COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Perhaps Lou Holtz planned it this way all along, like some sort of Hollywood script.

Elderly football coach, a master at rebuilding, takes over crumbling program where fans are thirsting for victory. Through his first season there, his mother passes away. His wife tells him her throat cancer has returned. His son, an assistant on the staff, is hospitalized nearly a week with a severe gastric infection. And a plane scheduled to take him on a recruiting trip crashes before it picks him up, killing the pilot.

On the field, things aren't much better. Instead of improving on the 1-10 season prior to his arrival, his new team takes a step backward, finishing winless. There's now a 21-game losing streak. The 63-year-old coach looks like he may have met his rebuilding match. Whispers hover that the game has passed him by.

	“	I never doubted that we would be successful, not one bit. I never doubted it at any place I went. The plan works. ”
		— Lou Holtz

But then comes the turnaround. His wife defeats cancer for the second time. The team starts the next season 3-0, including a 21-10 shocker over the ninth-ranked team in the country. The buzz around town reverses to talk of bowl games and conference championships.

It seems even too far fetched for Hollywood, yet it's true.

Holtz, who in his 29 years of coaching has already turned around programs at William & Mary, N.C. State, Arkansas and Minnesota, is now doing the same in a place where many thought it couldn't be done. And just for added drama, as if his last accomplishment is to be his grandest of all, he's had to overcome personal tragedy and a miserable start to get the job done.

"I never doubted that we would be successful, not one bit," said Holtz. "I never doubted it at any place I went. The plan works."

"The plan" Holtz refers to, breaks down into three separate phases. Phase one is getting a group of players who genuinely want to be good and are willing to work. Phase two is increasing their level of productivity. Thirdly, they have to learn to be unselfish. At that point, Holtz said, he can start to effectively teach football.

"Perfection is our goal," Holtz said. "You can't reach it, but you can strive for it. The players are starting to feel that way now."

South Carolina's 3-0 start is its best in 10 years. They have scored 93 points in those three wins, six more then they did all of last season. The win over then No. 9 Georgia two weeks ago was the team's first over a Top 10 opponent since 1988.

But perhaps the perfect barometer for a chance in perception of the program was evident in the point spread prior to last week's game against Eastern Michigan. South Carolina, who averaged just 7.9 points in '99, scoring more than two touchdowns only once, was a 23-point favorite.

Why the sudden turnaround? For one, the team is healthy. Last season, injuries forced Holtz to use 17 lineman and six different quarterbacks. Also, a new offensive and defensive scheme has been designed to specifically fit these personnel. But most of all, the players are starting to believe.

"We took to heart a lot of the things that happened last year," quarterback Phil Petty said. "And we made a promise that that wasn't going to happen again. The togetherness of our football team is a lot better now, a lot closer now."

Now comes the next step. In each of Holtz's five previous coaching stops, he's never inherited a winner, yet he's always taken the team to a bowl game by the second year. At William & Mary, Holtz led the school to its only postseason appearance. Three more wins by the Gamecocks and they will qualify for the postseason for the first time since playing in the 1995 Carquest Bowl.

"Sure, we sit around and talk about it once in awhile," Petty said. "We got together before the season and set forth our goals and now we're working our hardest to help make those happen."

Holtz believes the seeds for this season's success were laid in the final two games of 1999. Then, with a postseason bowl game and glory long behind them, the Gamecocks fought admirably in losses to Florida and cross-state rival Clemson.

The bitter taste of those losses motivated the players and coaching staff through the offseason. Many of the players stayed on campus and worked out during Christmas break, spring break and summer. Workout rooms were filled or the team's voluntary 6 a.m. lifting program.

	All-time coaching victories
	Coach	Wins
	1. Bear Bryant	323
	2. Pop Warner	319
	3. Joe Paterno	318
	4. Amos Alonzo Stagg	314
	5. Bobby Bowden	307
	6. Tom Osborne	255
	7. LaVell Edwards	252
	8. Woody Hayes	238
	9. Bo Schembechler	234
	10. Hayden Fry	232
	11. Lou Holtz	219

"I remember thinking the season just ended, we don't start again for eight months, take a break, get some rest," Gamecock assistant Skip Holtz said. "But no. These guys had that nasty feeling in their stomach and they didn't like how they felt, so there was no way they were going to stop."

The commitment pulled everyone closer together. It sounds cheesy, like some sort of After School Special, but it helped formed a bond. So did other events, like the coaching staff asking the players to live in dorms. Or taking away car keys during two-a-days, forcing teammates to ride campus buses together.

Each freshman was given a media guide and had to get the signatures of every teammate. Most upperclassmen would ask the rookie questions such as, "What town am I from?" before signing.

Lastly, there was an emotion-filled team meeting before the opening of two-a-days. Holtz set aside time for several players to stand before their teammates and share important details from their life. The stories moved many to tears.

"That was emotional," said Skip, "but I don't think it means half as much if the other seven months didn't happen. But it did, so then here was somebody that you've known for awhile now and you understand his background. You know how bad he wants to win and what he's been through to get here."

It's all part of this plan that the elder Holtz has developed. He's one of just four active coaches (Jackie Sherrill, Ken Hatfield and Larry Smith the others) who have finished the season in the Top 25 with three different schools. South Carolina, who just missed making the top 25 last week, could be the fourth, which would Holtz the only coach to ever take four schools that high.

"The one thing I've always admired most about him is the unbelievable standard he holds the program to, the players to and the coaching staff to," Skip said. "He doesn't want to hear about why people can't win at South Carolina. There are no excuses from him. He wants to do it now. And these players are starting to pick up on that."

When they think back to last year, the Holtz family says that everything is a blur. Even if the team had gone 11-0, it still would have been a trying year with Skip's illness, the return of Beth's cancer and the death of Anne Marie. Yet it was the upbeat attitude of Beth that kept the entire family from falling into pieces.

"It all seems like it happened so fast," Skip said. "With all that went on, there was so much on the mind, so much you were thinking about. But mom is a very religious person and to see the attitude she took everyday as the person going through all this really put a positive spin on things."

On the field, it was by far the worst season of Lou Holtz's career. Stroll through his career coaching record and the number of 10-, 11-, and 12-win seasons jump out. Seven of them, to be exact. Holtz, the 11th winningest coach of all time, isn't someone who is used to losing.

"I think if there was one thing that came out of last year it is how distasteful losing is to me," Holtz said. I can't talk about anybody else, but I know how distasteful losing is to me. We went through a difficult time. Adversity either pulls you together or pushes you apart and I think it's pulled us together."

Whether or not this story will have a grand ending is anyone's guess. Though Holtz and the Gamecocks are riding high now, a difficult SEC schedule awaits, including Saturday's game against No. 25 Mississippi State. There's little room for injury or error with little depth on the roster.

Still, when asked how long he plans on coaching the Gamecocks, Holtz's answer possessed some Hollywood-esque foreshadowing.

"I'm staying here until this job is done and we're at the top. It's that simple."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com.