Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz, might have been buried months ago, but his impact in college football resounds till date. Clearly, his influence over the coaching philosophies and careers of several top college football coaches remains just as potent as it was decades ago. Urban Meyer, who was one of his proteges, has revealed one way Lou Holtz approached problems that he used in building his own career.

“Lou Holtz used to say this all the time,” Meyer recalled during his interview with Dan Lappin on the Breaking Sales Podcast. “I call him, and ask him a question, and his response was every time, ‘what kind of team do you have?’ if it was a team question. Or it was a question about an individual, he’d have to ask what are we dealing with here? Because there’s no cookie cutter. That’s the beautiful thing about the way God created all of us, and everybody is different. And you as a coach, a teacher, a leader, a parent, that’s your job is to reach that person.

“And the great coaches I’ve been around, that’s probably their greatest skill set is to reach that person. I’ve been around other coaches that aren’t really good. They’re very knowledgeable, but they have the hardest time reaching people because every player to them is the same. And that can’t be further from the truth.”

Urban Meyer is one of the notable names under the Lou Holtz coaching tree. With him are the likes of Pete Carroll, Barry Alvarez, Charlie Strong, Skip Holtz and others.  One reason why Holtz was able to become the only college football coach to lead six different programs to bowl games. and guide four different programs to the final top 15, was his unique individualistic approach to coaching his players.

At the core of Holtz’s coaching philosophy were the values of discipline, commitment, character, care, trust, and accountability. These values were then addressed to meet each player’s specific need.  With this approach, it was common to see Holtz move players to completely different positions after evaluating their talents. He sought to use their speed and athleticism to their maximum potential. At Notre Dame, he switched full back Frank Stams to a linebacker, and tight end Andy Heck to a left tackle. Both players went on to have impressive NFL stints, with Heck now serving as the offensive line coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Describing him as one of his greatest mentors, Meyer mirrored so much of Holtz’s coaching style that when he made it to the NFL, he was sacked after 13 games — tying Lou Holtz and Bobby Petrino for the fourth-shortest coaching tenures in NFL history. On the bright side, as far as college football is concerned, the pair have untouched legacies. This individualistic approach was also what Meyer used in winning three national championships and becoming a college football Hall of Famer.

Urban Meyer applying Holtz’s lessons on Tim Tebow

Urban Meyer never fails to sing Tim Tebow’s praises when he has the chance to, often regarding him as the greatest college football player ever. Applying Holtz’s lessons taught Meyer to categorize his players and make different demands from them, as Tebow was indeed an exception.

“I used to grade everybody one, three, five,” Meyer continued, “And five was elite, three was average, and one was poor. To get a five player as far as discipline, commitment, work ethic is very rare. To get a three is very common place, but that’s why they cal you coach. And when I had Tim Tebow, I used o joke around and say, ‘Donald Duck can coach Tim Tebow’.  I don’t pay you to coach Tim Tebow. That’s one of those rare dudes that is there early, leave late. You know, you’re not motivating Tim, you’re developing him, but not motivating him.”

With Holtz’s lessons, Meyer did not only build a great career for himself, he also helped in developing an iconic quarterback in Tim Tebow. Developing Tim Tebow like others might have hindered us from seeing the full potential of the Florida Gators legend.