I'm surprised no one has posted this yet so I'll step to the plate. Bob Hunter's column in the Dispatch today talked about Lou Holtz and why he didn't replace Woody. I'm not sure if the Buckeye Extra is considered premium so I'm not including a link. It came down to Lou wanting to be asked to take the job and not go through the interview process. If asked, he would have come. I'm not sure if the AD, Hugh Hindman could have done it. I recall at the time huge interest in Woody's successor. The Columbus black community pushed Rudy Hubbard. IIRC, Sam Rutigliano showed interest. The rest of the column deals with "what ifs." What if Earle hadn't hired Urban as a grad assistant. It ends with Lou commenting on last Saturday's practice and saying Urban is like Woody by caring about his players on and off the field.

I'll take a swag and say Lou would have done better than Earle. He had Ohio roots also. I see two key differences: 1) he may have kept more of Woody's assistants, especially if Frank Broyles hired someone from his staff to head up Arkansas. I think Bill Myles was the only assistant retained. 2) His offensive philosophy would have changed with the times quicker, especially if he kept George Chaump. They served together on the 1968 staff and he had a great relationship with Schlicter. It would have been interesting to see what he would have done without Woody's fetters. 

Would he have hired Urban as a grad assistant? I say yes, but we'll never know. Maybe there is an alternate universe where this played out.