Trib: Big East business on minds of ol' pals Holtz, Strong

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Big East business on minds of ol' pals Holtz, Strong

By JOE HENDERSON | The Tampa Tribune

There were plenty of challenges for Skip Holtz when he served as offensive coordinator at the University of South Carolina, but one of the biggest happened every afternoon during the spring on the Gamecocks' practice field.

That's when Holtz's offense would be matched against the South Carolina defense shaped by coordinator Charlie Strong. Holtz quickly learned that while it might just be spring practice, he'd better have his offense ready all the time. Strong's defense would make sure of that.

"We had a lot of fun in spring going against each other every day. You knew from looking at practice schedules that sorry rascal is going to do this, this and this, so today I'm going to add this. Then the next day he'd throw in a wrinkle," Holtz said.

"I just have a lot of respect for him as a football coach. I'm excited for him that he's gotten the opportunity (to be a head coach). He has landed in a great spot and he's doing a great job."

The "opportunity" Holtz referenced came this season when Strong was named the head coach at the Louisville. Holtz, of course, is in his first year as head coach at South Florida and, as fate would have it, these longtime friends meet Saturday in Louisville.

The stakes are high for both teams. Even though both have two Big East losses they remain in the race for the conference title, which tells you a lot about the state of college football these days.

But that's the business side of things.

On a personal level, Holtz and Strong are more than just coaching rivals. They are good friends dating to when Holtz's father, Lou, was the head coach at the Arkansas. It's more than just a coaching relationship. Their families are close. They talked together often after the coaching world took them to different locations. They shared a ride to the Big East media day last summer.

"Me and Skip, we have a bond there," Strong told reporters in Louisville. "We're just really good friends."

Strong was defensive line coach on Lou Holtz's staff at Notre Dame. When the elder Holtz became head coach at South Carolina, Strong came along for three seasons.

Strong made his biggest impact, of course, at Florida, where he built a national championship defense. That got him on the radar as a potential head coach, and Louisville pounced.

"He does a phenomenal job in his relationship with players. He's what would be considered a players' coach," Skip Holtz said. "He has a great rapport with the student-athletes and does a great job with that. ... He did a great job running Florida's defense all those years. He's very knowledgeable."

Here's the part where we move to the ol' "friendship out the window" segment of this mutual admiration society. For three hours Saturday, both coaches and teams have important stuff to attend. There'll be handshakes before and hugs after, but everything in between is strictly business.

Indeed, any idea the Bulls have of raising the Big East championship trophy has to include a win at Louisville, where, as Holtz noted wryly, "Everybody is quick to point out we have never won at Louisville."

But, since this is just about the wackiest college football season these eyes have ever seen, I'll just ask this: Some team has to win the Big East, so why not USF?

Yes, I'm talking about the team that opened conference play 0-2, including a loss at home to Syracuse. Yep, I mean the same Bulls who have given up 57 points in their past two games â conference wins, by the way â while we continue to praise their defense.

Yes, that's the Bulls whose quarterback, B.J. Daniels, has apparently had some sort of out-of-body transformation the past two games. He has completed a combined 23 of 33 passes for 435 yards and four touchdowns against Cincinnati and Rutgers. Before that, Daniels had only one TD pass in four games.

So they've got the quarterback, the Bulls like their defense and running back Moise Plancher just had 180 all-purpose yards against Rutgers. The players clearly are buying in what their new coach has been saying.

So why not USF?

"There is one team undefeated in this league, and that is Pitt," Holtz said. "Every other team mathematically has a chance to win this conference."

The seven teams in the Big East not named Pitt have two losses â every one of them. Only Pitt, at 3-0, has escaped unscathed, but the Panthers still have games against West Virginia, Cincinnati and, oh, yeah ... USF. Accepted as fact: A lot of things have to go right for USF, starting with the Louisville game.

"Everybody is, 'If this, then this. If they lose to them and them and we beat them and them, then we can win the league,' " Holtz said. "The thing we're trying to emphasize is the one-game season. We're trying to stay away from that circus mentality of 'if this, then this.' If we don't beat Louisville, the 'if this, then this' doesn't matter."

Of course, Louisville is thinking the same thing.

So off they go, two ol' friends getting ready for a big game and wondering what the other one has up his sleeve. There's a little more on the line than in those springtime battles back in South Carolina, but that just makes it better.

The games come and go, but the friendship endures. With that in mind, Holtz was asked whether he had one good story to tell about his pal, maybe one special memory,He just smiled, then said: "Charlie is a good man."

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