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A tip to Skip

Submitted by ldecock on 09/07/2008 - 07:23

I have to admit now that I wasn't too impressed when ECU hired Skip Holtz to replace John Thompson. His resume at UConn didn't strike me as overwhelmingly exciting and what exactly happened with him and his dad at South Carolina, anyway?

I also have to admit now that I couldn't have been more wrong. OK, that's a little obvious after season-opening wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia, but Holtz has groomed an excellent quarterback and put together an imposing defense.

Most important, he has restored East Carolina's traditional belief that the Pirates are much better than anyone else thinks — an inferiority complex of the best kind. No one doubts that now.

I was never on record as saying ECU could have done better when the Pirates hired Holtz, but I'm not afraid to say it now because I truly believed it. And I could not have been more wrong.

No matter what happens now, whether the Pirates threaten the BCS powers-that-be or not, Skip Holtz deserves all the credit in the world for restoring that program to its rightful, upset-minded place.

Comments

Who are you anyway???

Sun, 09/07/2008 - 10:40 — NCBKXVIII

Exactly who are you anyway? Number one no one cares what your opinion is or was! I think Skip has proven his hertiage has proven it's self! Football is in his blood, he just needed the operatunity to prove himself! Something that apparently you have not done since I have never heard of you!!!!!

Huh?

Sun, 09/07/2008 - 09:08 — Tim (not verified)

I don't understand your previous ambivalence about Skip. I worked for Public Radio East at the time and we covered the hiring of Skip. It was a pretty jovial time! His record at Conn was excellent, and growing up Holtz? What more could you want in a program that was going down the crapper? There was serious buzz, even if it didn't reach the triangle or the rest of the sport reporting world. I worked the sideline as media at several ECU games during the Thompson error, and it was easy to tell they could have hired a better coach from high school ranks. When Skip started, there was a huge change in the players' attitude. Gone was the angst, in was the teamwork. Get out of the office and work a sideline or two. Get some dirt on your loafers.

What a jerk!

Sun, 09/07/2008 - 09:00 — Jim (not verified)

I am a USC fan....but was this snarky little comment necessary about ECU? And where did you "learn" about this "complex"?
Not on your own, not if you are so clueless as to call Williams Brice Stadium, "Brice Williams Stadium".
All your UNC co workers filled you in? They have a lot to talk about in football, huh??

"Most important, he has restored East Carolina's traditional belief that the Pirates are much better than anyone else thinks — an inferiority complex of the best kind."

And papers wonder why circulation falls and staff is cut.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a

Mon, 09/08/2008 - 07:49 — ldecock (author)

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a sec.

First of all, we can discuss for days the potential sources and causes of the current financial situation of the newspaper industry, but a momentary mental block that caused Williams-Brice to pop out Brice-Williams is not one of them.

Second of all, the idea that bigger isn't necessarily better is an idea at the heart of American sports. (Just ask Appalachian State.) It's one thing to be an underdog. It's another to believe you're the better team anyway.

That has been a trademark of ECU's program for years, the "bring on the ACC and Big East" mentality that was more than just bluster, perhaps most notably on Sept. 25, 1999. That was lost. Holtz has restored it.

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