Desmond Howard calls out Ryan Day for clapping back at Lou Holtz

The Lou Holtz-Ryan Day fallout has bled into Week 5’s College GameDay, and Desmond Howard has a bone to pick with the Ohio State head coach.

After Holtz called Day’s Buckeyes soft and saying Notre Dame was the better team before last week, Ohio State won on a last-second touchdown and Day let his feelings about Holtz and his comments be known. Howard found Day’s comments distasteful, but not Holtz’s.

“It never will end well if you take a shot at an elderly person,” Howard said on College GameDay. “Especially in your finest moment. You’re talking about a big game in Ohio State vs. Notre Dame — the last thing he should have done was come after Lou Holtz. Enjoy the moment, talk about the success of your team and don’t come after an elderly old man the way that he did.”

“I understand trying to motivate your team … a Hall of Famer, legend, built this sport up and you’re going to come after him because he didn’t pat your team on the back when they were doing bad. He gave his honest criticism on what he saw, so I want turned off by it. I thought it was thin-skinned, they were hypersensitive and it wasn’t [Ryan Day’s] best moment at all.”

So, it’s okay for Holtz to come after Day on a national stage — but not the other way around? Pat McAfee, on the other hand, loves it. Of course, Holtz’s comments came on McAfee’s show ahead of last week’s matchup.

He pointed out that Lee Corso dubbed last week’s Oregon State vs. Washington State matchup the ‘Nobody Wants Us Bowl,’ or Oregon‘s Dan Lanning talking about respect and Hollywood against Colorado as similar situations.

“It all revolves around respect,” McAfee said. “I appreciate the fact that coaches will pull from anything to galvanize their group of 18-to-22 year olds. If you get your group to believe that they’re being disrespected, normally you’re going to get the best out of them.

“To [Howard’s] point, though, I don’t know if that’s the first thing you saw after a massive win against Notre Dame, but I’m okay with coaches using anything to get their team on the same page, even if their ages are 100-74 years.”

Kirk Herbstreit chimed in, making the point that while maybe himself, McAfee and Howard simply might not exactly understand the pulse of the Buckeyes’ locker room. Day’s comments could be the catalyst for what brings Ohio State its first national title in a decade. Herbstreit believes Day would do anything to rally his team together — it just so happened to be at the expense of Lou Holtz, who probably shouldn’t have said anything in the first place.