"He takes massive heat": When Joel Klatt defended Ryan Day for calling out 86-year-old Lou Holtz
Ryan Day hopes to help the No. 6 Ohio State Buckeyes regroup after suffering a 13-10 defeat to the Michigan Wolverines in Week 14 on Nov. 30. He was unsuccessful in snapping the Buckeyes' losing streak to their Big Ten rivals, and now aims to prove that he can lead his team on a deep run in the playoff.
Fans may recall college football analyst Joel Klatt's comments about Day's leadership skills before the upcoming playoff game.
Ohio State won a close 17-14 contest over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Sep. 23, 2023. Before the victory, former coach Lou Holtz thought Notre Dame was better than Ohio State and that the Buckeyes weren't physical enough. Day responded after the win, calling out the former Fighting Irish coach and delivering a rallying speech for his team.
"I like to know where Lou Holtz is right now. What he said about our team. What he said about our team, I cannot believe. This is a tough team right here. We're proud to be from Ohio, and it's always been Ohio vs. the world," Day said.
On Sep. 25, 2023, Klatt defended the Ohio State coach on "The Joel Klatt Show: A College Football Podcast."
"Was there anger? Yes. Did it feel spiteful? Yeah, it did, and I get it and if you want to take it that other direction, you know what? Be my guest, but I'm just telling you, it wasn't for you. It wasn't for you. Ryan was talking to his base. This guy has taken more heat than probably any coach in America, and he's one of the most successful coaches in America over the last four or five years. Whether it was his assistant tenure or now his head coaching tenure and what he's done at Ohio State and he takes massive heat," Klatt said.
Klatt added he thought it was incredible Day spoke out for his team.
"We got to learn from it": Ryan Day addresses loss to Michigan ahead of College Football Playoff
Ohio State (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten) will take on the No. 9 Tennessee Volunteers (10-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Dec. 21. The winner will advance to a quarterfinal matchup against the No. 1 Oregon Ducks (13-0, 9-0) in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2025.
In a news conference Sunday, the Buckeyes coach discussed how his team plans to rebound after the loss to Michigan.
"I think last week it was a mixed bag of identifying the things that didn't go well. Working through that, you don't just move on after a day or two. We know that, but now that we have a target, we said listen, you know, we're gonna flush that out. We got back on the field, we got into the weekend and said like, okay, we gotta learn from it. We got to fix with the problems, but there's not gonna do us any good looking back on that. We gotta learn from it and move on," Day said.