As assistant coaches under one of the most revered coaches of all time, Charlie Strong and Skip Holtz helped turn around a program together. The former South Carolina coordinators helped turn a winless Gamecocks team into an Outback Bowl champion in one year.

Now they are each turning around their own programs as head coaches.

Strong spent four seasons as the Gamecocks’ defensive coordinator under his coaching mentor, Lou Holtz. That’s where Strong and Skip Holtz share a common thread — through Skip’s father. The legendary Lou Holtz brought Strong under his wing for many years. And of course, he had Skip.

‘We have a bond there that we’re really good friends,’ Strong said Monday in the Big East coaches’ teleconference. ‘Skip’s an outstanding football coach.’

Eight years since they last coached together, Strong and Skip Holtz will face off Saturday as Louisville (5-4, 2-2 Big East) takes on South Florida (5-3, 2-2). Both coaches have taken different routes to reach their current positions, but now each finds himself building up a Big East program in his first year.

And each coach comes from the influences of Lou Holtz.

Strong was a defensive line coach on Lou’s staff on Notre Dame from 1995-96. He remained even after Lou left, until 1999, when Strong made the jump to South Carolina to become Lou’s defensive coordinator at his new job.

While Strong was being mentored at Notre Dame, Skip Holtz was the head coach at Connecticut, at the time a Division I-AA school. He had success there, even winning 10 games in 1998. But when his father took over the Gamecocks’ head coaching job, Skip signed on to become the offensive coordinator.

The heads of the staff were set: Lou Holtz as head coach, Skip Holtz as offensive coordinator, Charlie Strong as defensive coordinator. That’s how it would be for four years, as the coaching staff built up a program that was one of the worst in Division I-A when they took over.

‘It was a program similar to this (Louisville) when we took over,’ Strong said. ‘We did not win any games our first year, but came back and won two straight Outback Bowls.’

Turning around a program that had won one game the year before they arrived strengthened Skip Holtz and Strong’s relationship. They suffered through a 0-11 season their first year together. And they got to see the building of the South Carolina program firsthand.

‘I’ve known Charlie for a long time,’ Holtz said. ‘Him and (Strong’s wife) Vickie are just great people, and our kids have played together. … I think the world of Charlie.’

Both Strong and Holtz also got to reap the benefits of turning around a program together. After the 2002 season, Strong bolted from South Carolina to take the same role as defensive coordinator at Florida. Strong was the only assistant retained by current UF head coach Urban Meyer when he took over for the 2005 season. Strong was eventually promoted to associate head coach under Meyer, in addition to his defensive coordinator role.

Strong won two national championships at Florida, and he turned that success into his current job with the Cardinals. Now he has a Louisville team picked to finish last in the Big East at the beginning of the season on the cusp of becoming bowl eligible.

He has the Louisville defense looking like the Florida defenses that continually fought for the SEC title. And like the Gamecocks defenses that won back-to-back Outback Bowls.

‘They come after you, they’re very, very aggressive,’ Holtz said about a Charlie Strong defense. ‘They’re not ‘sit back and let you dictate.’ They’re going to try and dictate the game on defense.’

Holtz left South Carolina after the 2003 season to become the head coach at East Carolina. There, he took the Pirates to four bowls in five seasons. In 2008, his team upset nationally ranked powers Virginia Tech and West Virginia.

He joined the Big East this season with South Florida, and after a slow start to conference play, he has the Bulls looking to clinch a bowl as well this weekend.

‘If you look at it, when he coached at Connecticut, he had great success,’ Strong said. ‘Then he came to South Carolina, and he leaves South Carolina and at East Carolina he does a great job.

‘He understands the game and knows exactly how to get his players to go and play.’

Saturday, the two friends and former co-workers who know a great deal about each other will square off, with the winner becoming bowl eligible. It would be a monumental win for either school. Louisville hasn’t made a bowl since 2006, but USF has never won at the Cardinals’ home stadium.

It will be Holtz’s offense vs. Strong’s defense. This time, on opposite sides. And neither coach is taking the other side lightly.

‘I think he’s a great football coach, I think he’s a great person, and he’s doing a great job at Louisville,’ Holtz said.

‘I think when you say this is a typical Charlie Strong defense, yeah, it is.’

Big man on campus

RB Jeremy Wright

Freshman

Louisville

Last week: 19 carries, 98 yards, 2 TDs

Louisville entered last Saturday’s game at Syracuse as a bit of an underdog. The Cardinals were banged up, missing both its starting quarterback and running back.

But Wright took advantage of the opportunity.

With only two games on the Big East schedule last week, Wright stood out with a big performance in a 28-20 win at Syracuse. The freshman, filling in for Louisville’s star running back Bilal Powell, ran for 98 yards and a pair of scores as the Cardinals won its first road Big East game in 12 tries.

Wright broke open the scoring in the first quarter with a 28-yard touchdown run to put UL up 7-0. Later on, his 12-yard touchdown run put Louisville back on top for good, 21-17.

The backup running back set career highs in just about every rushing statistic Saturday. He entered the game with only 14 carries on the season. And he proved that if UL was to be missing Powell for any extended period of time, he could be a serviceable fill-in.

‘He is not very big,’ UL head coach Charlie Strong said, ‘but can get behind his pads and has enough speed, quickness and strength to make the runs and make people miss him.’

mcooperj@syr.edu

Published on November 10, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Mark: mcooperj@syr.edu | @mark_cooperjr