Guess what our favorite part of practice was yesterday? Go on, you'll never figure it... oh, well yes, it was Lou Holtz dropping by. How did you know?
1. Yes, the former New York Jets coach* and father of Skip visited the Bulls at Vero Beach and watched practice, then spoke to the team afterwards. When the Tribune's Adam Adkins asked Lou what he had talked about, this was his answer:
"If you want the right to fail, you have the right to fail. That's what's great about this country. Life is a matter of choices. Choose to do drugs, drop out of school, join a gang, choosing that problem. But you don't have the right to cause your mother to fail.
"There wasn’t a player there their mother didn't sacrifice to give them the opportunity. The greatest thing that can happen to their mother is for them to graduate. So, they may want to fail academically, but they don't have that right because they can't let their mother down.
"Same thing with the team. No matter how you feel you cannot let your teammates down. If you want to fail you have the right to fail, but you do not have the right to cause other people to fail because you don't fulfill your commitment.
I think I know where he was going with that, which is kind of a disappointment because it's so much more fun when I don't.
* - This is and always will be my favorite picture of Lou Holtz.
2. Hang on, we're not done with Lou. The official site has an interview where he gets in two stories from the 1986 season when Lou coached Skip at Notre Dame. The first one is about having to discipline Skip for being late to a meeting. Then he regales everyone with the classic "my wife's son" story about Skip roughing the punter against USC, although he left out my favorite part from when I had heard it before.
"[The punt team] comes off the field, I'm so frustrated from the whole year... he got to the hash marks, I hollered at him at the top of my lungs, I said, 'What happened?' He said, 'Didn't you see it?'"
There are interviews with Daniels, Danous Estenor, and Sam Barrington and a photo gallery. They also have a mini-feature posted on Kayvon Webster.
More after the jump.
3. B.J. Daniels was back at practice on Thursday, to the great relief of everyone. Offensive coordinator Todd Fitch told Greg Auman that Daniels may be a bit limited the next few days to make sure they don't cause a lingering injury. Also it will make sure he's fully healthy as the coaches try and figure out where everyone will line up on the depth chart this season. Fitch also had some thoughts on Daniels's backups, Bobby Eveld and Matt Floyd.
4. Greg also had a collection of notes and observations from having hung around practice in Vero Beach. The notes about the true freshmen were interesting considering how few of them ended up playing last season. Also it looks like Ernie Tabuteau keeps on trucking as a second-team cornerback, which would give him playing time in the nickel and dime.
5. In a different kind of football, the Half Hoops were slotted second in their division in the Big East's preseason poll. Whoever that one voter is who went with USF, bless you.