Lou Holtz & Lou Holtz Have A Historic Sit Down On The Pat McAfee Show

We were trying to make sure everything's set up for what's about to happen because this is something that as soon as we found out it was possible, I got uber excited. And the fact that this show is something that exists on ESPN now really makes this whole thing even more ridiculous. But it's going to be impossible to come to a great university like Notre Dame and not talk about one of the most historic figures in the history of football, not just in the history of Notre Dame. And if you have a show in which there's a kid who went to Catholic junior high and Catholic high school and he had been dreaming of being a Notre Dame student and following along with Notre Dame and having an impression and impersonation of one of these people since he's like 12 years old, so good that he can literally have a conversation with anybody in that particular impersonation, you have to do what we are about to do right now. Connor, some things are for the fans. Yes, exactly. Some things are for these beautiful people right out here in South Bend, Indiana. Some things are for the people that watch on YouTube, which we love greatly, and they're the only reason why we are where we are right now. And now some things are for the people that are watching along on ESPN. Oh yeah. How long can you fill, Pat? We will find out. Something takes a while to set up. Right here. Some things take a long time to set up, but some things are worth the wait. Yeah. Because ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, it is time for a one-of-one type of conversation that can only happen just yards away from Touchdown Jesus Christ. Ladies and gentlemen, a conversation with Lou Holtz. Thank you very much, Pat. Sitting here with Coach Lou. Coach, obviously, I mean, this is such a beautiful campus. We both know it. It is literally created in God's image. It's been a massive day. Obviously, big weekend with Ohio State here in town. I know we have the dedication of the new library. How great does it feel to be back on campus at Notre Dame? Well, I say this. If you've been part of Notre Dame, no explanation is necessary. If you haven't, no explanation is a fight. You have to be part of Notre Dame to understand this is just a special place. It is a special place. I tell you what, I get goosebumps every time I set foot on campus. I'm sure you do too. Obviously, the rich tradition and the history here, a lot of which we've built. But I'm just curious, when you look at this year's Notre Dame football team, obviously, massive test tomorrow. Massive test against the Ohio State Buckeyes. But when you look at this team, does it feel different? Does it feel like the teams of Notre Dame's past? Yes, it definitely does. Number one, let's start with the coach, Marcus Freeman. He loves Notre Dame. He understands what Notre Dame is all about. And that is so important for the head coach to believe in this school. Number two, Notre Dame is a better football team than Ohio State. And let me tell you why. We have the best offensive line in the country. Sam Hartman won't even get his journey dirty all year. He has time to throw the football. The offensive line, we have great running backs. Esteem is averaging about 10 yards a carry. We have great receivers. So offensively, we're set. Defensively, our defensive line's better. And you look at Coach Day, and I coached at Ohio State under Woody Hayes. We won the national championship when I was there. So I'm proud of that. However, he has lost to Alabama, Georgia, Clemson, Michigan twice. And everybody that beats him does so because they're more physical than Ohio State. And I think Notre Dame will take that same approach. I know that our schedule hasn't been the best. We're 103rd in strength of schedule. However, that doesn't bother me because every day we get to practice against good. We get to practice covering our good receivers. Won't be much different than covering the great receiver they have in Ohio State. And plus, we're playing at home. It'll be a close football game, but we will win because we believe. Forget who in the hell we're playing. Just tell Ohio State this. You take this message to Ohio State. You tell them they'd better bring their lunch because it's going to be a full damn day's work. I love that. Hey, I hope you heard that, AJ. Hope you heard that, pal. Coach, you mentioned Marcus Freeman. Now, a lot has been made about your tradition, our tradition of writing letters to, you know, new Notre Dame coaches when they come in. Have you had the opportunity to write any letters to Coach Freeman? And if you haven't, what kind of message have you sent him? Well, I graduated from Kent State and our motto was, we can't read, we can't write, but we are Kent State. Now, I