Times (Romano): Holtz deserves the faith USF Bulls have invested

[Jim Johnson]

A great column by John Romano...

This part seemed true to me from the press conference/rally:

Still, it was hard not to be impressed by Louis Leo Holtz Jr. on Friday afternoon. He was funny. He was energetic. He seemed down-to-earth and intelligent. And by the end of the afternoon, he had you wondering if USF didn't just upgrade its football program.

That's not offered lightly. For as ugly as the end was for Jim Leavitt, he did a phenomenal job building USF from the bottom up. And, yet, it's not unreasonable to question whether the Bulls hit a plateau and whether Holtz is better-suited to take the program to another level.

Read the rest: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/college/article1065916.ece

[cmhatter]

excellent read...

thanks for posting

[Jamie]

I preferred this part:

It was not done with flash, and it was not based on overnight success. The Pirates had a wide-open, passing offense in Holtz's first season, but that was based more on the roster than a philosophy. East Carolina ran the ball more and more every succeeding season. And the victories became more dependent on the performance of a bend-but-don't-break defense.

"You do what you have to do to win," Holtz said. "This isn't about Skip Holtz bringing his philosophies here. Our job as a coaching staff is to figure out what our strengths and weaknesses are and highlight the strengths."

This is what bothered me the most about the last few years. The offense was going to do its thing no matter who they lined up against. There were precious few adjustments, and teams caught on quickly and shut it down. I mean, Steve Kragthorpe even figured it out.

You overcome talent shortages with flexibility. And if you have talent and flexibility then you can be fearsome.

[macphisto]

I preferred this part:

It was not done with flash, and it was not based on overnight success. The Pirates had a wide-open, passing offense in Holtz's first season, but that was based more on the roster than a philosophy. East Carolina ran the ball more and more every succeeding season. And the victories became more dependent on the performance of a bend-but-don't-break defense.

"You do what you have to do to win," Holtz said. "This isn't about Skip Holtz bringing his philosophies here. Our job as a coaching staff is to figure out what our strengths and weaknesses are and highlight the strengths."

This is what bothered me the most about the last few years. The offense was going to do its thing no matter who they lined up against. There were precious few adjustments, and teams caught on quickly and shut it down. I mean, Steve Kragthorpe even figured it out.

You overcome talent shortages with flexibility. And if you have talent and flexibility then you can be fearsome.

That bit impressed me at the press conference.  He clearly wasn't attached to one philosophy and believed in evaluating the talent, realizing the strengths, finding ways to exploit those strengths, and then finding ways to cover the weaknesses and make them as small of a problem as possible.  He wanted to search for ways to prevent opponents from exploiting weaknesses while finding ways to use his teams strength to exploit theirs.

Reading about him, Holtz has no problem adapting to what he's got.  He took a 2-9 squad from before he took over and got them to 5-6 in his very next year and was only involved in really one bad performance.  He got them to seven wins in two years.  And those ECU teams didn't have near the talent USF had.  He's taking over an 8-5 squad and one that really did underperform.  We could have beaten UConn.  We were in the Cincy game.  And I have a feeling that the trainwrecks like Pitt and Rutgers didn't display a talent gap, rather a coaching and experience gap.  It's not hard to imagine USF going 10-3 last year.  They had the talent to do so.

I'm excited to see Holtz come up with gameplans that play to the strength of the players.  If he feels that Ford has not been used appropriately then he'll challenge Ford by giving him the ball and finding ways for him to achieve.

I think we got the best guy of all the new coaches hired this year, at least as HC.  USC got Monte with Lane and that's a big get - but Lane's mouth and USC's prior issues might be problems for them.  Holtz is pretty young, has a lot of experience, has a great personality, and a great pedigree.  He will grow USF's fanbase and he'll get even more butts in the seats.

And I guarantee you he will do his darnedest to beat UF, Miami, and every other team on our schedule.  He knows beating UF would be a huge coup.  Can't wait for September to get here.

[BullMedic]

I preferred this part:

It was not done with flash, and it was not based on overnight success. The Pirates had a wide-open, passing offense in Holtz's first season, but that was based more on the roster than a philosophy. East Carolina ran the ball more and more every succeeding season. And the victories became more dependent on the performance of a bend-but-don't-break defense.

