Coordinators quick to say yes when Holtz offered job

Posted Mar 6, 2010 by Scott Carter

Updated Mar 6, 2010 at 09:37 AM

TAMPA - Skip Holtz strolled through the University of South Florida football offices Friday passing out green athletic shirts adorned with a white USF helmet and the slogan “Run with the Bulls” to his assistant coaches.

In 10 days, Holtz and his staff finally will be able to do that when the Bulls start spring practice.

Holtz’s first two months on the job have been well-documented, from rushing to finalize his initial recruiting class to doing countless interviews and public appearances to introduce him to the Tampa Bay area.

The six new assistants on his staff - Rick Smith, Mark Snyder, Todd Fitch, Vernon Hargreaves, Peter Vaas and Steve Shankweiler - have been equally busy behind the scenes. On Friday, a graduate assistant handed out binders to the coaching staff that contained much of the plans for the spring.

“We’re putting our notebook together and getting our terminology from three different staffs together,” said Snyder, USF’s defensive coordinator. “We’ve been slammed. ... I feel comfortable right now that we’re ready to go into the first two weeks of spring ball.”

Once Holtz accepted the USF job, he quickly started the task of assembling his coaching staff. Smith, Fitch, Hargreaves and Shankweiler were on Holtz’s staff at East Carolina. Snyder spent the past five seasons as Marshall’s head coach. Vaas served as offensive coordinator at Miami of Ohio last season.

Holtz didn’t have a difficult time convincing the new assistants to come to USF with him.

Fitch, who is the offensive coordinator, has worked with Holtz on and off for more than 15 years - at Connecticut, South Carolina and East Carolina. Once Holtz made an offer, Fitch started to pack his bags.

“I knew it was a good spot,” Fitch said. “I knew it had a lot of potential. From the outside, you knew they had obviously done a nice job by watching them on TV. It was an easy decision, and an easy family decision.”

Holtz told a Pinellas County crowd during a town-hall meeting Thursday that he had had previous discussions about leaving East Carolina for other jobs in the past, including Georgia Tech, Cincinnati, Boston College and Syracuse.

Each time, Holtz opted to remain with the Pirates. However, that changed when USF president Judy Genshaft called on Jan. 14 to offer him the chance to replace Jim Leavitt.

Snyder understands why: “It’s a program that can go where it wants to go because of the talent pool in this state and the conference we’re in.”