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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/redwave2505 on 2026-01-30 18:41:42+00:00.
After the sad news about Lou Holtz yesterday, I thought I’d share one of my favorite bits of coaching trivia related to his career.
Holtz faced Alabama six times over the course of his career, while at three different schools, yet each time faced a different Alabama head coach. Below are all the Holtz-Alabama meetings:
| Date | Holtz’s team | Alabama’s coach | Score | Site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01/01/1980 | Arkansas | Bear Bryant | L 9-24 | New Orleans, LA |
| 10/04/1986 | Notre Dame | Ray Perkins | L 10-28 | Birmingham, AL |
| 11/14/1987 | Notre Dame | Bill Curry | W 37-6 | Notre Dame, IN |
| 09/30/2000 | South Carolina | Mike DuBose | L 17-27 | Tuscaloosa, AL |
| 09/29/2001 | South Carolina | Dennis Franchione | W 37-36 | Columbia, SC |
| 10/02/2004 | South Carolina | Mike Shula | W 20-3 | Tuscaloosa, AL |
It’s even more remarkable that all these meetings came against full-time head coaches, not interims. In fact, Holtz faced off against every single Alabama head coach who coached a game from 1958 to 2006, with the exception of Gene Stallings. Also interesting that there were two separate occasions in which he played Alabama in consecutive years, which both happened to coincide with a coaching change (and curious that he lost to the outgoing head coach and defeated the incoming head coach in both instances).
Holtz’s 17 point road win over Alabama in his final season remains relevant to this day, as no other team has been able to defeat Alabama in Tuscaloosa by that much since then. The only other road win over Alabama by more than one score since 2004 was a 34-24 win for Texas in 2023.
I would love to know if anyone else knows of any other examples of a coach facing a team on multiple occasions but coming up against a different head coach each time.