When Lou Holtz was coaching football, he was notorious for talking up his opponents. He knew the value of bulletin-board material, and he always avoided saying anything that could be used against him or his team.
That makes Holtz’s recent comments about Ohio State even more surprising — and the impact of those comments even more significant.
(I know this isn’t really an NFL story. But Holtz once coached the Jets. For almost a full season.)
Via ESPN.com, Holtz said Friday on Pat McAfee’s show that Ohio State loses big games under coach Ryan Day because the Buckeyes aren’t sufficiently physical. Holtz said Notre Dame would use physicality to beat OSU.
Holtz’s comments would have been a footnote to Ohio State’s 17-14 win at South Bend on Saturday night, but for Day’s decision to blast the octogenarian after the game.
“I’m really upset . . . about what Lou Holtz said publicly about our team, and Ohio State, and Buckeye Nation,” Day said of Holtz. “We’re not going to stand for that. That’s not even close to true. We had one bad half a couple of years ago up in Ann Arbor, the second half. Every game we play in, we’re physical, we are. . . . I don’t know where that narrative comes from, but that ends tonight.”
It was a little easier for Ohio State to be physical at the end of last night’s game, given that Notre Dame inexplicably had only 10 men on the field for the final two plays from scrimmage. On the last one, with three seconds to go, Day called for a run from shotgun formation. Running back Chip Trayanum forced the ball over the goal line for the win.
“I made the call,” Day said. “There were three seconds left, so I’m thinking that’s the last play anyways. . . . Not only do we need to get that yard for this program, but it was the right thing to do schematically.”
So that’s that. Lou Holtz should have listened to Lou Holtz before making a very non-Lou Holtz comment about an opponent. And even though some players and coaches act like they ignore such noise, NEVER believe it. They look for anything they can find to get motivated for a game.
For Saturday night, Holtz gift-wrapped an extra boost for the Buckeyes.