• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

Lou Holtz (Official Thread)

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Sort by date Sort by votes
fourteenandoh;966431; said:
I'm kind of sick of everyone bagging on Lou. He's from Ohio and he loves Ohio. Read his book sometime. Yeah, his picks are retarded but you have to realize he's forgotten more about football than all of us combined will ever know. Laugh off his stupid picks but realize that he is a genius and show some respect. Just b/c he has a lisp doesn't give anyone a right to disregard his opinion.

-off the soap box
Click to expand...

The problem is that he's on ESPN pretty much to be made fun of. No one takes him seriously, he's a character. When people see Lou Holtz on ESPN do you think of his 100-30-2 record at Notre Dame? Do you think of his 249-132-7 overall record? Do you think of his 1988 National Title? Not any more, now people just think of the old guy with the funny voice who's a Notre Dame Homer.

Great coach, he should have stopped there, College Gameday is just making a mockery of everything he's accomplished.
 
Upvote 0
Puddle.jpg


Cleanup on set please.
 
Upvote 0
It's kind of bull shit. I agree. He should know better. He's old but he hasn't lost his wits. CGD is not taking advantage of him without his knowledge. The only people who don't respect him are those who don't know any better.
 
Upvote 0
FWIW, I have read Holtz's book about the '88 season at ND at least 100 times and if anyone hasn't read it they should. I honestly do admire the man.

In that vein I say you are all missing his true genius. Do you know how good of an actor you have to be to make yourself look that dumb while making Mark May look insightful and intelligent?

Forget him being a HOF coach, Holtz should get an acadamy award for best actor with the biggest tool for a supportig actor who's ever lived.
 
Upvote 0
fourteenandoh;966431; said:
I'm kind of sick of everyone bagging on Lou. He's from Ohio and he loves Ohio. Read his book sometime. Yeah, his picks are retarded but you have to realize he's forgotten more about football than all of us combined will ever know. Laugh off his stupid picks but realize that he is a genius and show some respect. Just b/c he has a lisp doesn't give anyone a right to disregard his opinion.

-off the soap box
Click to expand...
OK - the lisping jokes DO get old. The problem is though that ESPN puts Lou in positions where he comes off as a joke - the inspirational locker room speeches - the "banter" with Mark May.
We know it is contrived, in fact, set aside the book for moment (yes, I've read it as well) Holtz is an incredibly effective motivational speaker - when he has something to talk about in which he really believes.

Point being those contrived locker room speeches he gives on ESPN - Holtz clearly doesn't believe in them. If ESPN gave him free rein to say what he really felt about upcoming games it could, honestly, provide the best analysis of any of their talking heads.

Jaxbuck;966537; said:
FWIW, I have read Holtz's book about the '88 season at ND at least 100 times and if anyone hasn't read it they should. I honestly do admire the man.

In that vein I say you are all missing his true genius. Do you know how good of an actor you have to be to make yourself look that dumb while making Mark May look insightful and intelligent?

Forget him being a HOF coach, Holtz should get an acadamy award for best actor with the biggest tool for a supportig actor who's ever lived.
Click to expand...
And, sadly, that is what ESPN and Holtz have conspired to make out of what should, one day, be a HOF coach.
 
Upvote 0
Got a lot of respect for Lou, he won a lot of big games that he wasn't meant to win. He ran a disciplined program, he could win with athletes and still keep the grades up. He got a lot of flak late at ND, people thought he left so he wouldn't break Rockne's record, but a lot of the old administration wanted him to walk out, which was stupid. He was a non-nonsense kind of coach and knew what the university was all about. Lou will always be a diehard supporter of ND I think, but I guess the rest of the talking heads aren't exactly unbiased either, so who cares. Aaron Taylor has interviewed past coaches and players, Holtz being one. Holtz knows like everyone else that the team has to start with the offensive line, and I could see him whipping them into shape.
 
