If you are like me, you are currently recovering from the unbelievably entertaining slate of college football games yesterday.
And if you are really like me, you are trying to pound some waters (gotta stay hydrated) so that you are ready for seven hours of commercial-free, NFL football today. It’s been a great sports weekend so far, and the game of the day yesterday was easily the heavy-weight matchup between Ohio State and Notre Dame.
Anytime a game comes down to the final play in the final seconds, it immediately gets put into the category of “instant classic.” It looked as though the Fighting Irish were going to pull out the win in their home stadium and stay undefeated, but the Buckeyes didn’t stop battling, and eventually were set up on the goal line with a chance to win the game.
In a gutsy call, Ohio State Head Coach Ryan decided to run the football as the clock winded down, and the decision caught Notre Dame off guard. And by that, I mean it in the literal and figurative sense, because not only did the play seem to surprise the Fighting Irish, the team in green literally left one of their guards off the field for the final play.
It didn’t take long for the internet to figure out that Notre Dame only had 10 players on the field (when you are supposed to have 11), and Ohio State basically ran the ball where the missing player was supposed to be to win the game.
Take a look:
Yikes…
That ended up being the final play of the contest, and one that was highly anticipated leading up to it during the week. So much so that legendary sports commentator and former Notre Dame Head Coach Lou Holtz made a rare appearance to talk about the Fighting Irish on The Pat McAfee Show.
The popular sports show had one of their producers interview Lou Holtz while doing a Lou Holtz impression, which was hilarious to say the least. But while Holtz sat for the interview on Friday, he might have given Ohio State and their head coach Ryan Day some “bulletin board material” when he made comments about the Buckeyes:
“Everybody that beats him does so because they’re more physical than Ohio State…
Just tell Ohio State this: you tell them they better bring their lunch, because it’s going to be a full day’s work.”
If you thought that Head Coach Ryan Day and his Buckeyes team were just going to let those comments slide, you would be wrong.
Implying that Ohio State wasn’t as tough as Notre Dame apparently got underneath the skin of Ryan Day, who decided to blast Lou Holtz after they pulled off the last second win against the Irish:
“I’d 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 against the world.
And it’ll continue to be Ohio against the world. But I’ll tell you what, I love those kids, and we’ve got a tough team.”
It seems as though it would be helpful to never give the opposing team extra motivation before you match up against them, but sports have been going on for a long time, and coaches and players (and Lou Holtz) apparently still don’t understand that…
