Lou Holtz doubles down on calling out Ryan Day, Ohio State football's toughness

Lou Holtz, the former Notre Dame national championship-winning coach, doubled down on calling out Ohio State’s toughness.

The comments, made prior to the Buckeyes’ 17-14 comeback victory over the Irish last weekend, prompted a series of blistering rants from coach Ryan Day in the aftermath of the win.

Speaking during an appearance on OutKick’s “Don't @ Me with Dan Dakich” on Tuesday, the 86-year-old Holtz said, “I honestly felt Notre Dame was a better football team and more physical.”

“I’m sorry that Coach Day was offended by it,” he added. “I hope he goes on and has a wonderful year. I don’t think they’ll be a great football team. I really don’t. I felt Notre Dame won the football game. All we had to do was fall on the ball. The last two minutes, the opposition is not Ohio State. The opposition is the clock."

Holtz expressed regret only for providing the Buckeyes with bulletin board material, an issue that prompted him to apologize to Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman when they spoke on Monday.

“I called Coach Freeman and apologized,” Holtz said, “because I put him in a bad position. Maybe. I don’t feel bad about saying it, because I believed it.”

Holtz, who said Day’s teams were not physical enough in losses throughout his tenure when he joined “The Pat McAfee Show” on Friday, felt the take was unfair to the Irish.

“Any time you put a team at a disadvantage and you can't control the outcome of the game,” Holtz said, “that's wrong.”

Day fired back at Holtz during his postgame interview on NBC’s telecast and later with reporters late Saturday, saying he was “really upset” and “disrespected.”

“We’re not going to stand for that,” Day said, “because it’s not even close to true. We had a one bad half a couple years ago in Ann Arbor. The second half. But every game we play, we’re physical. I don’t know where that narrative comes from.”

Holtz said that he did not mind being the target of Day in his interviews, adding that “he can go after me all he wants.”

“That’s his choice,” Holtz said. “I can understand why he did. He doesn’t want to talk about Michigan. 0-2. He doesn’t want to talk about the big game coming up against Penn State and against Michigan again. He’s a great coach. He’s a tremendous coach. He’s a great offensive mind. He hired an outstanding defensive coordinator from Oklahoma State who is doing a tremendous job. Ohio State is a good football team, but I don’t think they’re a great football team.”

Holtz, who was a college football analyst with ESPN for a decade before leaving the network in 2015, said he was surprised his remarks on McAfee’s show caused as much of a stir as they did.

“I hadn’t done TV for a few years,” he said, “and I had no idea it would be that widely received. I really didn’t. I had no idea Mr. McAfee’s show was that widely watched, but I made it, and that’s it. I can’t do anything about it.”

Holtz continued to contend on Tuesday that Notre Dame was more physical than Ohio State despite the loss.

He noted the Buckeyes’ issues converting on fourth-and-1. They twice came up empty in the short-yardage situations, the last instance coming when they called for an end-around for wide receiver Emeka Egbuka on their penultimate drive.

Holtz also mentioned that the Buckeyes had trouble running the ball outside of running back TreVeyon Henderson’s 61-yard touchdown run (they averaged 2.5 yards per carry not including that long run) and that Irish quarterback Sam Hartman was not sacked.

"I should have said Notre Dame is just a very physical football team,” Holtz said. “Our offensive line is outstanding. The quarterback is tremendous. And then we will control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and we did.”

Joey Kaufman covers Ohio State football for The Columbus Dispatch. Follow him on Facebook and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He can also be contacted at jkaufman@dispatch.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Lou Holtz doubles down on calling out Ryan Day, Ohio State's toughness