Lou Holtz continues feud with Ryan Day, Ohio State: 'They're not a great football team'

Former coach Lou Holtz continued his feud with Ryan Day and Ohio State by calling them “not a great football team” after the Week 1 win over Texas. Holtz claimed Ohio State wasn’t tough enough a couple of years ago to beat Notre Dame.

Well, Ohio State did just that and Day asked on the TV broadcast postgame where Holtz actually was. So the beef was certainly real.

If it went away, Holtz definitely brought it back. He basically said he was not impressed with this version of Ohio State.

“You remember me telling you, I don’t think Ohio State’s a great football team,” Holtz told Dan Dakich of Outkick. “I know the schedule is very, very good, but when you’re at home and you’re outgained by well over 100 yards, you just can’t look at it and say, ‘Okay, we’re great. We won the game.’ They are 1-0 and that’s the objective they had going in that game, but they’re not a great football team.

“I would not be overwhelmed about facing Ohio State, although I was surprised that they lost Knowles, their defensive coordinator, I thought there’d be a big drop off on their defense, but Ohio State’s defense played outstanding football. So I think we’ll have to see how good Michigan is. We’ll have to see how good other teams are.” 

Holtz already circled the Ohio State-Michigan game at the end of the year. But, he did want to wait and see how good Oklahoma is, considering the Sooners play the Wolverines this week.

But Holtz understands “The Game” and is aware of what it can do to Day and the Buckeyes if they lose for a fifth straight year. The bad blood is real.

“I think Michigan could be a very, very good football team,” Holtz said. “Michigan better not beat Ohio State again. I’m from Ohio. I coached there under Woody Hayes, we won the national championship. We scored late in the game (against Michigan), the winner is going to go play for the national championship. 

“And Woody went for two, and we made it. Won the game, 50-14. They said to Woody, ‘why’d you go for two?’ He said ‘they wouldn’t let me go for three.’

“Ryan D ay (can do) whatever he wants. I did write him a congratulatory letter, but I never heard back from him. I’m not sure he could write but in any event … And he’s obviously a good coach, he’s a good recruiter, he’s a good coach … You look at his win-loss record, it’s really tremendous. But let’s not get overwhelmed, because the Big Ten doesn’t have that many great football teams in it this year, but we’ll find out.”