NBC bringing back 'Coach' with Craig T. Nelson: Report

Craig T. Nelson will be returning to the sidelines after NBC ordered 13 episodes of a sequel series to the '90's sitcom Coach.

The 70-year-old actor will reprise his role as Division-1 football coach Hayden Fox in a story that picks up two decades or so after the original show ended in 1997, according to EW.com.

Just think Lou Holtz goes back to Notre Dame — but with less mumbling — must have been the pitch.

"Coach Hayden Fox, in the present day, has retired from coaching. He is called back to become assistant coach to his own grown son, who is the new head coach at an Ivy league school in Pennsylvania that is just starting up a new team," NBC said.

For the last two seasons of the original series, Coach Fox coached the Orlando Breakers, a fictional National Football League expansion team.

The new show's 13 episodes will be shot in traditional multi-cam style, is being headed up by original executive producer Barry Kemp.

There was no word whether co-stars Jerry Van Dyke, who played goofy defensive coordinator Luther, or Bill Fagerbakke, who played dumb jock Dauber would return for the new show. Shelley Fabares played Hayden's girlfriend (and later wife) Christine Armstrong, a television news anchor.

Nelson recently ended a successful run playing family patriarch Zeek Braverman on the NBC's "Parenthood."

And Fagerbakke has enjoyed a long run as the voice of Patrick Star on SpongeBob Squarepants.

Who knows how the old coach will handle issues that were pretty much isolated back in the days before the proliferation of social media and political correctness took over sports.