Ryan Day Comes Face-to-Face with Lou Holtz Impersonator on Pat McAfee Show

By Dan Hope on October 20, 2023 at 1:34 pm
Ryan Day talking to a Lou Holtz impersonator
The Pat McAfee Show
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Ryan Day came face-to-face with Lou Holtz – sort of – during his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday.

As Day arrived on set for his interview with The Pat McAfee Show on Ohio State’s campus on Friday, so too did “Lou Holtz” – or more specifically, Pat McAfee Show producer Ty Schmit dressed as the former Notre Dame coach.

It was an interview between the same Lou Holtz impersonator and the real Lou Holtz on The Pat McAfee Show one day before Ohio State’s game against Notre Dame that led to one of the most memorable moments of Ohio State’s 2023 season to date. After the real Lou Holtz told the fake Lou Holtz on the Pat McAfee Show that “everybody that beats (Day) does so because they are more physical than Ohio State,” Day responded following Ohio State’s 17-14 win in South Bend, saying “I’d like to know where Lou Holtz is right now” in his postgame interview with NBC’s Kathryn Tappen.

During his conversation with the fake Lou Holtz on Friday, Day explained how those comments fired him and his team up.

“As a coach sometimes, you gotta show emotion, too. You gotta be in the fight with the guys. They gotta feel that part of it as a leader. And there was a lot of things that were being said that week that we took personal, and that's OK. That’s OK to take things personal. That’s just the way it goes. So we had a look in our eye that we’ll continue to build upon,” Day said.

That said, Day also acknowledged that he had not seen the actual segment before the game and that he got a good laugh out of it when he actually watched it one day after the Buckeyes’ win.

“I haven’t laughed so hard in my life,” Day said.

Day says he’s put all of that behind him now, though, as the Buckeyes prepare to play Penn State on Saturday.

“That (the win over Notre Dame) was good, but all of our focus is on winning this game right here,” Day said. “This is as big as it gets right here. And our focus, that game’s behind us; certainly you learn from the past, but our focus has to be on winning this game. We got a really good team coming in here, and you’re not allowed to lose any games at Ohio State. That’s how it works. So we‘re not thinking about that very much. We’ve learned from the past, we’ve grown for it, but all the focus is on Penn State.”

Some more clips from Day’s interview with McAfee on Friday:

Marvin Harrison Jr. also joined The Pat McAfee Show on Friday and talked about the work ethic he’s gotten from his dad, why elite wide receivers want to play for Brian Hartline and how he’s focused on helping the team win rather than individual accomplishments.

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