re: Coach Holtz ....

He recently turned 89. Talk about a life well lived. Much respect to Coach Holtz.

I remember one of his first press conferences at South Carolina, he said, “South Carolina must have the cleanest cars in the country. All the trash is by the side of the road.” Only Holtz could get away with saying that at his new home.

He probably burned Arkansas like that sometime, but I don’t remember.

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Coach Holtz ....

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I'll probably butcher it, but I'm always reminded of a story that Houston Nutt tells when he was a young GA under Holtz at Arkansas.

After a practice, the coaching staff was reviewing film and Holtz became extremely angry with the performance of the fullbacks, pausing to puff on his corncob pipe: "Who in here coaches fullbacks?" "That's me, Coach," answers Nutt, sheepishly from the back. Holtz again reiterates the proper technique and tells him what his expectations are.

Houston Nutt tells this story by impersonating Coach Holtz, which he's pretty good at, and the tense, high-pressure centerpiece revolves around him puffing on this pipe.

This exchange repeats itself some time later, and again, Holtz, visibly agitated with "smoke rising from his pipe," demanded to know who coaches fullbacks, to which Nutt responds "Coach, I went over that play 500 times."

Holtz then shuts off the projector and explodes that if the players still couldn't get it right, then 500 was not enough, questioning why "Coach" Nutt didn't go over it 1,000, 1,500, or 2,000 times, essentially until the job was done?

He shares this story to not only illustrate the intensity of working under Holtz, but the life lessons the experience taught him in accountability and the pursuit of perfection he learned as a young coach.


Rest well, Coach. You were a good one.

I hate Notre Dame but if you don’t love Lou Holtz, it’s you not him.

Sad news! Prayers for Coach Holtz and his family.

He’s a National treasure.

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Please Pray For Coach Holtz. He Has Entered Hospice Care.

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In times like this, I only know one way to handle these things and that is with what I consider humor. I can't help but imagine what Holtz would sound like reading the title to that article.

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Lou Holtz and Monte Kiffin on the same staff.

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The first time I met him when he was at South Carolina under Marvin Bass. I later got to interview Dan Reeves and him on the same show. It was a fun show.

Years earlier, I wanna say 1977, while my Dad and I were at prepping for duck hunting season at the family hunting lodge in Maddox Bay, Arkansas (Holly Grove) ... Dad surprised me with a trip to Fayetteville for the Arkansas vs Texas game. It was a close game ... Texas won late. I remember Texas had this RB named Ham Jones.

Monte, who was a close friend of Dad's, had left the tickets for us at Will Call. It wasn't duck season yet so Dad had used the trip to the cabin as a guise. Monte was DC at the time and we went to Sunday dinner the next day at Monte's house.

Lou and Monte had some good years at Arkansas following that year before the falling out with Broyles and leaving for Minnesota.

Lou liked talking about those days though ... he really liked Arkansas. It would not be a stretch to say that, while he loved Notre Dame, he had part of his heart in Fayetteville and Columbia. I don't think he was crazy about his years at NC State. He wasn't a big fan of the tobacco road snobs and he disliked NC State always bending the knee to UNC, Duke and Wake Forest. He was indifferent to Clemson and was vocal about that.

His first year at NC State was the first year that SC had left the ACC in '72 and he told me once that his years at NC State made him understand why SC got the heck outta the ACC.

One of his dearest and oldest friends and I were talking late last night. He called to tell me he had just heard from Skip and that Skip had texted that, "It's not good."

We started talking about old stories ... especially on the gold course. Lou was a helluva golfer. But we used to bust his balls about how short he was off the tee. He was a buck fifty off the senior tees ... but he was always straight down the middle. And we'd be in the rough looking for our long drives and he would drive up, smoking that pipe, and schooling us about how it's better to be straight than long ... and he was right.

He didn't like it when I sometimes wore outrageous Hawaiian shirts to the golf course and he threatened to kick me out of the foursome one day over a shirt I was wearing. Lol

I dunno, I could tell so many stories about the man. He's just an incredible human being. CFB will miss him.

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Seriously, RIP Coach!

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Not Sthooo Fasthhhh!!!

He ain’t dead yet