Ohio State’s Emotional Win over Notre Dame Shows Us A New Side of Ryan Day

We’ve never seen Ryan Day as fired up as he was after Ohio State’s win over Notre Dame on Saturday.Usually calmer and more reserved, Day used both his postgame interview with NBC and his postgame press conference to fire back at Lou Holtz for comments the former Notre Dame coach made one day before the game, in which Holtz predicted that Notre Dame would win and critiqued Day by claiming that “everybody that beats him does so because they are more physical than Ohio State.”We start this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by talking about the new side of Day that we saw after Ohio State’s 17-14 victory in South Bend, and why we liked it even if Day might have been a bit more focused on those comments than he should have been. Then, we break down everything we saw on the field from the Buckeyes against the Fighting Irish. We also discuss how Ohio State’s performance against Notre Dame and throughout the first month of the season shaped our outlook for the rest of the season, pick our biggest surprises and disappointments from the first month of the year and share our biggest takeaways from Ohio State’s men’s and women’s basketball media days.The rundown for this week’s show:0:16: Ohio State pulls a victory from the jaws of defeat3:53: Lou Holtz’s comments set Ryan Day off in a way we’ve never seen before7:03: Was Ryan Day too focused on trying to prove a point about physicality during the game?10:48: It was good for both players and Ohio State fans to see Day passionately defend his team14:01: The only way to fully change the perception about Ohio State is to beat Michigan21:52: Marvin Harrison Jr. proves how tough he is26:51: Emeka Egbuka, Cade Stover step up and show how good they are28:35: Kyle McCord shows his clutch gene when Ohio State needed it most35:34: Improving the short-yardage offense should be the top priority for the bye week36:47: Ohio State’s play-calling on its failed fourth-down conversions made us shake our heads43:10: Ohio State’s defense got the job done but looked more vulnerable against Notre Dame45:42: Improved secondary should allow Ohio State to play more aggressively on defense48:47: JT Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer still don‘t have any sacks, and that’s a problem51:44: Ohio State’s lack of a true nose tackle contributed to Notre Dame’s rushing success54:41: Playing Sonny Styles at linebacker situationally could help Ohio State cover tight ends57:42: Our outlook for the rest of the season is about the same as it was before the season1:04:46: Our biggest surprises and disappointments from the first month of the season1:10:19: Ohio State women’s basketball can be elite while Chris Holtmann enters a defining year