Posts Tagged ‘skip holtz’

Skip Holtz was introduced as the newest Louisiana Tech head coach on Friday evening, and the Bulldogs' athletic department provided a behind-the-scenes look at how Holtz's first day on the job in Ruston took place.

First, Holtz spoke to his new team, setting goals for what he wants to accomplish at Louisiana Tech and saying he he wants to coach in Ruston. He closed his first team meeting by shaking the hand of every Bulldog in the room.

Next, it was down the hall to meet the fans and media in his introductory press conference. "This is the place I want to be. I think there can be great things here," said Holtz. 

Finally, it was time for a photo session on the field and a stop in his new office before wrapping up Day One as the head man at Louisiana Tech. Now in his fourth turn as a head coach, Holtz clearly knows how to make the first day on the job a successful one. And with an 88-71 record in 13 seasons, he knows how to make game day a success, too. 

Skip Holtz was introduced as Louisiana Tech's newest head coach at a Friday afternoon press conference, and he certainly looked the part. After previous head coaching stints at Connecticut, East Carolina and South Florida, Louisiana Tech marks Holtz's fourth stop as a head coach. He holds an 88-71 in 13 years as a head coach. 

As a coach that has held the top job at three institutions previously, Holtz has a clear idea of what route he wants to take with his staff.

"We're going to have to put together a staff that does a good job of recruiting this talent-rich state of Louisiana," Holtz explained. "After doing this (for so long) you have a little bit of a rolodex of coaches that you've worked with. We need some coaches and some recruiters, I don't think you have a staff full of either. We're going to need some Louisiana ties and we're going to need some Texas ties."

Holtz indicated that he was looking forward to taking some time off and wasn't pursuing any open jobs but was intrigued by the chance to coach at Louisiana Tech. He met with Louisiana Tech officials on Tuesday of this week, and things happened quickly after that. "I wanted to talk about the opportunity with my wife," said Holtz. "I landed in Tampa at 1 p.m. on Thursday, and by 5 p.m. (my famiy) was at the mall buying red and blue."

One of Holtz's first comments noted the progress the Bulldogs have made not just on the field, but in the classroom.

"I'm excited to continue to build on the academic success that's been built here because ultimately that's the number one goal that we have, to graduate every player that plays here," said Holtz.

Louisiana Tech will leave the WAC and join Conference USA in 2013, a league Holtz spent five years in as the head coach at East Carolina. He led the Pirates to Conference USA titles in 2008 and 2009. "Nothing will make me more excited than to put my third Conference USA championship ring on my fingers after one of these years," he said.

Holtz noted that Louisiana Tech will only have two carryover opponents from its 2012 schedule. "There's a lot of excitement and a lot of great challenges with that."

Holtz will inherit a roster that has settled into a very productive identity, but loses 31 seniors to graduation.

"Both Coach Dooley and Dykes have spent six years recruiting to this offense, and they've done very well. I love the passing game. I love the enthusiasm and the up-beat tempo."

As successful as the Bulldogs' offense was in 2012, the defense struggled to keep up. Louisiana Tech ranked 120th nationally in total defense, 117th in scoring defense, 107th in pass efficiency defense and 85th in rushing defense. 

"There's going to be games where you say, hold on we've got to outscore them," said Holtz. "There's going to be some games when you have to protect your defense and slow things down on offense. Not leave what we do, but not snap the ball with 28 seconds left on the play clock."

We have learned that Louisiana Tech has hired Skip Holtz as its next head coach.

Holtz walks into a situation built for big-time passing but without the principles that made the Bulldogs' offense so successful in 2012. Gone are offensive coordinator Tony Franklin (to Sonny Dykes' staff at California) and quarterback Colby Cameron (to graduation). However, Holtz will have standout running back Kenneth Dixon, FBS's leading scorer in 2012 with 28 rushing touchdowns as a true freshman, for three more years as Louisiana Tech prepares to move to Conference USA. The Bulldogs move into a league with which Holtz is intimately familiar after his five years as East Carolina's head coach.

