It’s safe to say that former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz and current Ohio State head coach Ryan Day are not going to be sending each other Christmas cards anytime soon.
The pair’s feud has been one of the oddest aspects of the last few years of the college football world, but funnily enough, this isn’t a made for TV, fake feud either. It seems like the two men genuinely dislike each other. And now Holtz is stoking the flames of hate with his latest comments about Monday’s upcoming National Title Game.
The former Notre Dame football coach took to social media earlier this week and dropped one heck of a nuclear take about the game, and why the Irish might fall short. “If Notre Dame doesn’t win, it’s because we want to preserve Ryan Day’s job.”
No love lost between Notre Dame football legend and perennial Ohio State hotseat occupier
Those comments came not long after Day was asked during a pre-game press conference if he’d talked to Holtz recently and buried the hatchet. The OSU coach didn’t go into detail but his short and sweet, “no,” made it clear that he’s still got a problem with the Fighting Irish legend.
In the tweet, Holtz went on to say that he originally wasn’t planning on going to the game and would instead root on the Blue and Gold from the comfort of his living room. However, his dislike for Day and the Buckeyes has spurred him to go to the game in person after all.
Notre Dame football feud oddest aspect of Ohio State rivalry
All of this apparently started in 2023 when Holtz claimed the Fighting Irish were better than Ohio State before the two teams played. He then singled out Day, saying, "He has lost to Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Michigan twice, and everybody that beats him does so because they're more physical than Ohio State.”
After Day’s squad beat Marcus Freeman’s team that year, Day called out Holtz during his post game interview, drawing quite a criticism for taking aim at someone not actually involved in the game at all.
On Monday night, we’ll see just how this feud continues when Notre Dame football takes on Ohio State for a 3rd time in three years. This one for all the marbles.