Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz tests positive for coronavirus

Longtime college football coach Lou Holtz confirmed this week that he has tested positive for COVID-19. 

Holtz, 83, confirmed to ABC Columbia that he is recovering from the virus, sharing that “I don’t have a lot of energy right now.” 

Holtz retired from coaching in 2004 and has worked as an analyst for ESPN. 

President Trump in September announced that he will award the Presidential Medal Freedom to the longtime coach, calling him an “incredible leader.”

“We’ve looked at Lou’s life and his career and what he’s done for charity. And the football is obvious, he was a great coach, but what he’s done beyond even coaching. So Lou will be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” Trump said at the time. A date for the ceremony has not yet been set.

Holtz also drew criticism earlier this year after calling then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “Catholic in name only.” In a speech at the Republican National Convention in August, the coach called Biden’s presidential ticket “the most radically pro-abortion campaign in history.”

“They and other politicians are Catholic in name only and abandon innocent lives,” he said. “President Trump protects those lives.”

The president of the University of Notre Dame, John I. Jenkins, warned after the speech that “we must never question the sincerity of another’s faith.” 

“While Coach Lou Holtz is a former coach at Notre Dame, his use of the University’s name at the Republican National Convention must not be taken to imply that the University endorses his views, any candidate or any political party,” the university president said in a statement at the time. Holtz was the head football coach at Notre Dame from 1986 to 1996.

Holtz has previously criticized football conferences for taking COVID-19 precautions. After the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences announced that they were postponing their college football schedules over the summer amid the ongoing pandemic, Holtz criticized the move and compared players to U.S. soldiers in World War II.

“Let’s move on with our life,” Holtz told Fox News. “When they stormed Normandy, they knew there were going to be casualties and there would be risks.”