Holtz to Resign at Notre Dame

The Lou Holtz era is over at Notre Dame.

The coach will announce at his weekly news conference Tuesday that he’s resigning after 11 seasons. Details were completed at a meeting Monday with athletic director Mike Wadsworth and Father William Beauchamp, the university’s executive vice president.

“He met with the administration and told them he’s leaving,” one of two university sources, who spoke on the condition they not be identified, told The Associated Press.

School spokesman John Heisler declined to confirm Holtz’s resignation, saying only he had met with Wadsworth and Beauchamp. Wadsworth declined comment, and Beauchamp was not immediately available.

“They have reached a decision and it will be announced at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday),” Heisler said.

Why Holtz, 59, is resigning is not clear, but one possibility is that he wants another shot at the NFL, where he led the New York Jets to a 3-10 record in 1976 before resigning with one game left. One scenario has him coaching the Minnesota Vikings if current coach Dennis Green leaves.

It was business as usual at Notre Dame’s practice Monday, with Holtz pacing the field and occasionally yelling at players when they did something he didn’t like. He refused afterward to confirm his resignation, but he did say the situation is starting to take its toll.

“I will talk about that at the appropriate time and now is not the appropriate time,” he said. “Practice went a little longer than I wanted because I was eating Rolaids, and I couldn’t call them up.”

His players and assistants were equally tight-lipped, though it was apparent he told his players before practice.

“Our team meetings are confidential,” defensive linebacker Kinnon Tatum said. “If he wanted us to talk to the media, he’d let the media into the meetings. So I have no comment whatsoever.”

Holtz’s resignation ends nearly a week of speculation that he was leaving. He did nothing to deny it, saying at one point: “We can talk about this forever, but there isn’t much I’m going to say. But there’s a time and a place for everything.”

Though there was some speculation Holtz might make his announcement earlier, Tuesday’s news conference is the logical place. Local media are there, and national media participate via conference call.

With Holtz gone, speculation now turns to who will replace him. It was not immediately known if his successor would be announced Tuesday. Among the top contenders to take over college football’s glamour job are Northwestern’s Gary Barnett and Irish defensive coordinator Bob Davie.

The Chicago Sun-Times, citing unidentified sources, reported Monday that Notre Dame wants Barnett to succeed Holtz and has agreed to talk with him. But Barnett said such talk was premature.

“I don’t think you ever say never,” he said Monday. “I don’t know at this point in time. I would hope Northwestern wants me here. You never know.”

But Barnett, in shades of Holtz, refused to say if he’d been contacted about the job.

“I’m not confirming or denying anything at this point in time,” he said.

Others mentioned include LSU’s Gerry DiNardo, former UCLA coach Terry Donahue and Wisconsin’s Barry Alvarez.

Despite speculation about Holtz and the Vikings, team president Roger Headrick said Sunday that his team has had no official contact with Holtz.

But Headrick told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis and the Saint Paul Pioneer Press that he could not rule out that at least two board members might have discussed the former University of Minnesota coach’s availability.

The 10th-ranked Irish (7-2) have two games remaining -- at home against Rutgers and at Southern California. A bowl bid, probably the Orange or Fiesta, would close out Holtz’s career at Notre Dame.

He is 99-29-2 at Notre Dame -- six wins shy of tying Knute Rockne’s Irish all-time victory record -- and 215-94-7 overall. But he encountered rough times recently. Notre Dame lost 10 games in the last three seasons -- more than his 1988-1993 squads lost combined.

His problems this year were due, in part, to his attempts to modernize his offense and make better use of Ron Powlus’ throwing abilities. He abandoned his beloved running game for a spread offense, but his players never adjusted to it.

By the time he switched back midway through the season, the Irish had lost one game and their intensity. A loss to Air Force, which hadn’t beaten Notre Dame since 1985, threatened hopes for a 10th-straight bowl bid and further frustrated Holtz.

Some have questioned if health played a role in Holtz’s decision. A frail-looking man, he’s had a series of health problems. He underwent emergency surgery last fall to relieve pressure on his spinal cord, a condition that could have caused paralysis if left untreated.

But he said before the season began that he’d never felt better.

“I’ve been more interested in doing things that maybe after 20-some years would get to be monotonous. They aren’t now,” he said. “I still have a burning desire to coach football.”

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Notre Dame Football Coaches

Notre Dame football coaches and their records. There was no coach for the 1887-1889, 1892 and1893 seasons:

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Years Coach W L T 1894 J.L. Morison 3 1 1 1895 H.G. Hadden 3 1 0 1896-98 Frank E. Hering 12 6 1 1899 James McWeeney 6 3 1 1900-01 Patrick O’Dea 14 4 2 1902-03 James Faragher 14 2 2 1904 Louis Salmon 5 3 0 1905 Harry J. McGlew 5 4 0 1906-07 Thomas Barry 12 1 1 1908 Victor M. Place 8 1 0 1909-10 Frank C. Longman 11 1 2 1911-12 John L. Marks 13 0 2 1913-17 Jesse C. Harper 34 5 1 1918-30 Knute Rockne 105 12 5 1931-33 Hunk Anderson 16 9 2 1934-40 Elmer Layden 47 13 3 1941-43 Frank Leahy 87 11 9 1946-53 1944 Ed McKeever 8 2 0 1945, 1963 Hugh Devore 9 9 1 1954-58 Terry Brennan 32 18 0 1959-62 Joe Kuharich 17 23 0 1964-74 Ara Parseghian 95 17 4 1975-80 Dan Devine 53 16 1 1981-85 Gerry Faust 30 26 1 1986-96 *Lou Holtz 99 29 2

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* Two games remaining plus a probable bowl game.