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Veteran offensive coach rejoins Holtz

 

From staff and ECU reports
©2007 Bonesville.net.
All rights reserved.


Todd Fitch
(Photo: ECU SID)

Todd Fitch's professional path will cross with the Holtz family one more time, this time as a key member of the East Carolina football program's offensive brain trust.

ECU head coach Skip Holtz, signaling a realignment of his staff in the wake of the departure of former Pirate tight ends coach Don Yanowsky, appointed Fitch to the position of quarterbacks coach and also named him an offensive coordinator.

Fitch comes to East Carolina after a successful three-year stretch as Iowa State's quarterbacks coach. Yanowsky left the ECU staff to become tight ends and special teams coach at Boston College.

In a shift related to Fitch's hiring, Holtz named Phil Petty tight ends coach. Petty had served as ECU's quarterbacks coach the past two seasons.

Holtz also indicated in an ECU press release that special teams coaching assignments would be split into different areas of responsibility and announced at a later date.

Fitch previously worked with Holtz for 10 seasons, five at Connecticut and five at South Carolina.

Fitch's stint at UConn came during Holtz's tenure as head coach of the Huskies from 1994-98. Fitch was UConn's offensive coordinator the last three of those years.

At South Carolina, Fitch served as wide receivers coach, running backs coach, then quarterbacks coach on the staff of Holtz's father, Lou Holtz, from 1999-2003. Skip Holtz was the Gamecocks' offensive coordinator during that span.

A veteran with over 20 years of coaching experience, Fitch has also worked under notable head coaches Don Nehlen and Earle Bruce during a career that started in 1986 and included stops at his alma mater, Ohio Wesleyan, Bowling Green, West Virginia and Colorado State.

"Undoubtedly, Todd brings a wealth of experience to East Carolina and we're excited to have him join our Pirate family," Skip Holtz said in a statement. "There's certainly a comfort level there when you've spent 10 years working with someone. He's made a significant impact everywhere he has been, and I've been fortunate enough to see it in person twice."

Holtz also outlined his rationale for using Yankowsky's departure as an opportunity to place ECU's corps of youthful tight ends under the tutelage of Petty.

"In replacing Coach Yanowsky's position, we were able to make some moves that will strengthen not only our program as a whole, but help continue the progress we've made towards the development and growth for our staff," Holtz said. "I'll be the first to credit Phil Petty for doing an outstanding job working with James Pinkney over the past two seasons. The stats simply speak for themselves as does James' maturation and development on and off the field. Thus, our program will benefit greatly by Phil having the same impact with our young tight ends, which as we discovered late in the year, is a position critical to our success, especially in the redzone.

"I feel this opportunity for him is a win-win situation for all of us as our tight ends will be in the hands of energetic leadership and Phil will be in a strategic position to continue his climb toward being one of the nation's young, bright and well-rounded offensive coordinators of tomorrow."

Petty was one of South Carolina's most-accomplished quarterbacks ever. The last three years of his four-year collegiate career (1998-2001) overlapped with Fitch's stint on the coaching staff of Lou Holtz.

Most recently, Fitch tutored Iowa State All-America quarterback Bret Meyer, who has blossomed into ISU's most prolific signal-caller under his guidance. Meyer set school career marks in passing yards (7,348), total offense (7,929), touchdown passes (41) and completions (587) in just three seasons and included a 1,926-yard passing effort in 2004 which ranked as the top freshman mark in school history.

Prior to his move to the Big 12 Conference, Fitch was South Carolina's quarterbacks coach in 2003 after a year as running backs coach and three seasons as wide receivers coach. He helped lead the Gamecocks to consecutive Outback Bowl victories over Ohio State in 2001 and 2002.

Fitch came to the South Carolina program from Connecticut, where he worked under Skip Holtz during his five-year tenure from 1994 to 1998. He coordinated the Huskies' offense his final three years, playing a key role in UConn's high-powered and prolific offensive attack in 1998 that resulted in a school-record 10-win season and a quarterfinal round appearance in the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. Connecticut quarterbacks set school records for passing yardage, touchdown passes and passing efficiency under Fitch's guidance and the Huskies enjoyed a spot in the Top 25 polls during four of the five seasons.

An Ohio native, Fitch is a 1986 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan, where he was a three-year starter at defensive back and an all-league performer in 1985. Following his playing career, Fitch moved on to an assistant coaching position at Ohio Wesleyan from 1986-87 before accepting a graduate assistant position at Bowling Green for one year in 1988 and a volunteer coaching position at West Virginia in 1989. He returned to Bowling Green as wide receivers coach for the 1990 and 1991 seasons. Two of his wide receivers at BGSU were drafted into the NFL.

He moved on to Colorado State in 1992, where he worked as the running backs coach and special teams coordinator for two seasons. His starting fullback at CSU went on to play in the NFL and his starting tailback was selected to play in the East-West Shrine Game.

Fitch, 43, and wife Julie have two children, Curtis and Peyton.

THIS PAGE UPDATED: 02/23/07 11:39 AM.

©2007 Bonesville.net. All rights rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bonesville.net contributed to this report. An ECU Athletics press release was used in compiling this report.

 

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