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SKIP HOLTZ |
Bonesville File Photo
by Brian Bailey.
©Bonesville.net. |
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After leading
East Carolina to back-to-back Conference USA football titles and four
straight bowl berths, Skip Holtz will depart Greenville to become head
coach at South Florida.
Holtz cited
family ties in Florida as a primary factor in his decision to accept
USF's offer to take over the helm of the Bulls program. His father and
mother, Lou and Beth Holtz, live in the Orlando area and his wife
Jennifer, a Florida State grad, is a native of Port Charlotte.
Holtz posted an
abbreviated note on
his twitter page about 6:30 p.m.
Thursday that summed up his emotions about the move.
"Hard to leave
ECU but excited about the new chapter in my life. South Florida is a
great opportunity, " he wrote.
After arriving in
the Tampa Bay area, Holtz tweeted a new update.
"In Tampa,
excited to get started, press conference today at noon," he posted about
9 a.m. this morning.
East Carolina
athletic director Terry Holland, who
hired Holtz in December 2004 to
resurrect the school's flagship program after a pair of dismal seasons
under John Thompson, had nothing but praise for Holtz after the
announcement.
"Skip Holtz and
his family have transformed our expectations of ourselves and our
athletic program while contributing to every aspect of our community,"
Holland said in a statement. "They will be missed, but have provided ECU
with a solid foundation for future success. It will be up to us to build
on that foundation."
East Carolina
chancellor Steve Ballard also was laudatory of Holtz, while expressing
optimism that Holland would retain a successor capable of picking up
where Holtz left off.
“Skip Holtz has
been a great coach and a great Pirate, and we wish him and his family
all the best," Ballard stated. "Skip’s success on the field is well
known, but he was also an important force for the university in
fund-raising, in the academic performance of student-athletes and in
enhancing our relations with the Greenville community.
“We will, of
course, miss Skip, and we thank him for his great work here," added
Ballard. "Now it’s time to look to the future, and I have every
confidence that Terry Holland will quickly find a new head coach who
will keep our momentum going.”
Holland, who will
meet with the media Friday, addressed the topic of hiring a successor to
Holtz in a news release.
"Our search
process will begin immediately," Holland stated. "We will be seeking a
coach who can provide strong leadership and will be able to assemble a
staff that will allow us to reach the substantial goals we have set for
ourselves."
The USF head
coaching position opened last week when Jim Leavitt was fired in the
wake of a school investigation into an incident that occurred during
halftime of a game against Louisville on Nov. 21. The investigation
concluded, according to ESPN.com, that Leavitt grabbed a Bulls player by
the throat, slapped him in the face and subsequently lied about it.
A buyout clause
in Holtz's contract with East Carolina will require a payment to ECU of
$100,000. Holtz's total compensation package with the Pirates was in the
neighborhood of $1,000,000 per year, including base pay of approximately
$600,000.
The Tampa Tribune
reported late Thursday that Holtz and USF agreed to a five-year pact
worth more than $9 million with a $1 million buyout clause during the
first two years.
The agreement
also stipulates a salary pool for Holtz's assistant coaches of $1.55
million in 2010, escalating in $100,000 increments in each of the next
two seasons, with Holtz having the right to renegotiate the pool after
2012.
On the East
Carolina financial front — with Pirate Club
membership levels, fundraising and football ticket sales at record levels — money
considerations are not likely to be a constraint on Holland's
efforts to attract
accomplished candidates to succeed Holtz.
