Former Notre Dame and national championship winning head coach Lou Holtz has fired back at Ryan Day prior to the national championship game between the Irish and the Buckeyes.
If Notre Dame doesn’t win, it’s because we want to preserve Ryan Day’s job.
— Lou Holtz (@CoachLouHoltz88) January 15, 2025
I was originally going to be at the game in spirit, but now I’ll be dragging my body along as well. https://t.co/VF6WOuNzhB
Now this comment, which is inferring Day is coaching for his job, did not just come out of thin air as these two have had some real beef dating back to last season.
Back in September of 2023, Ohio State was set to take on Notre Dame with College Gameday in town. With College Gameday came Pat McAfee who was hosting his weekly show live from South Bend the Friday prior to the game.
Part of the show that day included Holtz doing a sit down interview with McAfee show co-host and producer Ty Schmit who was dressed as Holtz and doing his notorious and hilarious impression of the former ball coach.
During the interview the upcoming game was obviously discussed and Holtz noted how all of the Buckeyes losses under Day were due to teams being “more physical than Ohio State.”
Day seemingly took this comment personally and let it be known how he felt in his postgame interview after the Buckeyes defeated ND in the final seconds.
And here’s Ryan Day fired up over Lou Holtz: pic.twitter.com/kYkGAn5BAt
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 24, 2023
This now brings us to the present day where there still seems to be some animosity between the two. Earlier this week Day was asked if he had spoken with Holtz since to which he replied “No.”
With coach Lou's latest comments, it’s nice to see the 88 year old still has some juice left in the tank and that will be in attendance in Atlanta, where we will hopefully get an interaction between Holtz and Day.
The former coach who had stints at both ND and OSU has also made his official prediction for the national championship game being a 3 point victory for Notre Dame.