Greetings from Antigua, or as the locals often refer to it, the South Bend of the West Indies and Leward Islands.

I am Tim O'Malley joined today by friends and colleagues, Tim Preister and Drew Bentock of Irish Illustrated.

This is our March 9th edition of Irish Illustrated Insider.

Guys, we are about 11 days away from the start of spring practice and nine from the opening press conference with head coach Marcus Freeman.

Probably most importantly, head football athletic trainer, Rob Hunt and Strength and Conditioning Coordinator, Lauren Lando.

I believe that's the first time, Tim, we're getting Lando since our initial time speaking with Lando.

We'll get to spring thoughts and expectations later in this segment.

But first, Tim, you were not on our Thursday podcast with Drew and Pete Samson, where we had our recollections of Lou Holtz. You've written plenty of Irish Illustrated Insider about it. But I think the spoken word has not happened. So I wanted to kind of turn it over to you. Thoughts, recollections on Lou Holtz. And first, maybe the football coach and then the human being or vice versa if you

no let's start let's start the football coach and i obviously wrote about it over the weekend and

it took me a while to really find my voice on it because i wanted to get a full grasp of how i wanted

that message to come forth and i'm very happy with my second version compared to my

first. Again, it just gave me an opportunity to talk about my relationship with him. And again,

look, I don't pretend to have been his friend. There were a million other people way more important

to him than me. But he did make time for me. And that's, that was what I tried to express is that

this was a guy that, you know, he made it easy for all of us on the beat. And it was a small beat back then. But I mean, you know, he won. He won a national title. He won for a long period of years. He was quotable. He was funny. Damn, all we had to do was just turn the recorder on and let him take over.

And he was a great football coach.

There's no doubt about it.

But, you know, what epitomized his football teams at Notre Dame?

They were physical.

They were tough.

They were decisive because he was decisive in his coaching.

And therefore, they had a sense of urgency and nobody had a greater

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