Camp Holtz is all about bonding for Bulls

So it's not Bear Bryant and The Junction Boys. The egg toss and hula hoop contests are a dead giveaway.

The nearest junction is Yeehaw Junction, 30 miles west. Moreover, at this South Florida football training camp, USF players were spotted ... hydrating.

"All the water we need," senior wide receiver Faron Hornes said with a grin.

There is work and there is sweat at Skip Holtz's first USF camp, just like with the last guy. The sheer number of grins is something new. So is the location, over on this side of the state, Holtz's idea. The Bulls are at Dodgertown, the historic, sprawling former spring training home of the baseball club. There is football at this camp. But occasionally there isn't.

Now that's different.

"Way different," Bulls quarterback B.J. Daniels said. "I think it's helping bring us together."

The other day, the head coach gathered his team around and asked if they "wanted to go swimming."

Way different.

Skip Holtz feels good about his players, except maybe their free-throw shooting. He beat the whole lot of them the other night in a foul-shooting contest on the Dodgertown basketball court. He even missed a few on purpose. "He was sandbagging," said Daniels, a former USF hoopster.

It's all part of the "Bulls Olympics Games" Holtz helped organize for his team, all kinds of events: egg carries, golf shots, home run derby - and hula hoop contest. Word is that the best hula hoopster is freshman defensive back and former Hillsborough High standout Terrence Mitchell.

And the head coach?

"Ah, not so much,'' Holtz said.

"There's no right or wrong way, but I think with Coach (Jim) Leavitt it was always 'Go, go, go,'" Hornes said. "Here it's 'Go, go, go,' but after a while, it's 'Let it go, let it go.'"

"I think every team has different needs in different camps," Holtz said. "In this case, I think we needed to come together a little."

He might not have done it this way, the road trip, if it wasn't for all that happened before he arrived, the turmoil that eventually landed him the USF job.

"That's part of walking into a divided situation. You've got to look at your needs, and the need was to come together."

It started with the bus ride. Under Leavitt, offense and defense were two separate worlds. Holtz mixed up the two sides of the ball on the buses and in Vero room assignments. Players have instructions to learn something about their roommate. They get called upon at team meetings to talk about their roomie. It's straight out of "Remember the Titans."

Meet the new Bulls, the Skip Holtz Bulls.

"I believe in a bond, a unity, a sense of togetherness," Holtz said.

While this isn't the Junction Boys, it isn't Camp Skippy, either.

"No doubt, when we cross the lines, it's all about football," Holtz said. The other day, at USF's first scrimmage, a 100-play day turned into a 150-play day because Holtz didn't like how things were going.

"But when we step off the field, this game's too hard not to have fun. It can't be football 24-7. That's what the Olympics are about. It's only an hour a day, but it's a release."

He smiled.

"We had opening ceremonies. We had an Olympic flame, someone ran in with a Tiki torch for the fire pit near the pool. We'll have a closing ceremony. It'll be quite moving. We even released doves of peace. They weren't live doves, just plastic ones, but guys threw them in the air. This isn't small time."

All this bonding doesn't mean Holtz's first team is going to win football games.

He still insists it matters.

"These kids can talk about this 20 years from now. These are memories, moments. This is more of what college football is about. It's the coming together. It's not just the game, all the glory. It's relationships. It's not about the destination, it's about journey."

Monday morning before practice, Bulls players stretched. As they did, they sang "Lean on Me."

Way different.

Who needs doves of peace with the new camp director?