Upvote 0
The problem is, ESPN style is to hype things up so that the average brain-dead viewer will pay attention long enough to see a commercial or two. LH's background is as a coach, not a performer. Look at what Corso and Vitale in b-ball behave like. They know they're being clowns, and they've perfected their schtick. Holtz is trying to find the same thing.

By contrast, check out Robert Smith sometime on ESPNEWS. He's smart and doesn't tolerate fools, and also makes for boring commentary because he's unwilling to make an ass out of himself. He can leave the studio with his self-respect intact, but I don't think he'll climb the ladder in studio broadcasting, at least as long as he's with the "Worldwide Leader".

It's just the ESPN style, as created by the "great" Chris "He....could...go...backbackbackback to making up stupid nicknames" Berman. Now, if you contrast Fox's NFL pregame, you'll see how you can make something intelligent, useful and entertaining for fans. Someday Fox will take over college football and make their studio shows relevant.

Until then, poor ol' Lou is just the rookie in a circus sideshow.
 
Upvote 0
fourteenandoh;966431; said:
I'm kind of sick of everyone bagging on Lou. He's from Ohio and he loves Ohio. Read his book sometime. Yeah, his picks are retarded but you have to realize he's forgotten more about football than all of us combined will ever know. Laugh off his stupid picks but realize that he is a genius and show some respect. Just b/c he has a lisp doesn't give anyone a right to disregard his opinion.
Click to expand...

I'm not allowed to disrespect the opinions of anyone from Ohio?

Personally, I think he may not be a doof, but he plays one on TV.
 
Upvote 0
I was overseas at the time and not really connected back home because of technology limitations back then, but I have heard it expressed repeatedly that Holtz led Ohio State to believe that he was interested in the job and then turned down the coaching job at Ohio State. My late father really resented him for that. So, perhaps that is a major source of the derision he receives on BP.

Perhaps it is the design of his job at ESPN. His "locker room pep talks" are simply pathetic, trite, and embarrassing. Who the hell is he to tell LSU how to come back from a defeat? His banter with May also detracts from any prestige he might have brought to the set. It also seems reasonable to say that the opinions he has been expressing on ESPN show little insight into the game.

If he loves Ohio so much, then I guess the question is, what has he done for Ohio. I mean, we've seen how Herbie started this Ohio high school football challenge. Did he endow a chair at Ohio State, put some scholarships into place, or do something else? I ask this honestly, because I don't know of anything he has done for Ohio except to put Ohio State on the schedule twice so we could deflate that image issue once and for all.
 
Upvote 0
fourteenandoh said:
It's kind of bull shit. I agree. He should know better. He's old but he hasn't lost his wits. CGD is not taking advantage of him without his knowledge. The only people who don't respect him are those who don't know any better.
Click to expand...
bullshit. he made the choice to act like an idiot on TV, he can deal with the repercussions. I'm sure he's not losing any sleep over it.
 
Upvote 0
Mandel takes Lou down a peg:

Ohio St. does have a chance; torn over Michigan-ND, more (cont.) - Stewart Mandel - SI.com

Stewart, at what point can Steve Spurrier's tenure at South Carolina be officially labeled a failure? Four years into his Magnum opus and he and his dreadful teams continue to slug it out with Kentucky and Vanderbilt to determine fourth, fifth, and sixth in the SEC East. It seems most who cover college football would like to see Spurrier as the smug, innovative gunslinger of the '90s, rather than the above-average coach of a below-average team that he has sadly become.
-- Daniel Christie, Pembroke Pines, Fla.

I'm not ready to call anything a failure after two games -- but I will be if the Gamecocks wind up back in the Liberty Bowl. Remember, by this point in Lou Holtz's tenure, he'd already led South Carolina to consecutive New Year's bowls, which is fairly remarkable considering that when you watch him on TV today, he barely sounds competent enough to tie his own shoes.
...
Click to expand...
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top