At the end of the day, the Breathitt Bobcats had ‘Coach Holc,’ and the ‘other teams’ didn’t
🎶Uncle Pen played the fiddle, Lord, how it rang/You could hear it talk, you could hear it sing...🎶
Bill Monroe
There are so many great Mike Holcomb stories we could write an entire book on just his career. Perhaps we should. Today, we have the unenviable task of attempting to sum up the greatness of Mike Holcomb in a few thousand or so words. Yeah, it is a tall task. Suffice it to say the following: you have really never had your butt chewed until it has been chewed by Mike Holcomb. However, through it all, there was always a smile traipsing around the corners of his mouth and a glint in his eye which left the recipient with the inescapable conclusion that “Old Coach Holc” loved him and wanted what was best for him. That is why 36 years worth of kids would run through a brick wall for him. That is why 36 years worth of kids often did run through brick walls for him.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Jackson, KY: Throughout the commonwealth of Kentucky, we may not do a plethora of things; but, the things we happen to do, we do well. Bill Monroe was from Rosaline, Kentucky on the Cumberland Plateau in Ohio County’s Pennyroyal region of our commonwealth.
Monroe had an uncle named, James Pendleton Vandiver, who did one thing; but, he did that one thing very, very well. You see, Uncle Pen could play the heck out of a fiddle.
Mike Holcomb can coach the heck out of a football team. Holcomb, and his vaunted spread attack, could make a thrown football ring; matter of fact, we are told (with apologies to the late, Bill Monroe) that 🎶…you could hear it talk, you could hear it sing.🎶
I have the ability to tell you how many games Holcomb won and how many championships. What I can’t possibly hope to capture is how many lives he impacted and just how many people loved (and still love) him, me included.
There are no words. From time to time, when discussing the great Mike Holcomb, there is just nothing people can say which does him, or what he accomplished, justice.
As I type this, tears stream down my cheeks. Holcomb has meant the world to so many people. Holcomb has meant the world to me.
Many of you have guessed this already; but, if you have read Sam Harp and my book, Football 101: Boo-Boo’s a Quarterback (link), the coach plopped in front of his television watching game film on pages 118, 119 in the 14th chapter (Judging Coaches) is Mike Holcomb. He’s all over the book, in actuality, as he has had a tremendous impact on both its authors.
It is hard to be around Coach Holcomb and not tell Coach Holc stories. It is equally hard to write about him and not do the same thing.
Holcomb had a transfer once who came to Breathitt largely to play for him. This kid was a very good high school player and was quick as a hiccup, especially for a two-way interior lineman.
You really haven’t been chewed out until Holcomb chews on you
William Long, Breathitt class of ’20
Well the kid had made the All-State, first team, but that didn’t deter Coach Holcomb from jumping this kid’s crap in practice one day. You know, lots of “football people” will tell you, you really haven’t been chewed out until Mike Holcomb chews you.
title in 2002
Holcomb looked at the kid and said, “Son, what do you want from me? Do you want me to praise you and brag on your being an All-State player? Do you want me to tell you I love you? Do you want me to lie to you, son? Is that what you’re wanting to hear from me?”
The kid looked at him and said, “Coach, which of those things you mentioned would be the lie?” Holcomb had to turn his back and walk away so the kid couldn’t see him chuckle. Holcomb hadn’t expected that response.
Holcomb called a close friend of mine and his once, a guy who lives in Hazard, Kentucky now but formerly lived in Jackson, named David Hendrickson, and told him, “David, you need to come out to practice today, man. We have a transfer in to play center/nose. You ain’t going to believe how quick this kid is.”
Hendrickson told KPGFootball, “I went to practice and had never seen anything like this kid. He was able to snap the ball and beat the other linemen to contact. I had never seen a high school lineman that quick, particularly not a center. The snap was money, every last one hitting the QB right in the chest. After about 20-snaps or so, I looked over at Holcomb. Old Holc hit me with his patented, Holcomb-wink.”
Holcomb had retired and stood at 289-111 over 33-years with a 3-1 mark in title games. Madison Central enticed Mike Holcomb out of retirement to come coach its 6A, District 8 ball club. The Indians had just suffered through back-to-back, one-win seasons.
Holcomb got there and the Indians went 10-4 and narrowly lost to St. Xavier High in the 6A semis. I got a phone call from a media colleague in the Richmond area who was blown away Holcomb could take a team which had won two-games in two years and win 10-games his first season.
“How’d he do it? I mean, I thought Holc had lost his mind when he took the Madison Central job.”
I told him, “I’ll tell you how he did it, if you are really asking. It’s pretty simple. Holcomb did it because he is Mike Holcomb! Mike Holcomb doesn’t go 1-10, son!”
Those words proved prophetic. Holcomb coached 6A Madison Central for two years, going 10-4 in 2021 and 9-4 in 2022. He made it to the fourth-round in his first year and the regional championship round in his second.
Holcomb coached 6A Madison Central for two years going 19-8, winning two districts, and a region
Friday Night Fletch
Holcomb’s two year run, at a team which had won two entire games the two seasons prior to his arrival, netted a 19-8 work sheet. Holcomb won a regional championship and two district titles at a school which had won two entire games the two years prior to his getting there.
I know it seems I have redundantly focused on the two wins in two years prior to Holcomb’s arrival aspect. I just can’t seem to say it enough!
