Buckling down led to a breakout

0 Comments | USA TODAY, April, 2008 | by Skip Wood

When University of Southern California defensive coordinator Nick Holt returned to the school in 2006 after two seasons as Idaho's head coach, he got the skinny on defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis, whom he hadn't seen since Ellis' redshirt freshman season when Holt was the linebackers coach.

Holt says he more or less heard this: outstanding potential but has disturbing slacker tendencies, whether it's missing classes, tardiness to practice or less-than-rapt attention during team meetings.

So Holt applied a gentle prod here and there. Now he realizes that might not have been necessary.

"I think he just grew up and the light went on," Holt says of the two-time All-American widely expected to be one of the higher picks in the NFL draft. "It was, 'Hey,...