Holt adjusting well with Jacksonville

Photo by Margaret Bowles/Special to the DDD Jacksonville Jaguars receiver Torry Holt (left) hauls in a catch as Tennessee Titans' cornerback Rod Hood tackles him Sunday at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn. Holt is in his first year with the Jags after 10 years in St. Louis. [Click to enlarge]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Torry Holt may not be a St. Louis Ram anymore, but he still thinks very high of the place that he spent the first 10 years of his career.

Now a starting wide receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Holt spoke of his time in St. Louis and a few other things after the Jaguars' 30-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans here Sunday.

"There were some wonderful times in St. Louis -- great people, great teams and great coaches," Holt said. "Early on it was fantastic. In the latter part of my career, it got kind of ugly for all of us. But for the most part, it was a very exciting time in my career. I was very fortunate to have an opportunity to have played there for 10 years."

Holt joined the Rams after being taken sixth overall in the 1999 NFL Draft out of North Carolina State, where he had just set the Atlantic Coast Conference record for receptions in a season and had been named an All-American at wideout.

As a rookie in St. Louis, Holt was part of one of the greatest turnarounds in NFL history, as the Rams shook off nine straight losing seasons to win Super Bowl XXIV in 2000 -- the franchise's first-ever Super Bowl.

From there, Holt racked up eight straight seasons of 1,100 or more yards receiving, helping the Rams win two more NFC West titles and earn four more playoff berths.

However, the Rams won just five games the previous two seasons, and Holt was released after the 2008 season. After considering signing with the Titans, Holt signed with Jacksonville in April.

"The transition from here to St. Louis has been good," Holt said. "Hopefully it will continue to stay that way."

One thing that has helped that transition is that the Jaguars are still somewhat in the playoff hunt at 3-4, while St. Louis is just 1-7, that win coming Sunday at Detroit.

"It feels better," Holt said. "We don't have the amount of wins that we'd like, but we are in the win column. We had an opportunity (Sunday) to put ourselves over the hump, but we've just got to regroup, come out next week, try to get a win and try to remain somewhere along the playoff hunt."

Holt got to face the Rams just over two weeks ago in Jacksonville and had arguably his best game of the season, catching five passes for a season-high 101 yards -- his 47th career 100-yard game -- as the Jaguars won 23-20 in overtime.

"It was good," Holt said. "(There were) a lot of emotions leading into that week and leading to the game. A lot of emotion -- (I had) a lot of good times there. I have some good friends there, some people in the organization that were really good to me and my family. So I had some emotions that I had to deal with.

"But once the ball kicked off, it was right back to football. It was actually a really good feeling to play against some of those guys that I had been practicing against for so long. I was very happy for our football team that we were able to come out, play well there in the end, execute and come out with the win."

So far this season, Holt has 29 catches for 424 yards, the most receiving yards on the Jaguars and also has a team-high 22 catches for a first down.

With almost 900 career receptions and over 13,000 yards through the air, Holt is still humble and thankful at the end of the day.

"Thanks to the fans and to the people in St. Louis for their support over the past 10 years, now 11 with me being here in Jacksonville," Holt said. "I'm thankful for the support."