February 13, 2002

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Skip Holtz, assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at the University of South Carolina, was honored Wednesday evening as one of the top assistant coaches in the nation by the All-American Football Foundation. The recognition took place at the organization’s annual awards banquet in Biloxi, Miss.

Skip Holtz has played a major role in the turnaround of South Carolina’s program. The past two seasons, USC has won 17 games, which ranks as the most successful two-year run in the program’s history. In 2001, the Gamecocks finished 9-3 overall and were ranked 13th in both national polls. For the second straight year, USC won the Outback Bowl and was nationally ranked.

Skip Holtz, 37, came to USC following the 1998 season when his father, Lou Holtz, took the head coaching position at South Carolina. Before that, Skip spent five years as the highly successful head coach at Connecticut, where he led the Huskies to a school-record 10 victories and into the second round of the NCAA playoffs in 1998. While at Uconn, Skip led that program to top 25 national rankings four times.

This marks the second year in a row one of USC’s assistants has been honored nationally. In 2000, defensive backs coach John Gutekunst was named Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association.