By By BRIAN HAINES
Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — The search is on.
A day after fifth-year coach Skip Holtz announced he would be leaving East Carolina University to accept a deal with the University of South Florida, ECU athletic director Terry Holland has pieced together a game plan to find the Pirates’ next coach.
Holland addressed the media on Friday and said he will first meet with the current football staff today to determine the state of the union, then begin his external search on Monday. First on the agenda is to find out who is staying and who is going, then the next step is to see who wants to be considered for the head coaching position. After that, any staff member who will not be going to Tampa or have his hat thrown in the ring for the head coaching position will become a candidate to be named interim head coach. Holland made it clear that the interim head coach will not be a candidate for the permanent position.
“We have invited all the coaches on the current staff to come up and visit with us tomorrow,” Holland said. “We will use Saturday since we are still in the process of getting permission to do things a certain way since most schools have a big recruiting weekend — we don’t because we have signed 22 of our prospects and there was only one scheduled to come in and that one has been moved to next week — so we are in good shape in terms of getting our housework done before we go out on the road next week to look for a new coach.”
Holland did not reveal any names of the candidates that he will be pursuing, but did say that the length of the coach’s resume will play a big role in his decision.
“Our preference, just like always, will be to find a head coach with experience,” Holland said. “Mainly, when I look at a head coach I think in terms of managing and hiring a staff because I do think that’s a big part of what a head coach has to do today, and they have to do a heck of a job with it. Not only is that part of their job, but the rest of it is helping us sell season tickets. As you know we have a stadium expansion for which we are going to need to sell extra season tickets. (The coach) also helps us a great deal with the fund-raising and everything in the community that a coach like Skip did for us. … It’s a lot more than just being a football coach.
“We’ll be looking hard at head coaches at the FBS (formerly 1-A) level first, then head coaches at the FCS (formerly 1-AA) level and then, of course, coordinators. … We’re in good shape in terms of getting the housework done before we go out next week. We’ll be hard at it next week looking for a new coach.”
Of the many rumors that surround this position, the most popular one is connected to Temple coach Al Golden. The Owls fourth-year coach attended Virginia, a school that Holland has worked for in various capacities. Golden worked as the Cavaliers’ defensive coordinator from 2001-05.
The 40-year old Golden has had various coaching duties for 17 years and has brought football success to Temple, which is traditionally a basketball school. This year he led the Owls to their first bowl game in 30 years.
Despite Holland’s preference for hiring a candidate that has had head coaching experience, he did not rule out going after the recently departed Pirates’ defensive coordinator Greg Hudson, saying, “If he would like to be a candidate (he is an option), absolutely.”
When asked if he would be contacting Hudson, who recently accepted a position at Florida State University as the school’s linebackers’ coach, Holland said, “Not until tomorrow is over.”
Holland also added that other than Saturday’s interviews with the ECU staff, he did not have any other interviews set up yet.
The East Carolina AD conceded to feeling the pressure of finding the right coach and said there was no deadline for a hire.
“We don’t want to do that. To be honest, while there is some pressure with National Signing Day coming Feb. 3, that’s still a ways away,” Holland said. “We have 22 commitments and most of those are going to hold. The ones we lose, we might have lost anyway. There’s always a little bit of fluctuation when you approach signing day.”
He also said that the success of Holtz has made the position a more glamorous one than it was in 2005.
“It’s a very attractive job, and that is one of the things that gave Skip some second thoughts,” Holland said. “We have an attractive situation. The bigger problem is timing. Some coaches might not be as available as they might have been beforehand.”
Holland estimated that there are five coaches on the top tier of his list, but said that’s always subject to change after interviews. Holland said that Holtz entered the 2005 job search as a bit of a dark horse candidate, but his stock shot through the roof after he impressed at his interview.
“There are probably no more than five (top tier coaches on the list), but that changes a little bit from time to time; that’s without talking to them,” Holland said. “As you learn more about the coach you may say, ‘That one probably needs to be moved down a bit, somebody else needs to move up a little bit.’ But that’s pure speculation at that stage.
“When I went to interview Skip, quite honestly and I hate to say it, we were looking at that as a practice interview. Not because of Skip or anything else, but just the fact that you don’t like to lose the press conference, and hiring somebody that hadn’t been successful in your area is asking for it. There were quite a few people that responded very negatively to the hiring of Skip Holtz at that time. But after we met him we knew that, that bridge would be crossed fairly quickly. It was crossed in about two minutes for us. He comes across very well. It was like, ‘Oh my God, this guy is for real.’ Again, the interview plays a huge role in it, because he wouldn’t have gotten the job without it for sure.”