"Before dissecting some of Holtz's stories, it is important for South Carolina fans to know that only one chapter comprising 16 pages is devoted to his six seasons in Columbia. That it merited about the same attention in the book as his two seasons at Minnesota should forever let South Carolinians know where this state ranks on his fondness list."
A time he'd rather forget no doubt. Old Lou is an example of why USC will always be a bunch of thuggish losers, it starts at the top. This is what they did to him:
Had his career at USC unfolded as planned, Lou Holtz would have stepped down after the Gamecocks' second Outback Bowl victory over Ohio State and handed off the coaching reins to his son.
But Holtz said former USC athletics director Mike McGee persuaded him to stay and that McGee and other school officials later reneged on the promise to hire Skip Holtz.
Although Lou Holtz devotes only the final chapter - 16 pages - of his 318-page autobiography, "Wins, Losses and Lessons" (William Morrow, $25.95), to his six-year stint at USC, he provides a behind-the-scenes look at the awkward arrangement for his son to succeed him.
"This hurt me deeply," Holtz wrote of the failed succession plan, "because Skip and I had been misled."
McGee said Monday there was no succession agreement in place until after the 2001 season, when the Washington Redskins offered Holtz the job to replace Marty Schottenheimer, who had been fired after one season.
"At that point, I told him that if he agreed to stay, we would select someone off his staff to replace him unless there was some particular reason not to do so," McGee said in a telephone interview from his home in Colorado.
Holtz's discussions with the Redskins about their vacancy were never reported. But McGee said team officials flew to Columbia on a private plane and spent a day with Holtz.
The Redskins hired former Florida coach Steve Spurrier, who succeeded Holtz at USC after an unsuccessful, two-year stint in the NFL.
But Holtz maintains in the book that there were talks of a succession plan before he accepted the USC job.
After McGee began trying to woo Holtz out of retirement, Holtz said he told McGee he was willing to make only a three-year commitment and wanted a member of his staff to replace him.
McGee, whose name is misspelled as "Magee" throughout the review copy sent to The State, and former USC president John Palms flew to Connecticut to interview Skip Holtz, who was coach of the Division I-AA Huskies.
" (They) told me they were comfortable with his (Skip) replacing me," Lou Holtz wrote, "provided we went to bowl games."
Holtz said McGee and Palms refused to put the deal in writing, but some members of the board of trustees were aware of the agreement.
After an 0-11 debut in 1999, Holtz led the Gamecocks to 17 wins during the most successful two-year stretch in school history.
"I was ready to leave after my third year, as I had fulfilled my promise to South Carolina," Holtz wrote. "But Dr. (McGee) prevailed upon me to stay. Why did I? I don't know except that I learned to love the state, the school, the students, and the most loyal and best fans in the world."
McGee said he informed USC president Andrew Sorensen of his arrangement with Holtz in his first meeting with Sorensen after the former Alabama president replaced Palms in the summer of 2002.
But Holtz's program unraveled during his final three years in Columbia. With an NCAA investigation beginning before the 2002 season, USC posted consecutive 5-7 records and failed to beat any of the SEC's top teams.
Meanwhile, Skip Holtz approached McGee after the '02 season to see whether he was still in line to replace his father.
"After the 2002 season, Skip was offered a lucrative head-coaching position at a fine school (SMU). He declined it after consulting with Dr. (McGee)," Lou Holtz wrote. "He was assured that he had a future at South Carolina after I left. That proved to be erroneous."
Of his meeting with Skip Holtz, McGee said: "I urged Skip - as Lou did - to stay."
McGee said he could not recall whether he and Skip Holtz talked specifically about his prospects for taking over for his father.
Skip Holtz, now East Carolina's coach, said his father's account of the dealings with Palms and McGee was accurate.
"It's true," the younger Holtz said. "It's not anything I didn't already know. He wrote it the way it happened."
McGee and Lou Holtz agreed the environment around the USC program changed drastically at the close of the 2003 season, which ended with a 63-17 home loss to Clemson, the most lopsided defeat of Holtz's career.
Two days after the game, Holtz fired four assistant coaches and stripped Skip Holtz of his offensive coordinator's title and play-calling duties. In addition to the shake-up, McGee said he told Holtz the succession plan was no longer in place.
"At that point - and Sorensen was in the room - I said to him that the clause that we would hire with the aforementioned (understanding), that that was no longer active," McGee said. "And he understood that."
Holtz suggested Sorensen played a part in calling off the deal.
" (Palms) was a man of integrity and a friend. . . . When the president that hired you leaves, the environment changes. Word started getting back to me that a member of my staff might or might not replace me, and the decision would be up to the president."
Holtz noted he "made (Sorensen's) decision easy by having two seasons that were mediocre at best." Those 5-7 campaigns were followed by a 6-5 season in 2004, which was marred by a benches-clearing brawl at Clemson in what turned out to be Holtz's final game.
Three days later, Holtz introduced Spurrier to his new team. Less than two weeks later, Skip Holtz was hired at East Carolina and later received a $480,000 buyout from USC.
Predictably, the bulk of the book, which hits stores Aug. 15, deals with Holtz's Notre Dame tenure. The 69-year-old Holtz, who is an ESPN analyst, is pictured in a Notre Dame hat and pullover on the cover.
Holtz's 13-city book-signing tour, which begins on Notre Dame's campus, is not scheduled to stop in South Carolina.
Lou knew he was too old to be coaching, he got tricked into coming back to coaching with a pack of lies. Thats why USC is a Smelley pile of crap and will never build a winning program.
