Despite coaching for Notre Dame, I always liked Lou Holtz. I wish he would have avoided South Carolina and newscasting.
I don't hold it against him that we really wanted him to be the Buckeye head coach way back when but he chose to coach elsewhere. I don't think that makes him anti-OSU.
Maybe he is trying hard to not look like a homer from Ohio in his new career as a "sports analyst".
I think the problem is that he is trying too hard right now. He doesn't look comfortable to me and I am hoping he will settle in or leave this behind.
Holtz, Paterno, even our Woody, very few great coaches end their careers on a high note. Consequently, they often are trying to be remembered for earlier accomplishments. Cooper also looks rigid and ill-at-ease.
My problem with using well-known coaches, like Holtz and John Cooper, is that they understood the game well in their era and they get it a hell of a lot better than me now, but that doesn't make them sportscasters.
So, it's a mismatch, in a job that looks a lot harder than it looks. A guy that has content skills but no training to provide process skills takes on a job that is 80% process skills and 20% content. Sometimes, they come off a bit like teenagers at their first dance, insecure in front of the camera and trying to say something meaningful and funny. Other times, they seem to try to say something "professorial" so we can all remember that "he used to be Lou Holtz."
A guy with an obvious sense of humor and self-deprecation, like Corso, does fine because he isn't trying to justify that "great coach from the past" label.
When I watch Lou Holtz and John Cooper on TV these days, I am left wondering why someone who I think knows a lot more than I do sounds like he knows one hell of a lot less. Relax guys, just tell us what you think and why and forget trying to fit into the ESPiN banter mode. Be yourselves and have some fun.