This just in: Holtz and Bulls ranked No. 1 in this columnist’s poll

Posted Feb 17, 2010 by Scott Carter

Updated Feb 17, 2010 at 12:37 PM

A month ago Monday, Skip Holtz was introduced as USF’s new football coach. Since then, Holtz has been perhaps the most popular person in Tampa Bay.

And now, this just in: At least one prominent state columnist now ranks Holtz as the most popular college football coach in Florida. At least in the eyes of the media.

Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi, who writes about college football as much as any columnist in the state, ranks Holtz and USF as the No. 1 media-friendly college football program in the state.

Who’d thunk that, huh? Especially considering the past relationship between Orlando media and former USF coach Jim Leavitt.

Perhaps even more surprising is who Bianchi ranks last: New Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, whose job replacing Bobby Bowden in the eyes of many fans and media members is a task as challenging as someone trying to replace Mick Jagger in the Rolling Stones.

As someone who has covered both programs recently, I like both Holtz and Fisher from my personal interaction with them. I’ve dealt with Fisher a lot more at this point, but from what I’m hearing out of Tallahassee lately, I’d much rather cover Holtz’s program these days.

Under Bowden, the Seminoles’ program was considered one of the most media-friendly in the nation. Players, assistant coaches and Bowden were readily available to talk with newspaper reporters, online reporters, TV and radio folks.

Heck, as Bowden drove off in his golf cart each day after practice, he would often be stopped by fans outside the practice gates for pictures. I never saw him turn down anyone in four years covering the Noles.

However, nowadays if you want to talk to offensive line coach Rick Trickett about how his unit played in last week’s game—and Trickett is a reporter’s dream when it comes to quotability—sorry, no assistants are allowed to speak to reporters.

Seems a bit too paranoid for my tastes, but Fisher is following the plan put in place at Alabama by Nick Saban, who once was Fisher’s boss at LSU.

The big difference between Alabama and Florida State is that Alabama football is bigger than anything else in that state—and I mean anything. There are no pro teams and only Auburn comes close in competing for the public’s sporting attention.

At FSU, that’s not the case. The Seminoles are not the dominant program in the state. At one time they were, but that was because they were winning like no other college football program in the country from 1987-2000.

Those days are long gone, and FSU is competing on the same playing field these days with programs such as USF, which didn’t even have a football team when Bowden had the Seminoles humming along.

What does all this mean? Nothing at all if Fisher wins like Bowden once did. If not, his “one voice’’ approach will be turned off by fans and media pretty quickly.

As for Holtz, the honeymoon continues. He’ll continue to make the rounds with media, fans and boosters until the Bulls kick off fall camp. Then the real test comes.

What about you guys? What’s your first impression of Holtz? How important is it for a head coach to be media-friendly? Share your thoughts ...