Explaining the Ryan Day-Lou Holtz Feud

In one of the weirdest feuds we’ve seen in a while current Ohio State Ryan Day is in a war of words with former Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz. This feud came to a head, after Saturday’s thrilling win against Notre Dame, when during his on-field interview, Day called out the former coach and what he said. In case you missed it here it is.

Ryan Day called out Lou Holtz for his comments after Ohio State’s 17-14 win at Notre Dame ?

pic.twitter.com/rl73rw6Yuf

— Mercury (@CollegeSportsCo) September 25, 2023

Mind you this is literal seconds after Ohio State had won the game, in thrilling fashion. You would think he would focus on, how great of a win it was. Instead, he decided to throw fire on this whole situation. Now there is a whole lot to unpack in this situation.

Ryan Day vs. Lou Holtz

This feud started in the build-up to the Saturday night game. Holtz went on “The Pat McAfee Show”, and gave his honest opinion about Ryan Day. To quote Holtz, “Ryan Day has lost to Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, and Michigan twice and everyone who beats them does so because they’re more physical than Ohio State”.

Now on it’s surface, there really isn’t anything that bad here. Holtz is just stating the fact that when Ryan Day played the best teams in the country, he struggled. He then gave the reason why he thought Ohio State struggled in those games. However, Ryan Day took offense to these comments which led to that post-game rant.

Now since those comments, Holtz has made another media appearance, this time on Dan Dakich’s YouTube show. While on the show he was asked to respond to what Day said about him. Here is Holtz’s response.

Lou Holtz responds to Ryan Day ?〽️ #GoBlue pic.twitter.com/lTn8bGth2u

— Michigan Football on UMGoBlue (@UMGoBlog) September 26, 2023

This brings us up to date, on the state of this feud. However, this thing feels far from over. Considering how Day took offense to Holtz not believing his team was tough enough. The fact that he doesn’t believe Ohio State is great, will definitely get a response out of Day.

What to Make of This Whole Thing

This has to be one of the strangest feuds in college football history. You have a current 44-year-old head coach, going up against a retired 86-year-old Hall-of-Fame coach. This feels like some sort of crazy mad lib. With that being said Day is completely in the wrong here.

What Holtz said wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for Holtz. Holtz was just giving his honest opinion about how he feels about Ohio State. He didn’t insult Day or say anything bad about him. He just stated a fact and said why he believes it is the way it is. Also, Holtz is famous for being biased for Notre Dame. During his time on ESPN, he would always pick Notre Dame to win, and try to spin everything in a positive manner for the university. So it’s no surprise that the week Ohio State played Notre Dame, Holtz would say something about how Ohio State is bad.

This is just a really bad look for Day. It just makes him look like an oversensitive egomaniac who can’t take criticism. Day is the coach that ended Ohio State’s winning streak against Michigan. It always feels like he struggles when he has to play one of the better teams in the country. Holtz was pointing out actual concerns people have with Day. These comments just are a confirmation that people were right about him.

Thanks for reading! Credit for my feature article goes to Michael Reaves. You can find more college football content at Belly Up Sports and follow me on Twitter.