Aug. 7, 2004

Columbia, SC –
The following are opening quotes from Coach Lou Holtz at Media Day, Saturday, August 7th:

-“Last night I couldn’t sleep. I must have woken up five different times. But I want to say our thoughts and our prayers go the family of Darryl Cornish, Jr., Lower Richland. as well as the whole community, Coach ray and the entire team. Heat really is always a concern for any coach, in particularly in this area because of the humidity, etc. It’s always sad and it’s something that concerns you as a football coach and our sympathy certainly goes to them.”

-“As far as our football team is concerned, the approach, I can’t give you a lot of answers because I don’t’ know answers. I’m just going to tell you what I feel in my heart and we’re going to cover a lot of different things here.”

-“Season ticket sales are the third highest in the history of the school. Now, our fans are tremendous, one of the positive, as well as the negative, when you talk about South Carolina football to anybody in the country or in this state. The first thought that comes to our mind is the loyalty of our fans. And over all the years our fans have continued to support us. As I talked to our team last night, it’s time for this football team to be recognized for something other than loyalty of our fans. At least reward the loyalty of our fans every year.”

-“The off-season is behind us. Summer is behind us. Now you enter into a completely different phase, as all the expectations and everybody’s optimistic around the country at the present time, as each football players is. But as their role is ascertained, it’s going to be critical to how well they accept that and where we go from here.”

-“We have a lot of question marks. We probably have more question marks than maybe any football team that I have coached. I think that there are question marks at the offensive line and certainly at the left guard position. We have question marks at quarterback and that’s the one concern everybody has. But, we’ll find answers. When you go into preseason, you’re going to have surprises, you’re going to have disappointments, you’re going to have frustrations, you’re going to have adversity. And I think what’s important is we be prepared to handle that now and don’t think it’s going to be a smooth ride and don’t think everything is going to fall into place and that there aren’t going to be any difficulties as we go along the road.”