It sounds like Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz has left his doom-and-gloom demeanor behind for good.
An emergency operation to correct a condition that could have left him paralyzed made him re-evaluate his life and what is important, Holtz said Saturday."There's a lot of pressure at Notre Dame, a lot of pressure you put on yourself and people are always comparing you with other people and that's never good," he said at a news conference at the Michiana Regional Transportation Center.
"I can't be anybody else but Lou Holtz and maybe I haven't done that as well as I should in recent times," Holtz said. "I'm just going to be Lou Holtz, the plain and simple individual I was when I came here."
Holtz returned to South Bend on Saturday morning after being released from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Holtz had surgery Tuesday to relieve pressure on his spinal column, a condition that caused weakness in his arms and legs.
"Your mind runs away with Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, anything else," the 58-year-old said. "I let my mind wander sometimes and not be as focused. ... You don't know if it'll ever be the last time you go out on the field."
While he's still a little weak from surgery, Holtz said strength is returning to his arms and legs and he is amazed how well he feels. Though he moved slower than usual, Holtz seemed to have no trouble climbing down the steps of the Notre Dame airplane or walking across the tarmac.
His only problem was some irritation around his incision, which doctors tried to correct by giving him a neck brace with more padding. Holtz will have to wear a neck brace for at least six weeks.
"The doctors said that I was a great patient, I was a perfect specimen of health," Holtz said. "So the people that eat junk food, sleep late, smoke a pipe, take heart."
Doctors initially wanted to keep Holtz hospitalized through the weekend, but they released him after Holtz promised he would take it easy. That meant watching No. 24 Notre Dame beat Vanderbilt 41-0 on television rather than at Notre Dame Stadium.
"I want to go to that stadium, so bad right now," Holtz said. "I would like to go to the game, but part of this thing of letting me out early was I not go to the game."
Holtz is not supposed to coach for at least three weeks, and defensive coach Bob Davie was named interim coach.