South Florida head coach Skip Holtz gets dreaded vote of confidence from athletic director

In the midst of a dreadful start to the season and a crushing road loss to Temple, the calls for Skip Holtz to lose his job at South Florida are growing louder. With the discontent growing, USF athletic director Doug Woolard issued a statement today expressing faith in Holtz and a reminder that they won't review his status and performance until the end of the season.

I know Skip, his staff and the players are working diligently to get that next win and to find sustained success. Certainly, the results, in terms of wins and losses to date, are disappointing to everyone involved with our program -- the coaches, players, athletic administration and our passionate fans. Our expectations for this program are very high. I also know this team has a lot of football left to play and great opportunities in front of it. We're only six games into a 12 game regular season.

We are going to provide all the support possible for our football program, including employment contrats that reflect our commitment to success. Many factors come into play when considering contract terms, including conditions in the national coaching marketplace. In Skip's case, multiple BCS schools sought his coaching services at the end of both the '10 and '11 seasons. As a result, we felt it was important to maintain the stability of leadership in our football program and extended Skip's contract.

As has been our practice in the past, we will evaluate the status of each or our 19 programs at the conclusion of their respective seasons. We'll identify where we are as a football program at that time and continue to build from there.

This statement came via Josh Newberg and the Bulls 247 site.