Snyder’s brush with Hollywood ... more notes

Posted Mar 6, 2010 by Scott Carter

Updated Mar 6, 2010 at 10:10 AM

On Friday afternoon we had a chance to sit down with three of Skip Holtz’s new assistant coaches: offensive coordinator Todd Fitch, defensive coordinator Mark Snyder and special teams/defensive ends coach Vernon Hargreaves.

All of them continue to settle into their new jobs and all three plan to return home to visit their families next week during spring break. Hargreaves’ and Fitch’s families are still in Greenville, N.C., and Snyder’s family remains in Huntington, W.V. They don’t expect to get everyone relocated until early summer.

Here are a few notes of interest:

—Snyder was head coach at Marshall in 2006 when the movie “We Are Marshall’’ starring Matthew McConaughey was released. Snyder struck up a friendship with McConaughey and attended the movie’s Hollywood premiere as a guest of the actor. Two of Snyder’s daughters—Chelsea and Lindsay—are in the movie.

Snyder was impressed how seriously McConaughey took the role of playing Coach Jack Lengyel. The actor often visited with Snyder to talk and learn more about coaching.

—As for Snyder’s philosophy as USF’s defensive coordinator/linebackers coach, he said he prefers an aggressive style from mosty a 4-3 front. He’ll also use a 5-2 front and says he envisions moving his defensive line around due to their speed and a lack of size.

—Snyder said his experience as head coach at Marshall the past five seasons has given him a different outlook as he returns to being an assistant. He understands the big picture better and understands how everyone must be on the same page to accomplish the goals set by Holtz.

—Fitch says to look for multiple formations in his spread-type offense. The Bulls likely will use three-receiver sets most of the time, but Fitch also likes to incorportate the H-back and two-back sets. He said the Bulls will be “balanced’’ the way his offenses at East Carolina were. Fitch pointed out that last season at East Carolina the Pirates had a quarterback who threw for nearly 3,000 yards, a 1,000-yard rusher and a 1,000-yard receiver. He’d like to see the same type of distribution with the Bulls.

—Fitch said a primary task during spring practice and fall camp will be to identify playmakers. He said every good offense has a couple of players who have potential to eat up big chunks or yardage each time they touch the ball, and he is excited about learning who those players at USF are.

—Hargreaves was at Miami in 2005 when USF faced the Hurricanes for the first time. He saw the program’s potential then and said he sees the team Holtz inherits as being more talented than the one that lost to Miami in 2005.

—Hargreaves and Fitch both worked under Holtz at Connecticut when Holtz first became a head coach. Both were also on Holtz’s staff at East Carolina. Both said they followed Holtz to USF not only because of the program’s potential, but because of the type of person Holtz is and the relationship he has with his staff.