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Report: Lou Holtz tests positive for COVID-19

barry werner
·2 min read

Longtime college football coach and former New York Jets head coach Lou Holtz has tested positive for COVID-19, per a report.

Holtz told sports director, Mike Gillespie of ABC Columbia he is lacking energy but recovering from the coronavirus.

Holtz, 83, was head coach at The College of William & Mary (1969–1971), North Carolina State University (1972–1975), the New York Jets (1976), the University of Arkansas (1977–1983), the University of Minnesota (1984–1985), the University of Notre Dame (1986–1996), and the University of South Carolina (1999–2004),

He compiled a career record of 249–132–7.

Holtz was 100–30–2 while guiding the Irish. Notre Dame notched double-digit wins five times with Holtz as its head coach. Holtz’s 1988 Notre Dame team went 12–0 with a victory in the Fiesta Bowl and was the consensus national champion.

Holtz is the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 20 rankings.

In 2005, Holtz joined ESPN as a college football analyst. On May 1, 2008, Holtz was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

Earlier this year, political comments by Holtz were blasted by Notre Dame.

When former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz called Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden a “Catholic in name only” during a speech Wednesday night, he was speaking for himself, not the school, the university president said in a statement Thursday.

Father John Jenkins’ statement was in response to remarks Holtz made for the Republican National Convention.

“While Coach Lou Holtz is a former coach at Notre Dame, his use of the University’s name at the Republican National Convention must not be taken to imply that the University endorses his views, any candidate or any political party,” Jenkins said.

And Holtz’s attack on former Vice President Biden’s faith drew a rebuke from Jenkins.

“Moreover, we Catholics should remind ourselves that while we may judge the objective moral quality of another’s actions, we must never question the sincerity of another’s faith, which is due to the mysterious working of grace in that person’s heart,” Jenkins said.