Holtz was never one to second guess

The former South Carolina coach was in Knoxville on Thursday as the featured speaker at the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony. In July, South Carolina admitted to 10 NCAA violations during his six-year tenure. Holtz, who has also coached at Notre Dame, retired at the end of last season and is working for ESPN.

Holtz talked about several topics, including the NCAA and any violations under his watch.

Q: Now that you’re not coaching, do you find yourself second-guessing your decision to retire?

A: No, I haven’t had time. I’m 68 years of age. Let the younger people do it. There are a million things I need to do.

Q: You still get to do some TV. Does that help you stay close to the game?

A: I think there are four things you have to have in life. No. 1, you have to have something to do, you have to have someone to love, you have to have something to hope for and you have to have something to believe in. If you have all four of those then I think your life can be complete. I have all four of those. Football is a great sport. I really enjoyed my whole life that I spent in football. But yet at the same time, let the younger people go on. I think the SEC will be very interesting this year. I look forward to following the progress. I think it will come down to Tennessee, Florida and South Carolina. I think Georgia’s going to be down a little bit this year. I’ll observe. I’ll watch. I won’t ever look back.

Q: Was there a time you said to yourself, ‘Hey, I’m financially secure. I’d like more personal time.’ When did that happen where you just said, ‘I’ve had about enough of coaching?’

A: I think the basic philosophy is if you can live without coaching you don’t want to coach. With Skip (Holtz) being the head coach at East Carolina, I look forward to following his team. So you sort of live vicariously in coaching through him. You talk to him about the problems he’s had and the stuff he’s going to do and the excitement he’s had. I’ve done that. I’ve taken over six different programs so I know what it’s like. But there are a lot of things I need to do, particularly for my wife.

Q: As you look back over your career, of all the jobs you coached at, which one do you point at and say, ‘I am most proud of the job I did there?’

A: It could be a variety. I was very proud of what we did at N.C. State. We took over a program that had won three games for three years. We went to four straight bowls in four years. Minnesota and Arkansas, we had good success. Notre Dame was just very special. South Carolina, we took a program on the bottom and were nationally ranked two years in a row. We became very competitive in the Southeastern Conference. We played Georgia. We played Tennessee. We played LSU, Alabama. And we played them very even. We didn’t get over the hump to the championship level, which bothered me. But I think that we left a solid program with Steve Spurrier coming in and the enthusiasm he brings and the knowledge he brings and the respect he brings. I think they’ll be able to get on the championship level in the next year or two.

Q: I was going to ask if two Outback Bowls, two New Year’s Day bowls, is that about as good as South Carolina fans can expect?

A: No, absolutely not. We had two top 10 recruiting classes back-to-back. I think that they will be fine. I think it’s very difficult for one person to take a program on the bottom and take it all the way to the top and make it a national power on a consistent basis. Once you have some degree of success, everybody starts wondering when you’re going to win the national championship. Now they’re coming in and thinking about a championship level. If Steve will make the progress, and I think he will, they’ll reach it.

Q: Where will Notre Dame’s program be in five years?

A: I think it’ll be second to none. I think it will be in a class by itself. I think the $25 million football facility that they’ve built, the type of school it is, the beauty of the school, the tradition, the NBC contract and the image that Charlie Weis has will attract your great skilled athletes there. I think him being trained by Bill Belichick as well as by Bill Parcells; I think Notre Dame will become a dynasty. I really believe that in the bottom of my heart.

Q: Do they have to relax on some of those academic restrictions?

A: No. There are too many good student-athletes in this country. They have to recruit nationally. There’s no doubt about that. But they do not have to alter the academic standards at all.

Q: You’re one of the best poor-mouthers in the history of the game. Did you really think that much of your opponent and that little of your team, or was that gamesmanship?

A: I don’t think it’s thinking very little of your football team. I think No. 2, I look at the capabilities of the team that we were going to play and in my heart I thought that they were capable of beating us if they played their best game and we played our worst. That’s just how you approach it. I try never to leave anything to chance.

Q: What do you make of the recent surfacing of some NCAA violations at South Carolina?

A: If you look at the NCAA violations there was no money exchanged. It wasn’t like $150,000 exchanged hands at other schools. The only recruiting violation that I’m aware of was the governor of South Carolina talked to an athlete when he visited. The only football violation was our strength coach ran an athlete one time for missing a summer workout. There were 10 violations and all five of them were self-reported. What ones were self-reported? I’m visiting with an athlete, a principal is there, the guidance counselor is there, and a lot of other people in the room. I said, ‘Young man, do you mind if these people are here?’ He said, ‘No, it doesn’t bother me.’ I said, ‘Well it doesn’t bother me.’ It turns out a newspaper reporter was among the people. I never met him before, never saw him again, didn’t know he was there. That’s a violation. That’s one of the 10. You go back to the recruiting violation. You go back to the football violation. You tell me what major violation occurred. Now we don’t want any violation to occur. But when it’s blown out of proportion that a governor visited with an athlete after we dismissed a young man from the football team forever and told him, ‘There is no way you will ever play again.’ He stops going to class and decides he wants to transfer. Somebody in the academics tried to help him transfer. It’s things like that.

Q: Do you worry that will tarnish your career?

A: Absolutely not.