Pat McAfee rubs salt over Ryan Day's wounds with surprise guest for national championship-bound Ohio State coach

A feud has existed between Ohio State coach Ryan Day and former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz since the middle of the 2023 college football season. Ahead of the Fighting Irish game against the Buckeyes in 2023, Holtz made some comments about Day that sparked bickering on the “Pat McAfee Show.”

With Notre Dame and Ohio set to face up again at the biggest stage of college football on Monday night, McAfee hosted Ryan Day and Marcus Freeman on a segment of College GameDay.

McAfee, however, had a surprise guest for Day on the special edition of the show dedicated to the national championship. The host called in Holtz to join the show, to the surprise of the Ohio State coach. However, it was only a look-alike of the legendary coach.

This created a hilarious scene on the show. Have a look at the moment below:

What did Lou Holtz say about Ryan Day?

Lou Holtz delivered a controversial remark in his appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” ahead of the 2023 game between Notre Dame and Ohio State.

“Defensively, our defensive line is better,” Holtz said while elaborating on his perspective of the game. “You look at Coach Day. I coached at Ohio State under Woody Hayes. We won the national championship when I was there. I’m proud of that.

“However, he has lost to Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Michigan twice. Everybody that beats him does so because they’re more physical than Ohio State. I think Notre Dame will take that same approach.”

The words of Lou Holtz went viral in the college football world and got the attention of Ryan Day. Following the game, which ended in a narrow 17-14 win for Ohio State with a final-minute touchdown, Day had a reply for the legendary Fighting Irish coach.

“What he said about our team, I cannot believe,” Day said. “This is a tough team right here. We’re proud to be from Ohio. It’s always been Ohio against the world and it’ll continue to be Ohio against the world. I’ll tell you what – I love those kids and we’ve got a tough team.”

It only got worse between the two after Day’s reply to the earlier comment. A few days after the game, Holtz delivered a sharp rebuttal during an interview with former college basketball coach and ESPN analyst Dan Dakich.

“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."

Holtz escalated the feud last week by tweeting that the only reason Notre Dame might lose to Ohio State in the national championship game would be to save Day’s job. Meanwhile, Ryan Day acknowledged that he hasn’t spoken to Holtz since their highly publicized clash.