NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
RJ Young
FOX Sports National College Football Analyst
Following the 2023 USFL season, Skip Holtz should’ve taken a break. He planned to, and he let his wife Jennifer make plans to that effect. Europe was on the schedule, along with the chance to sit down for a while, wear shorts, sip on retirement.
But 11 days after Holtz led the Birmingham Stallions to their second USFL championship in as many years, Holtz, a man who earned his first head coaching job 30 years ago at UConn, found himself in conversation with a man who quite unexpectedly was about to step into his first.
At Northwestern, a hazing scandal led to the ousting of longtime Wildcats head coach Pat Fitzgerald. David Braun, who’d been hired to coach the defense just seven months before, was informed he’d begin the 2023 season as Northwestern’s interim head coach. And he needed help. One of the first men Braun was put into contact with was Holtz.
After an hour on the phone with Braun and two others in a Zoom meeting, Holtz back in his favorite space. They talked about coaching philosophies, scheduling practices, recruiting; the business of coaching college football.
“I told him if you want to be the head coach, then go be the head coach,” Holtz said. “But if you want to be the defensive coordinator and head coach, then I can come help you as an assistant head coach. There were no rules. Well, that’s not true. We wrote the rules as we went. I told him if you need help with something, give it to me. I told him, ‘I’m here. Use me. There’s not a problem that you’re gonna get that I haven’t sat in. There’s not a situation that’s gonna rise that I probably haven’t already had. So utilize me.'”
There was only one goal that Holtz was unequivocal about: He wanted to do everything he could to leave Northwestern athletic director Dr. Derrick Gragg with the notion that the interim tag needed to be removed from Braun’s title by season’s end. So they got to work.
Holtz…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/ufl/ufl-2024-skip-holtz-zach-potter-relentless-focus-behind-a-football-dynasty
Author :
Publish date : 2024-06-05 18:17:43
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