Holtz rose through the ranks as an offensive coach, working as a graduate assistant at Florida State from 1987-88 and the wide receivers coach at Colorado State in 1989 before joining his father Lou's staff at Notre Dame as the wide receivers coach in 1990. He served the Fighting Irish's offensive coordinator from 1992-93 before accepting the head coaching job at Connecticut (at the time a Division I-AA member) from 1994-98. He then rejoined his father's staff, this time at South Carolina, as the offensive coordinator (1999-03) and quarterbacks coach (2004) before taking head coaching jobs at East Carolina (2005-09) and South Florida (2010-12). 

In 13 years as a head coach, Holtz holds an 88-71 record with two Conference USA titles, five bowl appearances and one trip to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.

Louisiana Tech has settled into a definitive trend in its head coaching hires. As USA Today's Paul Myerberg pointed out today, the school's last four head coaches are all the sons of prominent head coaches: Jack Bicknell, Jr., Derek Dooley, Dykes and Holtz. 

As always, we will update with more details as they become available. 

Skip Holtz was let go as South Florida's head coach on Sunday. The news comes one day after South Florida was beaten by Pittsburgh, 27-3, to close the year. The Bulls finished the 2012 season with a 3-9 overall record and a 1-6 mark in Big East play, good for last place in the conference. 

Holtz led South Florida to a 16-21 record in three seasons at South Florida. The Bulls' win totals decreased in each year of his tenure, dropping from 8-5 in 2010, to 5-7 last season, to 3-9 this year. South Florida carried a 2-12 record in Big East play over the last two seasons. 

According to Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times, the school will owe Holtz $2.5 million over the next five years. Defensive coordinator Chris Cosh is also due $325,000 in 2013. 

"It's not easy to part ways with such a good man," said USF athletic director Doug Woolard. "However, we must put a more successful football program on the field." Woolard said USF won't use a search firm in a traditional sense but may use one for background checks on candidates.

The current staff will "continue to work as they have been." Offensive coordinator Todd Fitch will handle all football-related issues, and each assistant will have the opportunity to be retained by the new head coach.

Woolard trumpeted USF's facilities and location as assets when hiring a new head coach. The school has put $100 million into facilities, and Woolard cited the Bulls' new football practice facility and locker rooms. He also noted USF's location in a large media market and target-rich recruiting environment as factors that will attract a new coach.

Woolard didn't indicate whether he preferred an active head coach. "Our pool can include any coordinator at the FBS level, plenty of head coaches and I imagine we'll attract some interest from the NFL."

How hot of a topic is conference realignment across the college sports landscape right now? Nearly every other question Wooloard fielded had a realignment angle attached to it. 

Holtz also released his own statement, shown below.

After dropping their last four games after a 2-0 start, Skip Holtz and the South Florida are looking to breath some new life into their depth chart for next weeks match up with Louisville.

During this bye week of practice, Holtz explained that they're giving some fresh faces an opportunity to compete for starting jobs.

Holtz noted that when you win there aren't a whole lot of guys that can argue about their playing time, but when you're not winning there are always players who feel like they can help the team, so this week has allowed the staff to evaluate all of that with scrimmage reps.

"We've graded every scrimmage rep that we've had this week. Seventy five plays a day, about 225 scrimmage reps we've had these last three days, we've graded every play and we've moved the depth chart accordingly."

"We're not going to reward talent, we're not going to reward experience, we're going to reward productivity and effort so the depth chart has bounced around an awful lot today." Holtz explained.

Holtz noted that once the season starts it's hard to get in quality evaluations during a practice because your preparing your ones and twos for game time, but the bye week has allowed them to do some evaluating .

"Once the season starts, it's hard to have tryouts because once the season starts you're rolling two teams and trying to get your ones ready and your twos ready to back up." Holtz said. "It's not really the time to say 'Okay, lets have open tryouts', but that has been refreshing this week to be able to get back to that.