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Lou Holtz (Official Thread)

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espn.com$

7/18/05

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Lou Holtz promised to take South Carolina football into the national spotlight. The school's NCAA violations aren't likely the attention he was seeking, however.

Holtz did not return phone messages by The Associated Press at his Florida home Wednesday or Thursday. At a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada on Thursday, Holtz said the violations didn't involve "any real major stuff that happened."

"No coach was involved," he said, according to an interview transcript provided by the tournament. "The major fallacy was that we tutored two young men, or I guess the academic people tutored two young men before they attended the university.

"Five of the violations were reported by us," Holtz continued, "there was no money involved, no recruiting violations, no enticements, but nevertheless, we don't want any marks against us."

The university admitted to 10 violations in a summary disposition report released Wednesday. It agreed with the NCAA enforcement staff that five of the violations were major. South Carolina classified the other five as secondary, although the NCAA disagreed and called one of the five major, an issue that will no doubt get taken up when the NCAA Committee on Infractions discusses the report in the coming weeks.

With Holtz named in only the most minor of ways in the report, do the violations cloud his successful tenure?

"I don't know if it changes anything," said former Gov. Jim Hodges, who was cited for an NCAA violation when he talked to prospects (governors are ex-officio members of the university's board of trustees). "Lou did a lot of good things for the university."

That was certainly the case early on when Holtz stunned the football world (and probably most South Carolina fans) by going from 0-11 in 1999 to 17-7 and consecutive Outback Bowl victories in 2000 and 2001 -- the best two-year stretch in school history.

When news broke in 2002 that the NCAA was looking into South Carolina, Holtz angrily defended his program.

"They don't think we can win without cheating," Holtz said at the time. "They don't think we can recruit without cheating and this is nonsense."

The school has proposed penalties of two years' probation, losing four football scholarships over two seasons and reducing its on-campus paid recruiting visits.

The 80-page summary disposition report largely leaves Holtz out of transgressions.

The most serious violations involved the conduct of former athletic administrator Tom Perry and former football strength and condition coach Pat Moorer.

The report said Perry provided academic assistance to a pair of recruits who had signed with South Carolina but had not yet enrolled.

In Holtz's interview with NCAA investigators, the coach said he had no knowledge of tutoring assistance being provided. He "did say the football staff might have monitored" the progress of an incoming player who was at Midlands Technical College, according to the report.

The NCAA report found that Moorer was the "chief actor" in conducting out-of-season athletics activities for football student athletes. Holtz said in the report he had no knowledge of Moorer conducting mandatory summer workouts or punishing or compelling makeup workouts for those players who missed sessions. Holtz noted to investigators, "I assume players

As far as Gov. Hodges' contact with prospects, Holtz told investigators he was "as shocked as anybody" to see the chief executive.


Holtz said he did not know such contact violated NCAA rules until after the fact.

Holtz has kept a very low profile in the state since leaving South Carolina in November. In June, ESPN announced that Holtz would join the network as a college football studio analyst.

Recently retired athletic director Mike McGee, who brought Holtz out of retirement in December 1998 and then hired Steve Spurrier as football coach after this last season, has said Holtz was disappointed how his final year ended.

He wasn't the only one. University president Andrew Sorensen said the violations "certainly cast our university in a light that no one in the Carolina family condones."

Still, Holtz was optimistic about the Gamecocks chances under Spurrier, even with NCAA sanctions. "He's a winner," he said at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship. "We took the program from the bottom. We made it very respectable in the SEC. I think he can take it to the next step."
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Lou seems to be quite the spin-meister.

"No coach was involved"
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I guess the strength and conditioning coach doesn't count.

"Five of the violations were reported by us," Holtz continued, "there was no money involved, no recruiting violations"
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Heck, they reported 5 of the 10 violations themselves. Lou seems quite perplexed about the 'lack of institutional control' finding by the NCAA; he acts like they hardly did anything wrong, and if they did, it sure wasn't good ol' Lou's fault. Like he's pleading "Please don't tarnish my legacy."'
 
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Don't be surprised if this gets little coverage on ESPiN. ESPiN is about the money and highlighting this stuff that went on at South Carolina really takes the bloom off the Lou Holtz rose.

Hey, man, I mean Lou's a celebrity:cool:, maybe just a few bad decisions by some of his underlings. Can't take exception to that! Thanks, ESPiN, it's good that you show your true colors and remind us about the cesspool of distorted values that seems to be your foundation.
 