For much of Holcomb’s career, he coached football in the home of power run schemes. In the Appalachia mountains, while coaching Breathitt High, Holcomb was throwing it more a night than most programs would through it the entire season.
Belfry, Bell, Ashland-Blazer, Hazard, Johnson Central, Pikeville (the Hillard Howard version) all the programs considered elite mountain programs, were ground and pound teams. Holcomb was running the Spread and he was running it before Hal Mumme and Tony Franklin got to UK.
Matter of fact, Mumme and Tony Franklin both said, “If you want to know the Spread passing attack, take the Mountain Parkway to Jackson, KY.” Everyone, even in the SEC, recognized what an innovator (and expert) Mike Holcomb truly was (and even still is).
Holcomb’s version of the Spread would be tweaked a bit differently from most high school versions. Holcomb could run inside zone so quickly, it would hit the line of scrimmage like a dive, a plunge, a buck, a gut, or a slam or whatever else you wanted to call it.
Holc’s inside zone hit like a dive play, quick and hard…
Friday Night Fletch
The quickness allowed his offense to get downhill in a hurry while still spreading out defenses and keeping defenses guessing about what was coming out of his varied formations. One of Holcomb’s disciples, Justin Haddix, HFC at Boyle County, who quarterbacked Holcomb’s last championship team at Breathitt (2002), is running Holcomb’s offense, right now, at Boyle County.
What do you know? It still works.
Holcomb never stagnated. Holcomb had a sign that read, “When you’re through learning, you’re through.”
Coaches can get set in their ways, and refuse to change. Coach Holcomb was omnipresently changing.
Holcomb’s willingness to change didn’t mean he couldn’t be as stubborn and ornery as an old mule. One of my favorite stories centers around the shooting of the movie, Fire Down Below, starring Steven Seagal. This movie was shot in Jackson, Kentucky and released in 1997.
It grossed slightly over 25-million, box office. Not necessarily a blockbuster but not too shabby either.
As the story goes, the star of the film, Seagal, came to the practice field and told Coach Holcomb he needed to clear the field as the film crew was shooting a scene and needed to land a helicopter on the Riverbank (The Mike Holcomb Athletic Complex) in the middle of the field. At the time this was going on, Holcomb was in the midst of a 42-game win streak and had just polished off 2A titles in both 1995 and 1996.
Holcomb was the “bigger man” around Breathitt county than Steven Seagal; let me promise you. Anyway, Holcomb told Mr. Seagal words to the effect of “You’re not landing any helicopter on my field.”
Seagal, said, “Perhaps I should take this up with your mayor.” Holcomb responded, “Take it up with the Governor for all I care; you ain’t landing your chopper on my field, son; period!”
Holcomb turned out to be right. Holcomb had a knack for turning out to be right.
Holcomb’s dad, Joe, was on the staff at Old Kentucky Home
Friday Night Fletch
Mike Holcomb was the son of a coach. His dad, Joe Holcomb, had been a top notch coach before going into school administration.
Holcomb
Joe Holcomb was an assistant at Old Kentucky Home High in Bardstown with stops at Nelson and Bullet County. Mike Holcomb was determined to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Jon Collins told Kentucky Prep Gridiron the following, “I first met [Mike Holcomb] in 1984. Coach Holcomb had been a HC for a year.
Collins continued, “Holcomb interviewed me about half a day, which consisted of me following him around while he worked. For the next 5 years, I worked for him. Work-that’s all I ever saw him do.”
Collins concluded with, “That is why Holcomb’s the legend he is, total buy-in, complete commitment. Holcomb has done the work.”
There was one other thing Coach Collins was insistent we include. Collins told KPGFootball, “Behind every successful man is a great woman, and Coach has had one in Debbie Mamaw Holcomb. She has been a huge part of Coach’s success.”
As much as Holcomb won,…,[the] players were still more important…
Will Tom “Taco Meat” Collins, former BHS Bobcat and UK Wildcat
Will Thomas Collins, Jon’s son, played for Holcomb at Breathitt County. Will Tom, a.k.a. “Taco Meat,” became a tremendous fullback for the Kentucky Wildcats and Mark Stoops after having played for Holcomb at Breathitt. When asked about his old coach, Will Tom told KPGFootball, “As much as Holcomb won, which was a ton, Holcomb’s players were still more important to Coach than winning.”
Everyone knew that, that the players were the main thing for the Holcombs, both Mamaw and Coach. Holcomb’s assistants knew it; the fans of the teams Holcomb led knew it; Holcomb’s colleagues knew it; heck, even the kid at the first of this piece, the one Holcomb was chewing out, knew it.
You see, Old Coach Holc didn’t have to tell that kid he was an all-stater, a star, or loved. That kid knew it. That kid felt it.
That is why the kid responded the way he did. That is why Coach Holcomb had to walk away fighting back laughter, suppressing a smile curling the corners of his mouth and masking the glint forming in the corner of his eye.
That is why Mike Holcomb is among the greatest to ever stride down a sideline. That’s why he’s Mike Holcomb and your coach neither isn’t, nor probably ever will be.
Mike Holcomb could coach a football game like Uncle Pen could fiddle The Soldier’s Joy. And 🎶…people would come from miles away…🎶
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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