Gov. Mark Sanford and his top advisers sat quietly around the wooden conference table.

Most furiously scribbled notes.

Many nodded their heads.

"Don't tell me how rocky the sea is," the speaker intoned, "bring the ship in."

The Cabinet was not listening to some legislative leader or policy wonk or politician. No, this was much more important than that.

It was USC football coach Lou Holtz.

Holtz took over a moribund USC team and saw it get worse before it got better.

Sanford can hope for a similar experience.

Holtz spoke to Sanford's Cabinet meeting on Wednesday and told the group not to worry about the critics.

"When you're 0 and 11, and people are down on you, you don't worry about what other people say," Holtz said. "All you're going to hear is criticism."

Holtz came to USC in 1999 and inherited a team that had gone 1-10 the previous season. In his first year, the Gamecocks got even worse: 0-11. But the following season USC was 9-4, and won the second bowl game in the program's history.

While Sanford's first legislative session, which ended last Thursday, could not be described as championship-caliber, he doesn't believe it was a shutout, either. And Holtz praised the governor for his work thus far.

"What's impressed me just about being here is that he has a vision about what they want to do and an enthusiasm to do it," Holtz said following the meeting.

The 66-year-old coach encouraged Sanford's Cabinet members to find a quiet moment to reflect on their success "and ask yourself how you can get better."

Sanford met Holtz at a golf tournament and heard the coach speak to a group of about 800. Holtz has long been a popular motivational speaker, proclaiming a message of teamwork, individual excellence and sacrifice. He brought that message to the Wade Hampton Office Building Wednesday.

"People can give you a title," Holtz told the assembled state agency directors. "What they cannot do is make you the leader."

There are 10 key goals Holtz said he shares with his football players that translate to the world of government. The first is, "We need each other."

"Everyone needs somebody and somebody needs you," Holtz said. "We need each other in this room."

Sanford applauded Holtz's message of teamwork and leadership.

"We have folks that have amazing leadership responsibilities and amazing leadership opportunities," Sanford said of his Cabinet. "We also have a team that's beginning to forge both within their team ... and our greater team of administration, trying to push forward some changes."

Revenue director Burnie Maybank asked how the Cabinet could lead the General Assembly, where lawmakers profess not to "need us for anything."

There might be differences, Holtz said, but the goal is the same.

"You've got to bury any differences because of the greater good of the people of this state who are counting on you," Holtz said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.