Northwestern has agreed in principle to hire Skip Holtz as a special assistant to interim head coach David Braun this season, ESPN's Pete Thamel reports.
Holtz, 59, is currently the head coach of the Birmingham Stallions in the USFL, and the son of Hall of Fame coach Lou Holtz. (The irony of a Holtz coaching at Northwestern is somehow appropriate for this most bizarre of summers in Evanston.)
Thamel reports that Holtz will not be leaving his job with the Stallions, who don't begin play until April. His job with Northwestern will be for the 2023 season only.
Holtz's role appears to be temporary and advisory, a one-year stopgap to help Braun, a first-time head coach who is also moving up to FBS football for the first time in his career. Braun assumed the interim head coaching role after 17-year head coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired on July 10 as the result of a hazing scandal that has rocked not only the football program, but the entire Northwestern athletic department.
Holtz will bring 22 years of college head coaching experience to Evanston and will be the only member of Northwestern's staff to be a head coach before this season. In theory, that should help Braun learn the ropes of being the man in charge of a Power Five program.
The move makes sense on the surface but raises a lot of questions about what Holtz will be responsible for and how much he will be involved in decision-making and game-planning.
One positive is that he comes from an offensive background, which should help Braun, who was hired in January to be the team's defensive coordinator after four years in a similar role at FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. The Wildcats' offensive could definitely use a boost after fielding the lowest scoring offense in the Power Five last season at 13.8 points per game.
USFL results can be taken with a mountain of salt, but Holtz has effectively dominated the league since he took the Stallions job in 2022. They have gone 17-3 with him at the helm and won back-to-back championships. (His defensive line coach in Birmingham this season was former Northwestern assistant Marty Long.)
The most sustained and transferrable success Holtz has had in the college game was his tenure at Louisiana Tech, where he was head coach for nine seasons. He put together a 64-50 record, including six straight bowl wins and a 10-win season in 2019. He was fired after the Bulldogs finished 3-9 in 2021, and the Bulldogs finished with the same record last season in his absence.
Holtz was an offensive coordinator under his father at Notre Dame for two seasons before taking the head job at Connecticut for the 1994 season. He went on to serve as head coach at Connecticut, East Carolina and South Florida. His all-time record is 152-121 as a college head man.
The dynamic with Holtz in the building will be interesting to watch, and Northwestern will likely make at least one more coaching move before the start of the season.
Braun said last week at Big Ten Media Days that he would add another "defensive assistant" to his staff but would still be in charge of calling the defense on Saturdays. Jeff Copp, who was the defensive coordinator at Eastern Washington last season, was reported to be in line for a job on Braun's staff, but nothing has been announced to date.
