Ryan Day, Lou Holtz impersonator bury the hatchet on The Pat McAfee Show

One of the odder rivalries that college football gave us so far this season was Ryan Day vs. Lou Holtz. However, with ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ in Columbus on Friday, the two sides, at least in some capacity, have squashed what took place a month ago in South Bend.

Day came face to face with ‘Fake Lou Holtz’, a.k.a. Ty Schmit, in his appearance on McAfee’s show. The Holtz impersonator came opened with a long, thoughtful apology to Ohio State’s head coach for anything he may have said to offend him or the Buckeyes.

“I did want to come up here and kind of clear the air with you. Because, listen, like I said when we were back at Notre Dame when you guys played there? I used to coach at Ohio State back with Woody Hayes, I won a national championship. I love Columbus, I love all these people out here,” said Schmit. “Listen, I didn’t mean to chap your ass like that – I really didn’t and I felt so dang bad afterwards.”

“I woke up the next morning and, low and behold, Ryan Day wants to beat the hell out of me! I did not feel good about it, I never meant to disrespect you or your boys,” Schmit continued. “If you took disrespect or you thought I was making a mockery of you or your program? I apologize and I’m sorry that we ever got in that situation.”

At that point, Day and the fake Holtz shook hands, signifying the end of one of the stranger squabbles we’ve seen in some time.

Then, in a follow-up, Day explained his side of the story. If nothing else, he made it clear that anything he said about Holtz wasn’t anger at him. To him, it was more so a defense of his players and program.

“I got a few text messages from people. I saw some of the real stuff that went on before,” explained Day. “You hear things and then it kind of mounts up.”

“There’s certain points in your life when you get challenged in certain ways. You’ve got to stand up for the people you believe in, the hard work and everybody that our program puts so much into it. You’ve got to stand up for it,” said Day. “Then, afterwards, I saw all the fun that was being had and the laughs that were being had. I thought it was hilarious.”

Again, of all the content that McAfee and his show have given us this year, this was one of the wilder, least expected ones. Still, it sounds like things are going to be okay between the two sides, even though it wasn’t the real Holtz, moving forward.