Holtz To Become USF's Second Head Coach Ever

Sports News - January 14th, 2010 - Written By Bryan

The University of South Florida finally has it's second head coach in school history.

The St. Petersburg Times reported just after noon on Thursday that USF has agreed in principle with East Carolina head coach Skip Holtz, and he will head to Tampa later in the evening.

Holtz, son of former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz, spent five seasons at East Carolina in which he took the Conference USA team to four bowl appearances, and was 38-27 with the Pirates.

Holtz had been the school's leading candidate for the job ever since Tommy Tuberville signed with Texas Tech last week, and brings to an end the school's first coaching search since the College Football program was created in 1996. Jim Leavitt had been the school's only coach and slowly grew the program to prominance and hit the climax during the 2007 season when the Bulls beat West Virginia on a Thursday night primetime special, vaulting USF to a no. 2 ranking.

Suddenly, the Bulls were making noise and Leavitt was a hero as students and fans ransacked the streets and celebrated with bonfires and rioting.

But that's when things started to fall apart. Three weeks later, USF lost that ranking in a devastating three-point loss to Rutgers, and finished 9-4. It went 8-5 in each of the last two seasons.

Leavitt's anger over the finally boiled over on Nov. 21, when he grabbed special teamer Joel Miller by the throat at halftime and struck him in the face.

School officials began investigating the matter and promptly fired the coach despite his denials the incident ever happened. He is currently suing to get receive at least part of his salary lost, which was taken away due to being dismissed with cause.

Miller recently said he would like an apology for the punch, and more importantly the denial, but fell short of saying he would file a civil suit.

"Everyone knows the truth inside that locker room. All the players know the truth. All the coaches know the truth. ... I covered it up, and then it got to be where it was too big for me to handle any more. All I want is for the truth to come out, and I want coach Leavitt to just admit that he did grab me and did hit me twice."