Lou Holtz said he would embrace Michael Sam with open arms.

Sam, the University of Missouri defensive end who was the co-defensive player of the year in the SEC, revealed Sunday that he is gay.

Sam’s disclosure sparked a nationwide discussion about gay athletes, particularly when it comes to the NFL. If Sam is taken in the coming NFL draft, he will become the league’s first active player who is openly gay.

Reaction from the league has been mixed. Many players say they support Sam, but others have questioned how a gay athlete would affect the team he plays for and whether it would create problems within the locker room.

Holtz, who currently serves as an analyst for ESPN, was 249-132-7 in 33 seasons as a college head coach, including 60-21-1 in seven seasons at Arkansas (1977-1983). He led Notre Dame to a national championship in 1988, and coached at William & Mary, North Carolina State, Minnesota and South Carolina.

Holtz said coaching an openly gay player wouldn’t be a problem for him, as long as the player took care of business in the classroom and on the field.

“The main thing that I always said is that your personal life is not my problem until it becomes part of the team,” Holtz told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette before speaking at the Little Rock Touchdown Club’s awards banquet at the Embassy Suites in Little Rock. “Two guys have a girlfriend. Same girlfriend. It’s not my problem. But if it becomes a part of the team, then it becomes my problem.

“I don’t see any difference, if you graduate and play.”

Sam told teammates at Missouri before the 2013 season that he was gay, but that didn’t appear to create any turmoil among the Tigers. Missouri went 12-2 last season while winning the SEC East title and defeating Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl.

Holtz, 77, credited Sam and Missouri’s players for handling the situation well.

“He played great,” Holtz said of Sam, who had 11½ sacks and shared the league’s co-defensive player of the year award with Alabama linebacker C.J. Mosley. “He’s a wonderful young man. He’s a great football player. They won, and he had a tremendous year.”

Holtz covered a number of other topics, including the college football playoffs that are scheduled to debut during the coming football season. The top four teams will play in the semifinals on Jan. 1 (Rose and Sugar bowls), with the winner advancing to the championship game Jan. 12, 2015, at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

“I’m glad ESPN has it, but to me I think they should have went through and did the bowl bids the way we used to and finish Jan. 1,” Holtz said. “Then after the bowl games take the top four, because a team like Boise State has no chance. In essence, you would have an eight-team playoff.

“I would rather have the bowls finish by Jan. 1.”

Holtz said he is also optimistic that Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema can rebound from a 3-9 record last season, his first in Fayetteville, but that it won’t be easy.

“The Arkansas people are used to winning. Frank Broyles established that,” Holtz said. “He [Bielema] has to raise the level of play in the conference. But I’m going to tell you, the Southwest Conference, six or seven teams would be in the top 20 every year. It’s no different being in the SEC now than we were in the Southwest Conference.

“Bret won at Wisconsin. He’ll win here. He knows how to win. He’s a good coach. Coaches have to understand about the pride in Arkansas. I felt that our teams at Arkansas always played better than their talent because of the pride in the state and the obligation to one another.”

Holtz visited with several former Arkansas football players before speaking to the Touchdown Club later Thursday night, but he admitted that he had some other business that needed to be taken care of first.

Holtz needed to buy a new dress shirt, and inquired about where the closest place he could find a shirt was located before setting out to take care of the situation himself. He said he started walking and eventually ended up at the Wal-mart on Bowman Road.

“Unemployment, you must not have any because they didn’t have enough checkout people for the lines,” Holtz said. “Some people were great and let me through. A guy helped me find a shirt with the right size. I had to take pictures with about 30 people. I get to within 100 yards [of the Embassy Suites] and three people offered me a ride.

“Where were you when I was down at the end of the street ?”

Sports, Pages 19 on 02/14/2014