in any job. It hurt because of the time and effort you put in to get there and it's hard dealing with but I've been raised tough and I think it's something that I caused and I have to deal with it. I think dealing with that is probably doing what I'm doing right here -- setting the record straight about what did happen, what took place and then getting on with my life.

Tirico: Been kicking yourself a lot?

O'Leary: I've been, I've been, yes I have been and myself, not anybody else. I basically should have gotten that taken care of, I didn't and that's my mistake and in this profession you only get so many opportunities and I squandered a great one, I really did through not being what I should have been 22 years ago when I did something; 15 years ago when I could have corrected something and then with Notre Dame when I had another opportunity to correct something. I didn't do it and I'm paying a dear price for it.

Tirico: Coaches have their record, coaches have their respect. You're always going to have your record, your coach of the year last year, nationally can you get the respect back ever?

O'Leary:I think so. I think coaches are always judged on the field, what they do with their program, what they do with their players. I've run a clean program, a competitive program and that can never be taken from you. I mean, there are some other things that I don't think you'll ever know. I'm very proud of the fact that, whatever I've done, I've done with everything as far as sincerity and integrity as far as the coaching of any football teams concerned. I can't control yesterday or tomorrow, but I can control today and that's what I'm trying to do.

Tirico: You talked about coaches have called you. Ex-players?

O'Leary: Ex-players, ex-coaches, judges, lawyers. A lot of people that probably put themselves some way in the same situation and have a tough time understanding just what they're going through, but they can't understand what I must be going through. I said that's life and let's move on and hopefully when all the darts are thrown and everybody's taken their shots that I have a chance to get on TV and give my story as far as what took place and what I should have done to correct it.

Tirico: You're not the first person to pad your résumé, a lot of people have done it. You may have been the highest profile person to get exposed about it and you got to sit there and go, 'Why me and why now? Why this job?' Have you done that this week?

O'Leary: I've done that and I think God has a reason for everything and there's a reason that He did that. I don't know why now, why it was done, but with all this being said, I don't have great job and I lost a great job but I'm almost relieved that my record is clean and if given the opportunity, I can move on and be the person I have been throughout the last 22 years as a coach.

Tirico:You been able to sleep the last couple nights? You been able to get any rest?

O'Leary: No, I haven't slept well, but I don't sleep a lot any way.

Tirico: You're a football coach.

O'Leary: I'm a 3-, 4-hour guy a night and this made it harder to sleep. It's just that you keep waking up with, this really happened. It has and it's something we're dealing with as a family. We just need to move on, but it's tough. It's hard getting sleep because you're just thinking back, "What if?" and that bugs you. It'll bug you for a long time.