The contrast couldn’t be more stark. Skip Holtz, the new USF head football coach, oozes good humor. His predecessor, Jim Leavitt, didn’t.
Off-putting arrogance to outsiders is out; affability to all is in. It speaks volumes when the most important person in the high-profile, high-pressure, USF football program – one frustratingly perched between unrealized potential and national prominence – is not the least bit self-important.
Holtz, 46, likens himself to a multi-hat-wearing “CEO” with constituencies ranging from players and high school coaches to boosters, media, the business community, everybody on campus and everybody in the Tampa Bay market. That’s who his charm offensive is limited to.
“It’s critically important to reach out,” emphasizes Holtz. “From fund-raisers to alumni. Being successful is about doing public speaking, leading people, relating to your players and having a vision.”
And he knows where big-time football fits in the context of a university with more pressing priorities than beating Rutgers.
“It’s curb appeal,” he explains. “It’s your front porch. Now that you’ve got their attention, you get an opportunity to introduce people to all that you have.”
While Holtz is paid like a CEO — $9.1 million over five years — his workday, dress-for-success ensemble is shorts, T-shirt and Bulls’ cap. He’s also casual in manner and grins easily. He’s in the midst of a sleep-challenging, whirlwind blitz – from redoing the organizational chart, saving a recruiting class, watching Bulls’ video, monitoring winter workouts and planning for spring practice (March 16) to holding regional town hall gatherings (“The Inside Skip”), doing promotions (“A HOLTZ New Era”) and meeting and greeting whomever and whenever.
His top priority, he says without hesitation, is to “bring this team together.” The coaching change, of course, was abrupt and emotionally-draining on players loyal to the fired Leavitt. “It’s about building relationships,” says Holtz. “It’s about building a trust factor. …They didn’t choose me. I chose them.”
Positive Feedback
Early signs have been encouraging.
At his introductory, on-campus, mid-January “press conference,” which quickly morphed into a pep rally, the uber enthusiastic Holtz went over equally well with students and student-athletes. Likely speaking for many of his teammates, starting quarterback B.J. Daniels notably observed: “We don’t like the circumstances that it happened under, but we’re behind him.”
This area’s most successful high school coach, Plant’s Robert Weiner, has already been on campus watching Holtz conduct conditioning drills. Weiner, known for emphasizing values, discipline and camaraderie as much as X’s and O’s, came away impressed.
“Having watched him already with his players, he is obviously a great teacher and an inspiring motivator,” assesses Weiner. “I think Skip Holtz is the perfect fit for USF. He brings a new-found energy and excitement. As I have gotten to know him these past few weeks, I know that he focuses on character first in his players and will work hard to ensure that quality football will follow that.
“He is extremely personable and knowledgeable – the two traits that make a college coach a great recruiter and a great on-the-field coach,” adds Weiner.
The new grid sheriff in town is playing particularly well with the Florida media. After meeting Holtz in an impromptu session with the press before last month’s Daytona 500, the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi wrote: “Now that Bobby Bowden has retired, Holtz immediately becomes the most likable, media-friendly college football coach in the state.” He then added that comparing Holtz and Leavitt was like comparing “mom’s home cooking and prison food.” Ouch.
But Holtz is a lot more than pleasant personality and imposing pedigree.
Husband and father of three, including two teenagers, Holtz has always been a major player in local charities and has more than Coach of the Year awards to his credit. Accolades also include the National Football Foundation Man-of-the-Year Award as well as the Franciscan Life Center’s St. Francis Award for support of Christian values and athletic achievement.
His track record (72-50) had made him annual grist for the rumor mill of major-college job searches. Most recently his name was associated with openings at, among others, Cincinnati, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Tennessee and Notre Dame. Holtz was 38-27 in five seasons at East Carolina and led the Pirates to Conference USA championships the last two years while setting attendance records. Before Holtz arrived, ECU had won three games in two years. He was also a turn-around winner at Connecticut, compiling a five-year 34-23 record. UConn had gone 14-19 the three prior seasons.
ECU Athletics Director Terry Holland went beyond protocol niceties in assessing what Holtz had done in Greenville, N.C., hardly a grid Mecca. “Skip Holtz and his family have transformed our expectations of ourselves and our athletic program while contributing to every aspect of our community,” said Holland.
None of which surprises Holtz’s father, legendary coach and ESPN analyst Lou Holtz.
“No, it doesn’t,” responds Holtz Sr. from his home in Orlando. “You need consistency and a vision. He has both.
