Football & Hockey Women's Champions Challenge

It didn’t take very long to find a replacement for fired head coach Jim Leavitt.  Realistically it couldn’t.  There’s recruiting to be done.  If the search had taken much longer, there’s no telling who the Bulls would’ve ended up with.

Less than a week after announcing the only coach USF had ever known had been dismissed, the Bulls hired Leavitt’s successor.  Skip Holtz comes from ECU to take over a program still searching for its first Big East Championship.  Realistically, still searching for a season in which it truly even competes for a Big East Championship wire-to-wire.

While Holtz’ 76-49 career record doesn’t jump off the page at you, consider the circumstances.  At UConn, Holtz lead the Huskies to their first ever playoff appearance (they weren’t a Division 1A member back then) and a conference title in his last season with the program.  Holtz left UConn to join his father’s staff at South Carolina for five years before becoming the head coach at ECU.  After finishing 5-6 in his first year with the Pirates, Holtz led ECU to four straight bowl games and Conference USA Championship in each of the past two seasons.  At the end of the 2006 season, Holtz and ECU actually handed USF its first bowl victory in school history.  Not an “OH MY!” career win percentage, but far from a disappointing resume either.

Holtz has been regarded as one of those guys who is able to do more with less consistently.  Primarily an offensive mind, Holtz is a good hire considering the much needed development of quarterback B.J. Daniels and a consistent game plan.

It’s rare you find someone as young as Holtz (45) with as many years of experience (10) and that could have been what led to his eventual hiring.  USF was looking for a young, energetic coach to be able to turn the program into his own, but at the same time not give up what is surely valuable head coaching experience.

2010 will be a tough test for Holtz with visits to both Florida and Miami, but he’s a good hire for a team that needs to get out of the news and focused on football.

Tags: Championship., Football, Sports

New USF head coach Skip Holtz is an offensive guy.  No not in the Lane Kiffin sense of the word, but in the sense that’s the side of the ball the majority of his coaching experience comes from.  His first non-graduate assistant job was coaching wide receivers at Colorado State in 1989.  From there he spent four years at Notre Dame – two with receivers and two as the offensive coordinator.  After a five-year stint as the head coach at UConn, Holtz returned to a solely offensive role as the coordinator at South Carolina.  He ended his time with the Gamecocks as the quarterbacks coach before taking over at ECU.  So, of course, Bulls’ fans are going to expect the offense to take a step forward in 2010.

Being the offseason, there’s no better time of year to endlessly go over numbers and see if there’s anything we can learn.  What you’ll find is a fairly balanced offense that tends to run the ball more often than it throws it, but isn’t afraid to put it in the air either.

In five years with ECU, Holtz coached 65 games.  His overall record of 38-27 averages out to 7.6 wins and 5.4 losses per season.  Looking at only the years USF was a Division 1A/FBS program, Jim Leavitt’s numbers are eerily similar.  68-40 overall in nine seasons which averages out to 7.6 wins and 4.4 losses per season.  If you only look at it that way, you may be scratching your head about the hire, but let’s move on from that and get right into the offense.

Over those 65 games Holtz led the Pirates, ECU put the ball in the air 2,066 times or 31.8 times per game.  They ran it 2,375 times or 36.5 times per games.  Pretty balanced offense in terms of pass-run ratio.

During four of the five years, ECU had a quarterback throw for at least 2,675 yards.  And you can probably throw out the one year it didn’t happen because the Pirates had both Rob Kass and Patrick Pinkney taking snaps.  ECU threw 77 touchdown passes and 49 interceptions from 2005-2009 for a ratio of 1.6-1.  Although not a number to put in the record books, USF fans should be happy about it.  Over the same time period the Bulls tossed 82 touchdown passes and 73 interceptions for a ratio of 1.1-1.  That’s an improvement USF will gladly welcome.

As for the rushing game, over the same five-year span, ECU rushed for 142.9 yards per game and 3.9 yards per carry.  USF rushed for 173.2 yards per game and 4.2 yards per carry.  The drop off is not desirable, but you have to think talent levels may have had something to do with it.  For instance, over his career, Chris Johnson averaged 4.8 yards per carry.  Not bad at all, but by the way he carries the ball in the NFL, you’d think he averaged 7-8 yards per carry in college.  Behind a bigger, better offensive line, the assumption is running backs under Holtz will be able to do more.

In 2010, expect the Bulls to be able to run the ball and quarterback B.J. Daniels be able to make plays with his feet.  But also expect the pass-run ratio even out somewhat.  Not entirely, but as Daniels grows under the offense, he’ll be more confident in his ability to make the correct reads and right throws.  The transition will be far from something like the introduction of the triple-option, but expect USF to be more balanced on the offensive side of the ball.

Tags: Fighting, Football, Sports

It’s common knowledge that kung fu skills has indeed come a good distance over time.

Many years back, Bruce Lee helped the humanities become even more well known, when he developed his style of Jeet Kune Do. He took part in several movies, showing the world his speed and refinement.since that time, flicks have been a good way to demonstrate self-defense skills abilities. Although there were other competitions like the UFC, none had the aptitude and the dedication as UFC did. When it first started, the UFC paired different styles and different weight classes. The 1st ever champion was a man from Brazil named Royce Gracie. Gracie was first to introduce Brazilian Jui-Jitsu in this manner, opening up the eyes of everybody who witness him fight. After the 1st UFC competition,

Brazilian Jui-Jitsu was right away viewed as the best martial art. Royce weighed under 2 hundred pounds, and he was totally dominating folk almost three times his size. He was the most dominating in the game, and opened the eyes of everybody around the globe. In UFC three, he did not lose, though he ran into a particularly tough fighter who just about beat him. Other wrestlers have done outstandingly well in the UFC, though none had the impact as Royce Gracie. Matt Hughes is also regarded as one of the finest, as he fights in the Welterweight class and is regarded pound for pound to be the best fighter in the world. In the world of MMA ( Mixed karate skills ), the UFC has made a huge impact.

In the start, there were no rules and no judges, only 1 on one fights till somebody either tapped out, got knocked out, or the ref thru in the towel. Wrestlers also fought in a contest style also which took three fights to win the championship. The UFC would start with judges after 1 or 2 years, along with getting rid of the contests. The fights would finally go to one on one, which was superb for the fans.

Though the fights failed to have the time boundaries at the start, they do now. The non title fights are three five minute rounds, while the title fights are 5 five minute rounds. If a fight goes to the judges, the judges decide the winner. There are 3 judges, which routinely change with each different UFC. The referee can stop a fight too if a fighter is not able to protect themselves. With all of the changes in the rules of the UFC, it’s only a matter of time before the UFC gains a ton more recognition.It is more popular today than it ever has been, which tells you that self-defense skills have come a good distance.

Tags: Fighting, Sports