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si.com

NCAA adds third year to South Carolina's probation

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- The NCAA handed South Carolina a third year of probation, but did not impose sanctions on TV appearances or bowl games for 10 violations that occurred during the tenure of retired coach Lou Holtz.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions reviewed South Carolina's case earlier this month. Committee vice chairman Josephine Potuto wrote University President Andrew Sorensen on Aug. 16 that the group "concurred that the university's investigation into the violations set forth in the report was thorough and complete," according to a letter released Wednesday.

The panel adopted South Carolina's proposed penalties that included a loss of four scholarships and 12 paid on-campus visits over seasons, and
-- increased the probation period to three years from two;

-- "because an element of academic fraud" was involved in some violations, according to the NCAA, it required the school to forward infractions report to its regional accrediting agency;

-- imposed a four-year show cause order should former South Carolina administrator Tom Perry try for employment at another athletic department.

Sorensen accepted the additional penalties and waived the school's right to a further hearing.

"We are satisfied with the results," South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier said. "We appreciate the NCAA basically agreeing with our proposal. For the next couple of years, we will only have 83 players on scholarship."

In July, the university released a summary disposition report, prepared jointly with the NCAA, that outlined 10 violations -- five which South Carolina admitted were major. The NCAA said one violation that the school deemed secondary was a major infraction. The disagreement will be settled in the NCAA's final report to the school, university spokesman Russ McKinney said.

New South Carolina athletic director Eric Hyman said the NCAA's decision "brings closure to this situation."

Perry, an ex-senior associate athletic director for academic support services, was at the center of the most serious violations. The report found Perry arranged for impermissible tutoring help during the summer of 2001 for two prospective players who were coming from two-year colleges. After the incident was self-reported, Perry declared the athletes ineligible and made the players make restitution for the tutoring.

The NCAA panel's letter appears to close a case that it first looked into more than three years ago. Holtz has repeatedly refused to return messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. However, at a celebrity golf tournament last month, he said "five of the violations were reported by us, there was no money involved, no recruiting violations, no enticements, but nevertheless, we don't want any marks against us."

Sorensen was gratified the committee found the majority of South Carolina's penalties appropriate.

"Carolina takes seriously its obligation as a NCAA member institution, and we shall continue to pursue with vigilance and honesty our goal of full compliance with all NCAA policies and procedures," Sorensen said in a written statement.

McGee said he was confident corrective actions the school and athletic department took put South Carolina "in a solid position to ensure that the violations do not reoccur."

McGee understood Sorensen accepting a third year of probation.

Hyman, McGee's replacement, said he hopes the school can learn from what happened and move forward. He said he'll work "to ensure that our athletics department embodies the values and ethics that higher education represents."

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Lou Holtz (official thread)

Lou Holtz could be the worst tv analyst out there. Besides the fact that this is the second time I've seen him pick against OSU (Iowa and PSU), he speaks terrible and lacks great inside info. Mark May picks OSU to roll PSU, but Holtz seems to try and pick a chic upset in picking PSU. His credibility has sunk to nill in my book.
 
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So....if someone picks against OSU in any game (God forbid 2), they automatically don't know what they're talking about at all, about anything?

I know it's fun to bash the TV guys (and I do it too), but it is getting a little much recently...I've never seen any evidence that he "has it out" for OSU.

Hell, it's a lot more fun to prove them wrong, and watch their reaction anyway.
 
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Ah yes, a good point mongoose, Holtz was an assistant to Woody in one year at OSU that we all consider at least semi-important (1968). Can't imagine he'd have any good memories from that. :shake:

I think there's a little too much Kool-Aid available recently.
 
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Bucklion said:
So....if someone picks against OSU in any game (God forbid 2), they automatically don't know what they're talking about at all, about anything?

I know it's fun to bash the TV guys (and I do it too), but it is getting a little much recently...I've never seen any evidence that he "has it out" for OSU.

Hell, it's a lot more fun to prove them wrong, and watch their reaction anyway.
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Listen to him.... maybe I can't label him a "OSU hater", but he lacks the intelligent input you would expect from a prestigous former coach. As sad as it may sound, I'd rather listen to Trev Alberts than Lou Holtz. It's all based on the support he gives for his picks, they don't appear to be well thought out, but what may seem like a chic upset at the time.
 
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The set-up for those analyst shows when discussing a match-up like tomorrow's, where the line is a single score, is to have one fella take the home and one the away team. It's obvious, and it's obviously not a conspiracy, nor evidence that Holtz hates tOSU - or that May has suddenly become a born-again Buckeye analyst. It helps the network sell their broadcast of the game the next day by pumping the contest to those beyond each team's respective fanbase.
 
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