“We only have three family rules,” he points out. “‘Do the right thing. Do whatever you do to the best of your ability. Show people you care.’ That’s it. Skip has followed all three. I couldn’t be prouder.”
He also underscored that his son couldn’t pass up the opportunity that Big East-affiliated USF represented. “He really loved East Carolina and living there, as did his family,” adds Lou Holtz. “But he told me, ‘I could not let that plane go back to South Florida without me.’”
Major-Market Opportunity
Indeed, a region with a population of 3 million, the 13th largest TV market, a primo, 67,000-seat stadium and a mother lode of blue-chip, Sunshine State prospects was too alluring to pass up. The only potential down side: USF isn’t the only game in (a pro) town – as was the case in Greenville, N.C. and Storrs, Conn.
“This is an opportunity that I embrace,” says Holtz. “All these people. The media exposure. Let’s face it. We were limited by how big we could get (at ECU). This is the first major market I’ve coached in. (His assistant-coaching stints were in Tallahassee, Columbia, S.C., South Bend, Ind. and Fort Collins, Colo.) It’s the farthest school south in the Big East. I want to recruit locally first. The top 100 schools in this area.”
It’s no secret that USF didn’t bring in Skip Holtz to win more International, Popajohns.com and Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg bowls. The stakes are higher than that. As in BCS bowl or bust.
“We want to compete for Big East and eventually a national championship,” states Holtz matter-of-factly. “We might take a year to get through it,” he says of the transition. “Everything is a first.”
But he also acknowledges that patience is rarely a virtue at this level. There are no first-impression mulligans.
“If we don’t win now, we can’t win then,” he concedes. But, no, he won’t put a number on how many “W’s” constitute winning. He needs to better assess what he has – and then who buys in and who improves. “It’s not just about beating Florida,” he notes pointedly. The Gators, of course, are on next season’s schedule.
What Bulls’ fans should expect, however, says Holtz, is a commitment to what Holtz-coached teams have come to be known for: mental discipline.
“I like to think it’s a team that plays with all the intangibles,” explains Holtz. “With focus, energy, excitement and enthusiasm. And doesn’t do the foolish things that get you beat.”
This alone would be an upgrade and cause for optimism among Bulls’ faithful. USF fans have seen more than their share of late-season swoons – too often characterized by carelessness on the field and composure meltdowns on the sideline. The ultimate result: a losing Big East record and a consolation-prize bid to a lower-tier bowl.
For now, Holtz is gearing up for spring practice and reveling in his new working and living environment. “It’s a gold mine,” says Holtz of his new domain. “Very fertile for recruiting. Plus, I like the feel of Tampa. Like a small big city. This is going to work.”
Holtz & Holtz
- “I’m very proud of my dad. But I’m not trying to be the next Lou Holtz. Just the best Skip Holtz.” – S. Holtz.
- “You learn to develop a tight core of friends around you.” – S. Holtz, explaining how he, and now his 16-year-old son Trey, could best handle adolescence with a celebrity father.
- “He wanted the public school experience, and we did our research.” – S. Holtz, on his son Trey’s enrollment at South Tampa’s Plant H.S.
- “I was an ‘AYO’ — ‘All You Others’ — in high school.” – S. Holtz, self-deprecatingly referring to his quarterback days at Fayetteville (Ark.) High School.
- “We might take a few JC’s (junior college transfers) to fill some holes, but I would rather recruit a high school player and let him develop in the program for 4-5 years.” – S. Holtz.
- “I did not pick Mike Ford (running back who was recently dismissed for unspecified violations of team rules) to make an example out of, but everyone will be held accountable for their actions.” – S. Holtz, on the senior who rushed for more than 200 yards and was named MVP in January’s 27-3 International Bowl win over Northern Illinois.
- “He’s a wonderful young man. I’ve never seen him despondent. Or disparaging of anyone. He has good common sense.” –L. Holtz on S. Holtz.
- “Skip wanted to know why I was so hard on him. I told him, ‘Because I raised you. I know you know better.’” – L. Holtz, on why he was extra demanding of his son when he was a player (Notre Dame) and a coach (Notre Dame, South Carolina) for him.
- “USF is a wonderful opportunity. It’s BCS. You can win a national championship from there. Don’t forget, both West Virginia and Cincinnati came close to playing for it the last two years.” – L. Holtz.
- “ESPN has this thing about impartiality. Nonsense. I’m going to be as honest as I can be, but I’m going to be partial to my kid. How can I be impartial about Notre Dame? I mean they built a statue to me.” – L. Holtz.