COLUMBIA, S.C. -- When University of South Carolina football players filed into the stands minutes before Lou Holtz was introduced as their new coach last Friday, they received a standing ovation from the crowd.

Holtz's response Tuesday wasn't quite as jubilant.

"It's like going to a homeless shelter and talking about 401k's," he said when asked to assess the team's strengths.

When he coached at Notre Dame from 1986-96, Holtz annually raided South Carolina. Tony Rice, Jeff Burris, Lamont Bryant, Deveron Harper, Lance Legree and Germaine Holden all chose the gold and blue over the garnet and black of their home-state team.

At Minnesota, he recruited Rickey Foggie to play quarterback.

"South Carolina has great athletes," said Holtz. "I've never had a bad athlete out of South Carolina."

The Gamecocks, however, have.

The result last season was an all-time-worst 10-game losing streak and a matching 10-gamer in the Southeastern Conference over the past two years.

South Carolina finished last in the SEC in turnover margin, rushing defense, sacks and opponent's third-down conversions; 11th in defensive pass efficiency and sacks allowed and 10th in scoring offense and scoring defense.

"When you're 1-10 it's hard to say, `We're really good at this position,' " Holtz said. "We have a serious problem at virtually every position, but really at the defensive and offensive lines."

The Gamecocks had arguably the second-worst offensive line in the conference, ahead of Vanderbilt, averaging 3.3 yards per rush and allowing 36 sacks. Carolina has lost center Jamar Nesbit, its best offensive lineman, and tackle Andray Spearman. Tackle Melvin Paige and guards Kevin Rivers and Philip Jones earned SEC all-freshman honors, but the team returns only six other linemen who are healthy.

"We've got nine healthy offensive linemen," Holtz said. "We need to build up those numbers."

He said recruiting efforts will encompass Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Georgia in the search for bigger bodies.

Carolina's defensive line was the conference's worst, finishing last in sacks (13) and rushing defense (178.9 yards per game). While ends John Abraham and John Stamper and tackle Cecil Caldwell have shown ability, there's only one player along the front bigger than 280 pounds, Kevin Johnson.

"We're very undersized," Holtz said. "I've got big concerns about the size. If we're small, we've got to be quick."

Holtz also singled out tight end (three seniors and a walk-on) and quarterback (redshirt freshman and sophomore) where depth is lacking.

After passing the NCAA's test on recruiting rules and regulations, Holtz was able to start making calls early this week to high-school athletes and expects to have a full recruiting game plan in place by Friday.

"I think we can recruit nationally," he said. "Not as well as at Notre Dame, but that's not our intention. I'd like to stay as close to home as possible and still get the caliber of athlete we want."

(Nat Newell writes for The Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, S.C.)