"You do what you have to do to win," Holtz said. "This isn't about Skip Holtz bringing his philosophies here. Our job as a coaching staff is to figure out what our strengths and weaknesses are and highlight the strengths."

This is what bothered me the most about the last few years. The offense was going to do its thing no matter who they lined up against. There were precious few adjustments, and teams caught on quickly and shut it down. I mean, Steve Kragthorpe even figured it out.

You overcome talent shortages with flexibility. And if you have talent and flexibility then you can be fearsome.

That bit impressed me at the press conference.  He clearly wasn't attached to one philosophy and believed in evaluating the talent, realizing the strengths, finding ways to exploit those strengths, and then finding ways to cover the weaknesses and make them as small of a problem as possible.  He wanted to search for ways to prevent opponents from exploiting weaknesses while finding ways to use his teams strength to exploit theirs.

Reading about him, Holtz has no problem adapting to what he's got.  He took a 2-9 squad from before he took over and got them to 5-6 in his very next year and was only involved in really one bad performance.  He got them to seven wins in two years.  And those ECU teams didn't have near the talent USF had.  He's taking over an 8-5 squad and one that really did underperform.  We could have beaten UConn.  We were in the Cincy game.  And I have a feeling that the trainwrecks like Pitt and Rutgers didn't display a talent gap, rather a coaching and experience gap.  It's not hard to imagine USF going 10-3 last year.  They had the talent to do so.

I'm excited to see Holtz come up with gameplans that play to the strength of the players.  If he feels that Ford has not been used appropriately then he'll challenge Ford by giving him the ball and finding ways for him to achieve.

I think we got the best guy of all the new coaches hired this year, at least as HC.  USC got Monte with Lane and that's a big get - but Lane's mouth and USC's prior issues might be problems for them.  Holtz is pretty young, has a lot of experience, has a great personality, and a great pedigree.  He will grow USF's fanbase and he'll get even more butts in the seats.

And I guarantee you he will do his darnedest to beat UF, Miami, and every other team on our schedule.  He knows beating UF would be a huge coup.  Can't wait for September to get here.

Great post. That is what drove me up the wall during games. Why run Lamar up the middle or run the fake end around play fifty times when they don't work? Take advantage of the talent we have on the field by trying lamar on the end arounds, pounding Ford up the middle. Going deep with BJ and Sterling Griffin.

If this talent is used properly, there is no excuse to why this team can't compete in every game they play.

[Rizman]

Nice post thanks I appreciate the article.

[macphisto]

Great post. That is what drove me up the wall during games. Why run Lamar up the middle or run the fake end around play fifty times when they don't work? Take advantage of the talent we have on the field by trying lamar on the end arounds, pounding Ford up the middle. Going deep with BJ and Sterling Griffin.

If this talent is used properly, there is no excuse to why this team can't compete in every game they play.

Or if Rutgers is going to disguise and confuse their coverage then you need to figure out a way to use that to your advantage and put your QB in the position where he's not having to through into this stuff.  Make them force things and let their players get frustrated when they can't do what they hoped to do. 

[206BULL]

From: @CoachHoltz

Sent: Jan 16, 2010 6:15a

GREAT day yesterday. Very excited to start working. USF & the Tampa community have welcomed my family and me. How 'bout that press conf? Wow

sent via Echofon

On Twitter:

GREAT day yesterday. Very excited to start working. USF & the Tampa community have welcomed my family and me. How 'bout that press conf? Wow

— Skip Holtz (@CoachHoltz)

January 16, 2010

From: @CoachHoltz

Sent: Jan 16, 2010 6:15a

Go BULLS!

sent via Echofon

On Twitter:

Go BULLS!

— Skip Holtz (@CoachHoltz)

January 16, 2010

So excited for Coach Holtz and he definitely deserves our faith and support

[smazza]

what an exciting time

holtz seems like a great guy and smart football coach

[tampabull]

I have a good feeling we will never hear with holtz being coach that we were not prepared for a teams backup qb.