@CoachHoltz has no plans to ban Twitter—at least not yet

Posted Aug 13, 2010 by Scott Carter

Updated Aug 13, 2010 at 12:53 PM

In the Twitter Universe, he is known as @CoachHoltz. His latest “tweet’’ came on Wednesday.

Here it is: “Connected to the system again. Great Attitude through the first three days of Vero beach camp. 2x yesterday. Practice #8 this afternoon.’’

As you can see, first-year USF football coach Skip Holtz delivered a pretty simple update in 140 characters or less.

If his players stick to those kinds of updates, don’t expect Holtz to do what Boise State coach Chris Petersen did earlier this week: ban his players from using Twitter during the season.

Of course, 18- to 22-year-olds are often a bit more animated on Twitter than a 46-year-old major college head football coach.

For an interesting take on college football coaches and Twitter, check out this column from FanHouse.com writer Clay Travis.

After Wednesday’s practice, I asked Holtz if he had a specific policy in regard to his players using Twitter.

Here is what he said:

“No, but they’re all monitored. As far as do we have [a specific policy], no, I don’t have ‘you can’t be on it.’ I’m not there right now. But it will be an abuse-leads-to-restriction, and I think that’s what you are seeing everybody go to.

“You try to put some rules in place and say, ‘You know what, this is how we want to turn and handle all these things.’ Then guys get on it, they abuse the system, and as soon as that happens, you have to start making some rules and regulations. We do monitor it and every player that’s on there, we monitor their activities. If it gets out of hand, we’ll turn and make a rule.’’

So, for now you can still follow Bulls such as Mistral Raymond (@mistralUSF16), Jerrell Young (@Jerrellyoung) and Todd Chandler (@BULLS95).

And if you want to follow me, check out @TribuneScott or @TBO_USF_Bulls.

—Tampa Tribune reporter Adam Adkins, who covers the Tampa Bay Storm, passes along this USF note:

The Arena Football League championship game is next Friday in Spokane. Each team in the game will have at least one former USF Bull on their roster.

Spokane, which earned a spot in the game Thursday night as National Conference champion, has former USF receiver Huey Whittaker and former defensive lineman Richard Clebert on the team.

Either Orlando or Tampa Bay will be the opponent. They play Saturday in the American Conference championship game. Tampa Bay has former Bulls DeAndrew Rubin, a receiver, and Terrence Royal, a linebacker (though he also plays fullback for the Storm). Orlando has quarterback Glenn Gauntt, who is the backup for the Predators.

—Finally, USF is scheduled to practice this afternoon here in Vero Beach from 3:30 to 5:45. Holtz said after yesterday’s practice that they are going in just shorts to try and combat some of the mental and physical fatigue. He wants the players fresh for the first scrimmage of camp on Saturday.