.jpg)
2 hours ago
1
The Ohio State Buckeyes and Notre Dame Fighting Irish will play for the National Championship on Monday in a game that means a lot for both programs.
For Notre Dame, it’s a chance to win their first national title since 1988 when Lou Holtz led the program to a 12-0 season. As for Ohio State, they’ve won one recently in 2014 but haven’t been able to win it all since Ryan Day took over for the legendary Urban Meyer. Given Day has had countless NFL Draft picks and Heisman-level talents come through Colombus, there’s a crowd of people who believe he could be on the hot seat with a loss.
One of the biggest critics of Day over the last few years happens to be Holtz, with Day calling out Holtz after Ohio State’s win in South Bend last season. Holtz, who had a 76.5% win percentage during his time with the Fighting Irish, made sure to make his thoughts public on Day ahead of the National Championship matchup.
Sharing to his X account, Holtz said, “If Notre Dame doesn’t win, it’s because we want to preserve Ryan Day’s job. I was originally going to be at the game in spirit, but now I’ll be dragging my body along as well.”
Instead of watching the game at home, Holtz will now travel to Atlanta for a chance to see his former team prevent Day from finally getting the monkey off his back and capturing that elusive title. With Ohio State entering the game as more than a touchdown favorite in the betting lines, a loss to Notre Dame would take a massive hit on Day’s reputation in a season where he failed to beat the Michigan Wolverines yet again.
Surely this remark won’t be the last from Holtz, and Day could very well make another response to Holtz as he did in 2023.
English (US)