A friend of mine who has been in high school coaching in the Seattle area for a long time called to tell me how excited he is that the Huskies hired Nick Holt. He thinks Holt is just fantastic and thinks the days of UW being pushed around on defense are over.

He had a pretty funny story that he told me to share in the blog.

When Nick Holt makes an in home visit the first thing he usually does is go eyeball to eyeball with the kid and invade his personal space to see how he reacts. If he gets a hug and head butt he knows he has a player. If the kids recoils, looks away, or is nervous it means he may not be the kind of guy he wants on his defense.

It could also mean that Coach Holt just finished a pizza with some garlic on it before stopping by. You just never know! Another thing going eye brow to eye brow does is give him a pretty good idea on how tall the kid is. Some kids are listed at 6'4 but really may only be 6'2.

The psyche of recruiting is pretty interesting and I am sure each assistant coach has his own method. One thing the coaches had going for them at USC was hunger and competition. They treated each recruiting day as if they were coaching at New Mexico State rather than USC. They don't take anything for granted down there. Even though they sat at the the top of the Pac 10 they approached recruiting with the same urgency a 0-12 coach would have.

Coach Baird always talked about the ten tough questions the Don James era coaches asked the recruits. I am sure the new coaching staff has a list of them too. However if you are being recruited by Coach Holt the first thing he is looking for is your reaction when he looks you straight in the eye at close range.

Tarzan and Nick Holt

Did you know that Nick Holt's grandfather was Tarzan?

Holt is the grandson of Buster Crabbe who played Tarzan, Flash Gordon, and Buck Rodgers in the movies.

Crabbe was an Olympic athlete in his day and was a swimmer at USC before going into the movies.

If you shaved Buster's head he is a dead ringer for his grandson!