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Skippin’ town…

Thu, Jan 14, 2010

Featured, Football, Pirate Club, Recruiting

According to Fanhouse.com, Skip Holtz has accepted the head coaching position at USF. Sure, he presented many valid points for being interested in the Bulls but when you are a god in Greenville, why would you want to leave? Vent your frustration in the comment section below. Two questions: who are we going to get as a head coach and how bad will this affect our recruits’ decisions? UNC already scooped up a UT recruit after Kiffin got off of the Rocky Top.

I didn’t think Skip was going to do it. His twitter posts all day yesterday just toyed with my emotions. I know that this was a tough decision for him to make but he made me feel like we had him locked down. I wasn’t worried at all and then was just hit with this devastating blow. It is painful because he has been such a huge part of the rebuilding of our university and our football program.

There are worse places that Skip could have gone. If I had to see him in NCSU red, I don’t think I could take it. If I saw him wearing a Tar-hole hat, I would lose respect. My top choice (outside of staying) would have been to see him take over Lane Kiffin’s steaming pile of dookie that is the University of Tennessee football program and turn it around but Skip just doesn’t really seem like a mountain man to me.

I will support Skip while he is at USF (and wherever he may go after that) and hope that he will try to schedule a game against us so that we can beat them and then point and laugh at him for leaving.

Skip is meeting with the players at 3:00 p.m. est to talk about this. Here is a shot from his press conference which, by the way, looks like no one actually called the press and alerted them about the conference:

What a day…it is sad to see Skip out of Greenville but we have to look forward and need to keep all  hands on deck. Go Pirates! Looking forward to the next steps in our journey to the BCS.

UPDATE: He’s officially gone and has even gone on his Twitter account and posted the news.

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27 Comments For This Post

  1. ghostlikeswayze Says:

    Here’s more from BusterSports.com

    http://bustersports.com/blog/buster-blog/2010/01/14/usf-hires-skip-holtz/

  2. J Mohn Says:

    I had gotten a few phone calls from fellow Pirate fans telling me to check out Hotlz tweets and how they were a sign Skip was staying on board. I never doubted he was gone, Holtz was just playing the ‘business as usual’ card until a deal was finalized and a formal announcement made.

    Oh yeah, my favorite tweet: “Purple!” (This is where USF was supposed to respond with the “GOLD!”) and obvioulsy did.

    Next coach – Bud Foster, Terry Bowden, Jeff Jagodzinski, Steve Logan, Al Golden, Danny Rocco, Rick Stockstill

  3. ghostlikeswayze Says:

    My choice: Mike Leach

    We need someone who will do something about fighting over the carrot cake at a buffet. We have plenty of sheds around Greenville. Plus, he is a Pirate anyway so it kind of works out.

  4. Space Wrangler Says:

    mmmmmmmmmmm, carrot caaaaaaake

    /homer simpson’d

    Speaking of carrot, why not Carrot Top? That guy is the jam! You should see him rip up the percussion at a WP show. If not him, then maybe Ricky Stokes.

    /too soon?

  5. ghostlikeswayze Says:

    BTW, I don’t see Logan wanted to come back after receiving all of the boos 8 years ago during the devastation that Duke bestowed upon us during Logan’s last season…

    Can’t believe that USF stole our “gold” tweet…rubbing salt in the wound…I hate them…

  6. Andrew Says:

    Terry Bowden, Phil Ford, or Greg Hudson

  7. ghostlikeswayze Says:

    I know that Hudson wishes he had waited on the FSU decision…promotion to head coach at ECU sounds more spectacular than the Seminole LB coach…

  8. Space Wrangler Says:

    yeah, Hudson is looking like a fool right now

  9. J Mohn Says:

    WBIR out of Knoxville is reporting that Duke’s David Cutcliffe will be named head coach at Tennessee.

    The carousel is out of freakin control today….

  10. Richard Says:

    Skip did a great job while he was here, but we have not yet come close to our potential as a program. I think if we make the right hire the next head man will be the one to lead us into the Big East. The name I continue to hear up here in Raleigh is Al Golden of Temple. He has a great background as an assistant at Boston College, Penn St. and UVA. At Temple he took the Owls to their first bowl game in 30years this season and was highly sought after by Cincinnati after Kelly left for Notre Dame. Hopefully Terry Holland can work his UVA connections and get this guy to Greenville soon. Go Pirates!

  11. ghostlikeswayze Says:

    Nice Richard. Thanks for the insight. Al Golden would be a big pickup for us. I hope they take some time to get a great coach and a great defensive coordinator combo. We don’t need to rush this.

  12. Pirate89 Says:

    I just hope we get a coach who will keep the momentum going. Really, the main thing now is not to lose the recruits. We need to avoid the cliff dive we did after letting go of Logan and maintain our momentum. A known coach w/the right connections is key. Agree…Hudson is the biggest chump in all of this. Any chance he’ll back out of his FSU deal?

