BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS...December 8, 2003, 20 years ago today:
Nick Holt is introduced as the 31st head football coach at the University of Idaho. Holt, who had been linebackers coach at USC, was tasked with turning around a program that had lost 30 of its last 36 games under fired coach Tom Cable. Holt signed a four-year contract, yet to find out who his bosses would be in the athletic director's and president's chairs—and what conference his team would play in. But he and his wife, Julie, were looking forward to returning to the Palouse—she had been Idaho's women's basketball coach from 1994-98 while Holt was spending eight seasons coaching under John L. Smith and Chris Tormey.
The rebuilding road was steep. Idaho went 3-9 in 2004 as a member of the Sun Belt, then transitioned to the WAC in 2005 and went 2-9. The Broncos-Vandals rivalry wasn’t going well, as Boise State scored 65 and 70 points against Idaho in those two seasons. Holt resigned in February, 2006, to take an NFL job (or at least that was the plan). It was just five days after National Letter of Intent Day, making for an awkward situation. But athletic director Rob Spear had an ace in the hole and quickly announced Dennis Erickson as Holt’s replacement.
Money was different back then. Holt’s Idaho contract paid $205,000 per year. His expected new position as St. Louis Rams defensive line coach under coach Scott Linehan, a former Idaho quarterback, was going to pay $320,000 annually. But when USC coach Pete Carroll heard that, he stole Holt away and brought him back to the Trojans as defensive coordinator, paying him more than $460,000 per year.
Holt is about as traveled as a football coach can be. It’s hard to keep up with him. He began his college career at UNLV before his first Idaho stint, and he was at Louisville before his first USC stay. After returning to the Trojans staff, Holt would go on to serve as defensive coordinator at Washington, recruiting coordinator at Arkansas, D-coordinator at Western Kentucky and D-coordinator at Purdue. His last listed job was overseas as head coach of Skorpions Varese of the Federazione Italiana di American Football.
I don’t remember hearing much about this when Holt was coaching the Vandals, but his grandfather was Buster Crabbe, a swimming gold medalist in the 1932 Summer Olympics who later became a movie star (“Tarzan,” “Flash Gordon,” “Buck Rogers”).
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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