Jerome Bettis shares hilarious story of how Lou Holtz changed his Notre Dame, NFL career
Former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz shepherded numerous stars through college football, including former Irish running back and NFL Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis.
Both coach and player have larger-than-life personalities, undoubtedly making for a collection of great stories.
Earlier this week, Bettis joined the Inside the Garage podcast, hosted this week by Irish players Kyle Hamilton, Cam Hart and Conor Ratigan, and shared one of his fondest memories of Holtz, the Irish head coach from 1986-96.
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Heading into the fall of 1992, Bettis’ sophomore season, he was on the cover of Blue & Gold Illustrated. The magazine was all over campus, and Bettis decided to go around and collect any copies he could find.
“So I’m getting all of the magazines,” Bettis detailed. “I’m still in awe. I (want to) send them to everybody. I’m going to every building. I was conficasting all of them.”
Next, Bettis went to practice as he would on any other day. Thirty minutes in, Holtz stopped the workout and gathered the team.
“Somebody is going to cost us a national championship,” Bettis recalled Holtz telling the group. “This guy thinks he’s the best thing since sliced bread, but this is your football team, so I’m going to let you guys deal with him.”
Bettis, who was on top of the world from his previous magazine-gathering expedition, could not imagine which of his teammates was the one in question.
“Jerome Bettis, would you stand up?” Holtz said.
“My jaw dropped,” Bettis added. “I wasn’t moving or anything.”
“This is your guy, this is your team, and if you guys want to win a national championship, you’re going to handle it,” Holtz added. “Let’s have a great practice.”
“And I’m like ‘Wait…what’s that mean?!’” Bettis said, laughing. “What just happened?”
Bettis proceeded to suffer through one of the toughest practices of his life, as he was pounded repeatedly by his teammates, all the while wondering what the heck he did.
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“So I turn it up,” Bettis said. “I’m practicing like it’s a game. I’m punishing everybody.”
Then practice ended, and Bettis left the field by himself. Clearly, no one wanted to around him. Holtz pulled up moments later in his golf cart. A mud-covered Bettis climbed aboard.
“How was practice?” Holtz asked, very nonchalantly.
“And I’m like ‘What!?’” Bettis said.
“I’m just trying to motivate you,” Holtz said. “Have a nice day.”
The famed, national title-winning head coach drove away.
Obviously, Bettis recovered. He went on to have his best season, at least statistically, with the Irish, rushing for 972 yards and 16 touchdowns plus an additional 190 receiving yards and four scores through the air.
While he didn’t realize it at the time, that practice actually altered Bettis and his current and future teammates for the better.
“What (Holtz) did changed the way that I began to practice,” Bettis said. “After that I just continued to go full throttle as if it was a game. I just became so intense, it kind of changed the trajectory of my football career because I went berserk.
“When I got into the NFL, I was the same exact way. I’d run 40 yards down the field for every play and everyone’s like ‘What are you doing?’ I’m like ‘It’s just my thing,’ and before you know it, everyone was doing it.”
The lesson Bettis is trying to teach? Football is a team sport, but one player can alter the mindset and practice habits of the entire group. He would know.
