| By Jerry Barca
How would Hall of Fame football coach Lou Holtz fare guiding today’s generation?
“I’d be better,” he said without hesitation.
To reach Millennials he’d change up and modernize his approach in a few areas.
This is a man who spent 33 years as a college football head coach. During that stretch, he turned programs around and won 249 games. His most notable years came at Notre Dame where he won 100 games and a national championship during his 11 seasons with the Fighting Irish.
This weekend Holtz will be back beneath the shadow of the Golden Dome on Notre Dame’s campus.
The No. 12 Fighting Irish open the season against No. 14 Michigan. It’s the same season-opening matchup from 30 years ago, a battle between two storied programs under the lights of Notre Dame Stadium and on national TV.
In 1988, Notre Dame came in ranked 13th in the country and the Wolverines held the No. 9 spot. Behind an 81-yard punt return for a touchdown from future NFL Pro Bowl running back Ricky Watters and four field goals from super smart and diminutive walk-on kicker Reggie Ho, Notre Dame won 19-17. It kicked off the undefeated national championship season for the Irish. During that run, Notre Dame felled No. 1 Miami, No. 2 USC and No. 3 West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.
This weekend Holtz and players from that team will gather for a reunion. About 75 of the players will line the field before the game. They’ll form a tunnel for the 2018 Notre Dame team to run through as the Irish take the field. After the first quarter, the 1988 team will be recognized in the stadium.
In 1985, when Holtz arrived at Notre Dame, he was brought in to reboot the program. There is the story of his first meeting with the team, less than 48 hours after they had been embarrassed 58-7 on national TV by Miami. Holtz burst through the meeting room doors. He hopped down the steps and took his place behind a podium. He scanned the room and he spotted something in the first row. He promptly directed center, and eventual team co-captain, Chuck Lanza to take his feet of the stage, put them on the floor, sit up straight and act like he cared about what his new head coach was saying.
That winter Holtz held 6 a.m. conditioning workouts. With garbage cans ready for anyone who might have been out too late the night before, the players dubbed these sessions “pukefest.” Holtz wanted to gauge how committed they were to being great. Who would sacrifice staying up late or going out the night before? Who would make it a priority to show up on time, ready for the rigor that greeted them before sunrise?
He made his practices tough. He was hard on his players. In ’88, Holtz scrutinized quarterback Tony Rice. Holtz stopped Rice in the middle of plays during practice because Rice’s toe wasn’t at a 45-degree angle when he pivoted to run the option. A 44 or 46-degree angle wasn’t good enough. The week before Notre Dame played Michigan State that season, Holtz became so frustrated with Rice he sent the starting quarterback away from the starters and had Rice play quarterback for the scout team.
This was all by design. Holtz wanted practice to be so hard, the games would be easy for his players. The players commiserated and even bonded in the frustration they felt toward their coach. That was fine with Holtz, too. He knew it would bring them together as teammates. “Your obligation is not to be well-liked, not to be popular. Your obligation is to make them the very best they can possibly be,” he told me years ago.
But that was then. It fit. It worked. Notre Dame won and as the years went by his players grew to understand and appreciate the coach’s demanding approach. Today, Holtz would take a different approach.
“I did too much screaming, too much hollering,” Holtz told me recently.
He knows Millennials get a bad rap, but the 81-year-old refuses to buy all the negative labels slapped on the generation. “Most people don’t believe they’re as talented as they are. And they are talented.”
Because he believes in their talent, Holtz said he would set even higher standards for players today. He also said he’d never attack the performer. He’d address the performance, but not personally go after the player.
“I’d smile now,” he said.
Players wouldn’t hear frustration and anger from Holtz. They’d see a gentle face and listen to words spoken in a calm tone, asking questions about their performance. What was effective and ineffective about it? How did that work out for you?
This isn’t Holtz going soft. He wouldn’t try to make it easier for them.”I wouldn’t lessen the message. I wouldn’t compromise the standards,” he said.
He wouldn’t risk losing players and having them shut down because of an attachment to coaching the way he had always coached. He’d adjust. He’d reach them where they are at versus acting in that old-school football coach way that could alienate players.
Holtz has said he didn’t view himself as just a football coach. He felt he coached life. With Millennials, like a good coach in any arena, Holtz would be flexible, coach the players in front him and he’d likely find success again.