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Thursday, May 1, 1997

Former Notre Dame coach pays visit to Valley Ranch

IRVING, Texas (AP) - It wasn't a surprise visit by Lou Holtz to the Dallas Cowboys' Valley Ranch headquarters, but the former Notre Dame coach did raise some eyebrows nonetheless.

Holtz said Wednesday he was in Dallas to visit a friend and also asked permission to watch practice camp, which was granted.

"I miss coaching, I miss the relationship of players, I miss the highs and lows and - not that I'm planning on getting back in - but I thought I'd come and do a little checking, which I did," he said.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones once said Holtz was considered a possibility for the coaching job.

Dallas coach Barry Switzer laughed when reporters asked him about the visit, joking that assistant coaches didn't have to worry because Holtz was asking about receivers coach Hubbard Alexander's job.

"All our coaches are laughing about that down there," Switzer said. "Look at all the speculation that's being created up there. We were laughing about that.

"That's the way you guys work it," he told reporters. "Yeah, we were. I told our staff that Lou is in here to evaluate them and look at them. And Ax (Alexander), I said, he's asked about you - what job you did and I think you're the first to go."

Holtz announced Nov. 19 he was leaving Notre Dame after 11 years, but few took that to mean he was finished coaching. Speculation immediately turned to the National Football League.

But Holtz had a 3-10 record with the New York Jets in 1976, his only NFL coaching job.

So with no current coaching job and time on his hands, Holtz took a job in February as a consultant to an Indiana company that provides water and wastewater treatment equipment.