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.
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Bonesville.net contributed to this report. An
ECU Athletics press release was used in
compiling this report.
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