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Let the (spring) games begin for South Florida

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 16, 2010

PALM HARBOR - Monday, the former South Florida football coach reached for Big Bertha: Jim Leavitt filed a lawsuit against his former employer.

Meanwhile, at Innisbrook, the new South Florida football coach, clad in a green Bulls windbreaker and white Bulls cap, waggled a sand wedge and, from the rough just off the 10th green, chipped to within two feet, then made his par.

"It was a relaxing day," Skip Holtz said. There has been little of that since he took over at USF two months ago. Monday was for fun, the Shelton Quarles Celebrity Pro-Am, which leads into the Transitions Championship. But today starts the real fun for Holtz.

"The breath of fresh air," he said.

Today is the first day of USF spring practice. It couldn't get here fast enough for the new man. It isn't about media or speeches or selling, or recruiting, or conditioning drills - or a lawsuit. Today is kids on the grass for Skip Holtz. Football, at last.

First, to business: Leavitt's lawsuit.

"I hate why I'm here," Holtz said. "... I hate the reason this job came open. I've known Coach Leavitt a long time. He's a great person, he's a good coach and he's done a phenomenal job of developing this program from its infancy.

"But from a team standpoint, we've got to put our eyes forward. We've got to look at where we're going. That's the only way we're going to get where we want to be. We can't let it become a distraction. We've just got to keep our focus where it needs to be."

Monday was golf, though there was a crisis.

"I hadn't played in 10 months," Holtz said. "When I pulled my bag out, I had purple head covers, a purple towel ... from East Carolina. I've been a little busy. On my way here, I had to stop at Edwin Watts and get some Bulls head covers."

Then the love-in continued. What fans there were on Innisbrook's Copperhead course wanted an autograph from Holtz or a picture. They sought him out. It has been the other way around since the man hit Tampa Bay. He has been everywhere, an all-out blitz.

"There's so much excitement right now," Holtz said.

At one point during Monday's round, Josh Teater, the pro teamed with Holtz's group, had a question for Holtz.

"How many games have you won here?"

"None," Holtz said.

"Man, you're popular for a guy without a win."

They laughed.

Yes, it's been a 100-meter dash for Holtz, who turned 46 on Friday.

"But I've been counting the days to practice," he said. "This is what I do. This is my solitude. This is where I want to be, on the field, with those players. I want to see where we are as a team.

"You're trying to see every guy. I'll watch every snap of every practice. I'll watch every one-on-one drill, more than I would if it wasn't my first year. I'm trying to get to know the players and what they can do. I don't want someone else's evaluation of them. People say, 'Well, he doesn't work hard.' Let me figure that out."

He remembered his first spring practices at his previous head coaching stops, Connecticut and East Carolina. This is different. Holtz explained outside the Copperhead clubhouse.

"The coaching part is the same, but this is a bigger arena. It's like going out there on this empty golf course and hitting one down the fairway, then coming out and doing the same thing with 10,000 people around the tee box."

Plus there's this guy in the gallery waving a lawsuit.

Spring practice begins today. Skip Holtz has honors.

"I want to get on the grass," Skip Holtz said. "Kicking and special teams, that's the first 10-minute block. ... It's just shorts. We get in pads Friday."

Sounds like football to me.

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