Bulls in the News: Tbo.com August 29

Rebecca Rader, Skip Holtz, The Famous Ashley Grant and Jennifer Holtz

With Holtz at the helm, time to start new chapter

It's a whole new world for South Florida football, or, as those somewhat contrived billboards all over town would proclaim if asked, a Holtz new world.

The time for plays on words has ended.

It's really time to play.

It's hard to believe what happened really happened just last January. There has been healing. There has been bonding. And there has been a media blitz, with Skip Holtz meeting and greeting. If he hasn't shook your hand, just stand there, he'll be by any time now.

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Daniels is key to successful start in new era

B.J. Daniels' voice was a little shaky, his eyes as big as Frisbees, but those hands wouldn't stop shaking when he took over for an injured Matt Grothe late in the second quarter of the third game last season.

"He was kind of antsy," said Genus, the senior leader of the offensive line. "I was like, 'B.J., we gotcha. It's alright. Just calm down.'"

Daniels, 20, remembers the moment well. On one play, he watched Grothe take off for a 9-yard gain; on the next, he was suddenly USF's new starting quarterback.

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Good will is Holtz's strategy

Not long after unpacking at Dodgertown this month, first-year University of South Florida football coach Skip Holtz noticed a young boy and his father.

Holtz had brought his team, still reeling from a tumultuous split with former Bulls coach Jim Leavitt, to Vero Beach to get away from potential distractions. During a 12-day camp, he wanted to bond with his players and wanted the players to get to know one another better. What no one could have envisioned before the Bulls loaded up for the three-hour drive across the state was that 8-year-old Cody Urbanczyk would become a building block.

In Holtz's world, coaching is more about relationships than third-down calls. He seeks a human touch in an era when many coaches have become more isolated, and Cody played a key role in the Bulls' bonding process.

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5 things to watch at USF

By SCOTT CARTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 29, 2010

1. First-year USF coach Skip Holtz will go for his first win in Saturday's home opener against Stony Brook. However, Holtz is 2-0 at Raymond James Stadium - earning wins in back-to-back Outback Bowls in 2001 and 2002 when he was assistant head coach/quarterbacks coach at South Carolina.

2. Holtz's second game as USF's coach will be at Florida on Sept. 11 against Urban Meyer's Gators. In 1990, Meyer replaced Holtz as receivers coach at Colorado State when Holtz left to become receivers coach at Notre Dame.

3. USF defensive coordinator Mark Snyder spent the past five seasons as head coach at Marshall, where he faced Holtz's East Carolina teams every season in Conference USA. Holtz had a 4-1 record against Snyder's Marshall teams.

4. B.J. Daniels (team-high 772 yards) is expected to run less this season, but he is the sixth-leading rusher in the nation among returning quarterbacks, trailing Navy's Ricky Dobbs (1,192), Nevada's Colin Kaepernick (1,183), Middle Tennessee's Dwight Dasher (1,154), Georgia Tech's Joshua Nesbitt (1,037) and Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor (779).

5. Holtz has a career winning percentage of .590 as a head coach (72-50 career record in 10 seasons). Former Bulls coach Jim Leavitt, the only coach in school history prior to Holtz, had a .625 career winning percentage (95-57) in 13 seasons.