haven't written Coach Freeman, but I talk to him quite often. My philosophy is the same that Eric Parsegian had towards me. I will never give you advice. Advice, as you all do, I'll give you my opinion. When I did this, we won. When I did that, we lost. Now, you make the choice yourself. But the first week, Marcus Freeman was head football coach. He flew to Orlando and spent a full day with me. I have the greatest respect for him. As I said, he loves Notre Dame. He's great with the players. He understands, and he will win a national championship here at Notre Dame. And I'll say this, it's damn near time we did. I'll say that. I couldn't agree more. We won it in 88. People say, write Lou Holtz National Champs 88, and I write National Champs 88, screwed in 89, 90, 93. Well, Coach, you also mentioned Sam Hartman. Now, granted, Notre Dame, typically, I mean, we like to grow our own here. Transfer portal this, transfer portal that. I understand that's a part of college football now. But I know he doesn't exactly play like our guy Tony Pike back in that national championship team. But the way he performs on the field, he's got that necklace with one of his own ribs that he lost in order to play football. He could be the first Notre Dame quarterback to win a national championship since Tony Pike. How important is Sam Hartman to this football team? I hope my list isn't as bad as yours. I just had lunch with Mrs. Sam and Hartman, and she told me how much he loves this school, how much he loves the place, and more importantly, how comfortable he feels. Usually, there's pressure on a Notre Dame quarterback. But Sam Hartman, hell, he's as old as I am. I remember when he played. But he's a great quarterback, he's a great competitor, and he's the ideal situation for Notre Dame. And Father Hesburgh, who I loved, told my wife this, whenever Notre Dame is in a difficult position, God will send a person at the right time there. And Sam Hartman is the right person here at Notre Dame at this time. Well said, Coach. And I think, you know, as we're moving towards tomorrow, and again, massive game, I think we should kind of maybe send a message not only to the players, but the fans of Notre Dame. When you have a big game like this, you know, you got all these young men, these young athletes who are arguably going into the toughest test of their lives. Now, you can take all of that adversity. Sorry, I mean, it's tough to, you know, I gotta hold the handkerchief and the microphone at the same time, so it's a little difficult. But all this adversity, you know, it's out here, it's hanging out here. And what you can do is you can take all of those, you know, self-perceived issues and fears and adversities that we face every single day when you're going against a tough team. And you gotta stick them down deep, because it really doesn't do anything for you to dwell on them. So you stick them down deep, and then you realize that all those adversities and those issues, they're just a figment of your imagination. I wish they could have made that red flag disappear on the field as quickly as you did that one. But, you know, there is no such thing as magic. It's all mentally, etc. Now you did that. I want to do this one. It's like any other newspaper. You have the front page for people who want to read the news. You have the comics for people who can't read. And we have the editorial page for people who can't think. But it's like anything else. You have to have a faith and a belief somewhere along the line. I'm not sure. I used to do this trick all the time. That's when I was younger. But I'm not sure I can do it. But in any event, I think maybe we can. I used to do this with a phone book when I was younger. But I have trouble tearing it up. I want to tell you, physically, I have an awful lot of problems. Mentally, I'm as sharp as I've ever been. However, however, that's one of the advantages of not being very sharp when you're growing up. Because then when you get dementia, people can't tell. There's no difference in anything. But, you know, it's like anything else. Many people are going to think they saw me tearing that up. But it's all mental. If you really have a strong faith and a strong belief in what you do, it can work out. Thank God. Hell yeah, Coach! Somebody said, somebody said, how do you do that? Perfectly, I thought. But in any event, that doesn't matter. But there'll be no magic tomorrow. We just beat them up physically and believe that we could win. And we have a great tradition. We're here. We got the best fans in the world. We have the most beautiful campus going. And you're not playing for your teammates only. You're not playing for your coach. You're playing for the millions of people that live and die with Notre Dame football. Notre Dame football is