  13. Richard Says:

    This is a pivotal moment in ECU history. Hire the right guy and I truly believe this program will take off like we have never seen before. Good things have been happening ever since Holland came to town from Skip leading the resurrection to the new Stadium expansion. I don’t think a 50,000 seat stadium will waste away in C-USA for very long, the rest of the country can see what’s going on in Greenville. Holland is very connected in the college world and I have faith that he will bring in the right man.

  14. Space Wrangler Says:

    “I don’t think a 50,000 seat stadium will waste away in C-USA for very long”

    there are 4 or 5 doing that right now…

  15. snoopy Says:

    The one bright side (if there is one) is that Skip has left ECU a program that looks attractive to a new coach. He has help make a name for us (we’ve spent a lot of time on national television the past few years). With Terry Holland looking out for us (with a stadium expansion in his back pocket) I think we stand a good chance of finding the right man for the job.

  16. Space Wrangler Says:

    Am I the only one who is damn excited about who we are bringing in next? I am of the Adam Gold opinion on this matter: we have a lot going for us, and we should be able to draw some talent to the table for this hire.

  17. J Mohn Says:

    No doubt Wrangler but I still feel like my girlfriend just broke up with me. We had a good thing going with Skip and it just irks me that none of this would be going down if we were in the BCS. His departure was emotional yesterday and we’ll miss em and I he’ll miss us, especially if things don’t go well in South Florida but I wish him the best. Your right, we must move on and I think there are a lot of great prospects out there.

    As my Brother said this morning “In Terry Holland we trust, Go Pirates!”

  18. Space Wrangler Says:

    “It would’ve been a lot tougher to see that plane take off without
    me than it was to say goodbye to the Pirate fans and
    Greenville”

    – not so sure I will miss him as much as I thought I would, as he seems to be a-okay with leaving us behind…

  19. E Mohn Says:

    With Terry Holland and the rest of ECU admin wanting to build and create a football monster we will become the Football powerhouse that we want.
    I have always thought that the head coach should be an offensive mind. So,I don’t think Bud Foster or Ruffin Mcneil could be good for ECU….not that Bud is going to leave Va Tech. The Bowden’s at ECU..that could be very intersting, or even more interesting would be Coach Jag or Mike Leach. Which I believe the Bowden’s, Coach Jag w/ Logan and Mike Leach all got bad deals and could do good things for the Pirates. Whatever TH decides it will be in the best interest of ECU.
    IN TERRY HOLLAND WE TRUST and God Bless the PIRATES.

  20. Space Wrangler Says:

    While Terry has done some outstanding things for our school, you have to take his hirings with a grain of salt. Let’s look at his hirings:

    Skip Holtz – had a good track record as a HC at Connecticut, but other than that was an assistant for his old man. I would argue it was a rather mild gamble on a guy who was an up-and-comer.

    Ricky Stokes – …do I need to say anything?

    Mack McCarthey – …again, do I need to say anything?

    Billy Godwin – basically a ‘keep him’ approach, as he didn’t put a lot of effort in to that one.

    That record in my mind reads 1-2-1; or what I like to call under-.500. I wish for him to succeed more than anyone, but to say “In Terry Holland We Trust” is a bit of a reach. While he does schedule some nice schedules, he is also they guy that let NCSU off the hook and had a 100K buyout in Louis Leo’s contract. Let’s keep him in perspective.

  21. Space Wrangler Says:

    One last thing – Tell me that picture of Lou and Skip doesn’t go like this:

    Skip: “Dad, did you see how great we played today?! This team is going to do big things, I can just feel it!”
    Lou: “Uh huh, sure, uh huh, that’s nice, yeah, okay. So, when are you leaving this dumper for a BCS conference? Your better than this, and quite frankly, … wait, where am I? I don’t even know where I am! Do I smell pistachios?”

  22. Turd Burgler Says:

    Space Wrangler. I can’t hate on TH for hiring MM at all. If you look at his record as a head coach before us he did extremely well. His winning % was somewhere in the .650-.750 range and he took two struggling schools (UT Chat & VCU) to numerous NCAA tourneys. He just hasn’t been able to do much at ECU and that’s the norm for almost every coach we’ve ever had here. We’re a football school. The coach can only do so much. I don’t know the solution to the problem but basketball just doesn’t work at ECU for some reason.

  23. Pirate89 Says:

    TH seems concerned that a lot of candidates are no longer available due to how late it is. He mentioned that a couple of times in his press conference. The question is, are any of the available candidates right for ECU? We’ll see. I have no doubt that TH is the right man. I’ve been a Pirate for a long time and have never felt the momentum I have in recent years. Baseball and swimming have stayed on top and others, such as women’s basketball, have emerged. In terms of basketball, fixing that is a tall, tall order in NC. Lots of competition for recruits. I don’t know how you get a kid to come here if he has other options. In the end, football is what TH came to fix and has done so.

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  26. Paola Says:

    Sweet. I remember a while back you were asknig about writers and whether anyone would want to join the team. Did you get many people who responded to that?

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