Skip Holtz ready to shine at East Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Even through the phone line, you can hear Skip Holtz's excitement at again being in control of a team as he prepares to take over as East Carolina's new head coach.

"This is what I want to do," Holtz said this week from his new office. "I walked away from it, my own choice, but I always knew I was going to get back into it."

That wasn't always so certain to people outside South Carolina's program.

Holtz was a rising coaching star, lifting Division I-AA Connecticut from the cellar to the NCAA playoffs during his five seasons there. But Holtz put his dreams of being a head coach aside to join his father, Lou, at South Carolina in December 1998.

Skip Holtz became the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach. The buzz was that when his father retired, Holtz would take over the Gamecocks.

That plan looked strong three years into the collaboration with South Carolina completing the best two seasons in school history - a 17-7 record and consecutive Outback Bowl victories over Ohio State after the 2000 and 2001 campaigns.

Things bogged down after that. South Carolina was 10-14 the next two years. The offense showed little imagination or consistency and the younger Holtz - despite his father's strong input at times - took the hardest hit.

After the Gamecocks fell to Clemson 63-17 to close the 2003 season, Lou Holtz fired four longtime assistants and grabbed control of the attack from his son. It was a stunning demotion for any trusted staffer, let alone a namesake.

Skip Holtz, who served as quarterbacks coach last year, plowed ahead with his job. "I looked at it like it was, a coach in the later years of his career wanted to do things the way he had always done it," he said. "I knew as an assistant coach, coach Holtz wouldn't want me to be a distraction."

Skip Holtz had input into calling plays and offensive decisions. The Gamecocks went 6-5, qualifying for a bowl, and put up better offensive numbers than the previous two years.

Phil Petty, a former South Carolina quarterback under the Holtzes who was a Gamecock graduate assistant this fall, said the situation would've been difficult for most to deal with. "But I thought he handled it with the utmost amount of class and integrity," said Petty, who's been hired as an East Carolina assistant.

Holtz didn't realize how others saw the fall until he was out of work, not retained by new Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier. When Holtz sat down with East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland, and the demotion came up, he was floored.

"I didn't think it would be earth-shattering," Holtz said. "But then I saw how others looked at it."

Holland said the demotion caused Pirate administrators to put Holtz "on the back burner" as a candidate. Holland said in an e-mail that it took just one meeting with Holtz and a phone call on his behalf by South Carolina athletic director Mike McGee to put any concerns to rest.

Holland also talked with Lou Holtz, but not about the demotion.

Holland says Skip Holtz's devotion to family made him an even more attractive prospect in East Carolina's search.

When he retired last month, Lou Holtz said his preference would be to have his successor come from his staff. When that wasn't possible, the 67-year-old Holtz could think of no better candidate than his friend, Spurrier.

Holtz was at a charity function Friday and unavailable for comment, according to his wife, Beth.

For her part, Beth Holtz said she was proud of all the couple's children. She said her role was to give unconditional love and support. "I didn't get involved in things at the office," she said.

Skip Holtz says he "would've loved to have the opportunity to coach South Carolina. But Dr. McGee had the chance to hire Steve Spurrier. From a public perception standpoint, I think people have to be excited with what's going to happen down there."

The 40-year-old Holtz says he doesn't regret a minute of his time in Columbia.

Holtz says he had chances to leave the Gamecocks for head coaching spots - he was contacted by Southern Methodist in 2001 - but was content to sacrifice climbing that coaching ladder for family.

He, wife Jennifer and children Trey, Chad and Hailey, were nearby when Beth Holtz fought off throat cancer again in 1999.

"You can't put a price tag on that," Skip Holtz said. "You can't take away the six years they (his children) had with Nana and Pop-Pop."