Lou Holtz
Lou Holtz is an author, television commentator, motivational speaker, and former NCAA football and NFL head coach. Holtz is the only coach in NCAA history to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to final top 20 rankings. He is also a multiple winner of Coach of the Year honors. After growing up in East Liverpool, Ohio and graduating from East Liverpool High School, Holtz attended Kent State University. He was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity, played football, and graduated in 1959. Over the years, the slender, bespectacled Holtz has become known for his quick wit and ability to inspire players. In 2005 Holtz joined ESPN as a college football analyst. On April 21, 2007, Holtz made an appearance as an honorary head coach, along with Ara Parseghian, for Notre Dame's annual Blue-Gold Game, a yearly intra-squad scrimmage that marks the end of spring football practice for the Irish. Holtz guided the Gold team to a 10-6 victory.
Holtz began his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1960 at the University of Iowa where he received his Master's degree. From there, he made stops as an assistant at William & Mary (1961-63), Connecticut (1964-65), South Carolina (1966-67), and Ohio State (1968). The Buckeyes won the national championship during Holtz's season in Columbus.
Holtz's first job as head coach was at William & Mary, then playing in the Southern Conference, starting in 1969. In 1970, the Holtz-led Tribe won the Southern Conference title and played in the Tangerine Bowl. As of 2007, it was the only bowl game in which a William & Mary team has ever played. Since Holtz's tenure there, William & Mary dropped to Division I-AA.
In 1972, Holtz moved to North Carolina State University and had a 31-11-2 record in four seasons. His team played in four bowl games, winning two, losing one, and tying one.
Holtz's lone foray into the professional ranks consisted of one season with the New York Jets in 1976. He resigned with one game remaining in the season after going 3-10.
Holtz went to the University of Arkansas in 1977. In his seven years there, the Razorbacks compiled a 60-21-2 record and reached six bowl games. In his rookie season with the Razorbacks, he led Arkansas to a berth in the Orange Bowl against Oklahoma, coached by Arkansas alumnus Barry Switzer. The Sooners were in position to win their third national championship in four seasons after top-ranked Texas lost to Notre Dame in the Cotton Bowl earlier in the day. Holtz had suspended his team's top two running backs for the Orange Bowl for disciplinary reasons. However, behind 205 yards rushing from reserve running back Roland Sales, the Hogs defeated the Sooners 31-6. Holtz was dismissed following a 6-5 campaign in 1983.
Holtz accepted the head coach job at the University of Minnesota before the 1984 season. The Golden Gophers had won only four games in the previous two seasons but had a winning record in 1985 and were invited to the Independence Bowl, where they defeated Clemson, 20-13. Holtz did not coach the Gophers in that bowl game, as he had already accepted the head coaching position at Notre Dame. His contract included a "Notre Dame clause" that allowed him to leave if the Notre Dame coaching job were to become available.
In 1986, Holtz left Minnesota to take over the then-struggling Notre Dame program and wasted no time turning it around. A taskmaster and strict disciplinarian, he got the players' attention right away at their first team meeting upon his introduction. Although his 1986 squad posted an identical 5-6 mark that the 1985 edition had, five of their six losses were by a combined total of 14 points. In the season finale against archrival Southern Cal, the Irish overcame a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit and pulled out a 38-37 win over the stunned Trojans.
In his second season, Holtz led the Fighting Irish to an appearance in the Cotton Bowl, where the Irish lost to Texas A&M, 35-10. The following year, Notre Dame won all 11 of their regular season games and defeated third-ranked West Virginia 34-21 in the Fiesta Bowl, claiming the national championship. The 1989 squad also won their first 11 games (and in the process set a school record with a 23-game winning streak) and remained in the #1 spot all season until losing to Miami in the season finale. A 21-6 win over Colorado in the Orange Bowl gave the Irish a second-place ranking in the final standings as well as back-to-back 12-win seasons for the first time in school history.
Holtz's 1993 Irish team ended the season with an 11-1 record and ranked second in the final AP poll. Although the Florida State Seminoles were defeated by the Irish in a battle of unbeatens during the regular season and both teams had only 1 loss at season's end (Notre Dame lost to seventeenth-ranked Boston College), FSU was then voted national champion in the final 1993 AP and Coaches poll. Between 1988 and 1993, Holtz's teams posted an overall 64-9-1 docket. He also took the Irish to bowl games for nine consecutive seasons, still a Notre Dame record.
Holtz left Notre Dame after the 1996 season and walked away from a lifetime contract for undisclosed reasons. When pressed, all he would say was that "it was the right thing to do." It is widely believed that concerns about his wife's health after she was diagnosed with throat cancer prompted him to step down.[citation needed] Holtz himself indicated that he did not wish to move past Knute Rockne in career victories at Notre Dame (his overall record at Notre Dame was 100-30-2).[citation needed] He was succeeded by defensive coordinator Bob Davie.
In 1996, two members of the Minnesota Vikings's ownership board, Wheelock Whitney and Jaye Dyer, reportedly contacted Holtz. They wanted to bring him in to replace Dennis Green. Of the rumors surrounding the reasons for Holtz's retirement, one of them was the possible Vikings head coaching position.
After two seasons as a commentator for CBS Sports, Holtz came out of retirement in 1999 and returned to South Carolina, where he had been an assistant in the 1960s. Holtz was famous for quickly rebuilding teams, but the South Carolina program had fallen to the worst level in its history. The year before Holtz arrived, the Gamecocks went 1-10, so Holtz was faced with possibly the greatest challenge of his coaching career. When the team went 0-11 during Holtz' first season, people around Columbia started to say things like, "If Holtz can't rebuild the Gamecocks, nobody can."
During the off-season, Holtz campaigned for a "change in attitude," and the results were astounding. In his second season, the Gamecocks went 8-4, winning the Outback Bowl over heavily favored Ohio State. The eight-game improvement from the previous year was the best in the nation in 2000 and the third best single season turnaround in NCAA history. In his third season, Holtz continued to confound the naysayers, leading the Gamecocks to a 9-3 record and another Outback Bowl victory over Ohio State. The nine wins for the season were the second highest total in the history of the program. It would also be the pinnacle for Holtz at South Carolina.
On November 18, 2004, Holtz announced that he would retire at the end of the season. His wife, Beth, had been struggling with her health for a number of years, and it was apparent that Holtz was worn out. Unfortunately, on November 21, 2004, the South Carolina-Clemson brawl took place during Holtz' last regular season game. Instead of ending his career at a post-season bowl game, which was expected, the two universities announced that each would penalize their respective football programs for their unsportsmanlike conduct by declining any bowl game invitations. At his last press conference as South Carolina's coach, Holtz said it was ironic that he and former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes both would be remembered for "getting into a fight at the Clemson game" (referring to an incident at the 1978 Gator Bowl where Hayes punched a Clemson player in the neck after making an interception). Holtz also alluded to his assistance in recruiting his successor, Steve Spurrier.