Holtz, USF players eager to begin a era

The wait is nearly over for University of South Florida football fans anticipating the first game of the Skip Holtz Era.

A month from Wednesday, the Bulls host Division I-AA Stony Brook at Raymond James Stadium in USF's first game without Jim Leavitt as head coach.

The month will seem like a blur to USF's players and coaches. The whirlwind pace began to pick up for Holtz on Sunday night when he arrived here for his first Big East Football Media Day, which takes place this morning when the league's eight head coaches address the media.

On Monday, Holtz played golf and attended the traditional Big East clambake at the historic Eisenhower House along with quarterback B.J. Daniels and center Sampson Genus.

Holtz will hold a news conference for local media on USF's campus Wednesday, and then the Bulls open practice Thursday. After Sunday's practice in Tampa, USF will move camp to the Vero Beach Sports Village, formerly known as Dodgertown, for nearly two weeks of an intense getting-to-know-each-other session for the players and new coaching staff.

"We need to do that," Holtz said Monday. "This team needs time to work on a lot of things and we feel that getting away will make it easier for us."

Holtz visited the Vero Beach Sports Village this summer and proposed the idea to USF officials. From there, the plan moved forward and is expected to be formally announced later this week.

According to USF officials, the plan has taken longer than expected to finalize because the school had to reschedule its Fan Day, which was scheduled for Aug. 14 at RJS. However, with USF scheduled to be in Vero Beach for at least 12 days, Fan Day is expected to be moved to Aug. 22, a day before fall classes begin.

USF never has held fall camp off campus, but this is not the first time Holtz has sought to build team chemistry by taking the players and coaches away, doing it at both Connecticut and East Carolina.

A Vero Beach Sports Village official declined comment Monday until the agreement is formally announced, but USF's arrival is welcomed by local media in the Treasure Coast area.

"The Vero Beach Sports Village, with its ample fields and hotel rooms and conference center, is exactly what Holtz wants," sports columnist Ray McNulty wrote Monday. "And USF, with its high-profile, major-college football program, is exactly what the Vero Beach Sports Village needs; for the first time since the Dodgers left, there would be a big-time buzz about the place."

The Dodgers, after holding spring training in Vero Beach for 60 years, left in 2008 and moved their spring headquarters to Arizona.