bigger than you as a player. You came here for a cause. And our cause is to be the very best. You don't come to Notre Dame to win most of them, some of them. You come to Notre Dame to win all of them. And anything less than profession should be unsatisfactory. Well said, Coach. I mean, that's just unbelievable. Can I get, I mean, I don't want to, you know, final score prediction. I know we think it's going to be close. And I think we're both on the same page. There is no way in hell Notre Dame is losing this football game. But if you had to maybe come up with the final score, what is your prediction for tomorrow? Notre Dame wins by 10. By 10. Wow. And I believe that in my heart. And we just have a great, we have all the ingredients you need. We have coaches. We have players. We've got fan support. We have it all right here. And so, and our lady on the Dome. I remember we used to have a luncheon, 3,000 people. And it was a great luncheon. Players would get up and talk about their experience. Well, one time I had our putter. He did the place kick and the kick off everything. He got up in front of the luncheon. Instead of talking about how special Notre Dame was, he went into a tirade how unfair I was to kickers. What? He said, we're the only school in America that travels one kicker and three priests. And when he got down, I got up and said, Greg, his name was Greg Henry, kicked for 12 years with the Titans. I said, Greg, if you kick better, we'd only need to travel with one priest. Yeah. However, I'll never forget. We're playing Miami and this is apropos for this game. We're playing Miami. They had won like 35 in a row. We have the pregame luncheon. I go in at the last second and the guy gets up, said coach holds my name, Father Leo. I do not remember his last name. I remember Leo because that's my middle name. He said, I'm the team chaplain for Miami. I'm a Catholic priest. We've won 36 in a row. We plan on winning 37 in a bar. And I want you to understand, coach, God doesn't care who wins this game. And I get up and I said, I agree with you. God doesn't care who wins this game. But I promise his mother does. She has great interest in this game. That's amazing. Hey, coach, Lou Holtz's great work, boys. 86 years old. Still got it. 86 years old. Wow. We were chitchatting about the possibilities of that, obviously. And we got in contact with the Holtz Heroes Foundation, which he does incredible work around the country, still obviously giving back and caring every single day. He, they connected us with somebody and I asked, does he know that our show exists? And his assistant said, are you talking about the show that has the impersonator of him on it? Like three times, four times a year? Yes, he knows you guys exist. So the fact that he was cool with sitting down with Ty there, we are very appreciative. Coach Lou Holtz, gentlemen. Tell you what, he's still got it, too. He's still got the fastball. I appreciate the fact that, you know, he hadn't had that newspaper probably in a little while. Yeah. And he's like, where is that sports section that we need to tear up again? And as soon as he found it, he was like, here we go, right back into the game. It's fantastic that he did that, AJ. I'm still mind blown every time. I don't know how it works. I mean, I understand why he gets paid tons of money to travel around the country and give speeches, because he is absolutely sharp as a tack. And him, he and Ty over there taking pictures. What a good sport, too. And obviously, super duper smart and still seems to be doing great, man. I'm a huge fan. Hey, coach, you kicked ass, coach. Thank you, coach. Great hair, too. Great hair. He talked about Craig Hendrick there, who punted for the Titans. I did not know that he kicked field goals and kicked off here at Notre Dame. I do appreciate the fact that he kind of took a shot at him. Craig Hendrick and I, very tight. He taught me a lot of things. Yeah. I'm very, not very tight. That's a lie. But he taught me a lot of things as a punter in the NFL. So I'm very thankful as Ty Schmidt rejoins us here on the stage. Ty, I don't want to take a victory lap because it kind of ruins the bit, that whole thing. But I think we should maybe take a victory lap. Thank you for bringing that microphone up and being so attentive to the stage the entire time. Ty, how'd you feel down there with coach? Very hot. But I mean, that's a bucket list thing. It really is. Like, we've talked about it before. I've been doing that since I was like 10 years old. And to ever think that I would have that opportunity, like, it's just, it's wacko. It's crazy. It's just, that was so awesome. I will remember today and that moment for the rest of my life. No question. Yeah. Shout out to coach Holtz. Let it happen. Shout out to you, too. Thank you.