After Ohio State’s 17-14 win over Notre Dame, head coach Ryan Day had some words for Lou Holtz who said the Buckeyes weren’t as tough or physical as the other top teams, which is why they were losing those big games under Day.
Everyone has heard Day’s response after the game by now, and Holtz responded to that saying he stuck by his comments that Ohio State isn’t physical enough. Players are Ohio State are all standing behind Day and supporting him talking about Holtz in the postgame press conference.
“I think every single guy on this team has Coach Day’s back, and we all know that he has ours,” Kyle McCord said. “For him to go do that, I think it just showed his true emotion and how he feels about this team. I think that fired the guys up a lot. You don’t really see too many head coaches after a game like that show that type of emotion.”
After Chip Trayanum scored the final touchdown, McCord uncharacteristically showed some emotion as well, running to the crowd and yelling to anyone that would listen to him. For a player that normally doesn’t show much, it was obvious that what Day had been preaching in the locker room since Holtz’s comments before the game resonated with him.
“We did a good job of just staying quiet but that was definitely fuel to the fire,” McCord said Sept. 23 after the win over the Fighting Irish. “I’d be lying if we said that didn’t bother us. We came out here and I think we proved a lot of people wrong, but the bigger thing is I think we proved ourselves right.
McCord isn’t the only player that said he fully supported what Day said. Trayanum also said after the game the whole team stands behind him, adopting the “Ohio against the world” attitude that so many Buckeye teams have taken. Cody Simon said that isn’t so much about feeling like everyone is after them, but knowing they need to be together.
“It’s a level of pride that we know that we’re going to get the best out of everybody,” he said. “It’s not that everybody’s against us, but we are together. And when we’re together, no one can beat us besides ourselves. So, we always just try to stay together as a unit.”
There was a lot of support from the entire team, and their emotions after the game-winning touchdown showed that this game carried a big weight that they were able to let off their shoulders when the clock hit zero.
