Urban Meyer is back to the grind at Notre Dame this weekend
With Fox Sports in town with “Big Noon Kickoff” for the first time this weekend, a few familiar faces that don’t often make it to South Bend have come along.
One of those is former national champion football coach Urban Meyer who is back on the panel. Meyer spent from 1996-2000 as Notre Dame’s wide receivers coach, spending 1996 with Lou Holtz.
Meyer shared a story detailing what it was like to coach alongside Holtz during Lou’s final game at Notre Dame Stadium back in 1996. He also shares an example of why he liked recruiting at Notre Dame as well. Check it out below.
Former Arkansas Razorbacks All-American Dan Hampton is slated to become the 21st Hog to be inducted the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame.
It’s been 45 years since Dan Hampton departed Arkansas for an NFL Hall of Fame career, but the accolades keep coming in for the Jacksonville product.
Hampton spent four years as a defensive tackle for the Razorbacks, from 1975-78, playing for a pair of legendary coaches. He played the final two season’s of Coach Frank Broyles’ career, then wrapped up his final two seasons under Coach Lou Holtz. Arkansas went 35-10-2 record during Hampton’s career, including a mark of 22-8-1 in the Southwest Conference.
Hampton amassed 239 tackles – 126 unassisted – as a Razorback, including 32 from behind the line of scrimmage and six fumble recoveries. As a senior in 1978, he totaled 98 tackles, including 18 behind the line of scrimmage, while being named SWC Defensive Player of the Year and earning first-team All-SWC honors.
He was also named an AFCA First-Team All-American that season, leading Arkansas to a No. 3 finish in the national polls, following the 31-6 rout of heavily favored No. 2 Oklahoma.
In 1991, Hampton was elected to the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor and a year later, was voted to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. He was selected to the Razorbacks’ All-Century team in 1994 and was later named one of the state’s Top 50 greatest athletes of the 20th century.
After being the No. 4 overall pick in the 1979 NFL Draft by Chicago, Hampton spent 12 seasons with the Bears, and is one of only two players to play for the franchise in three different decades. He was also one of the cornerstones of the famous 1985 Bears defense that cruised to a 46-10 victory over New England in Super Bowl XX. That vaunted “46 Defense” allowed just 198 points all season, and recorded shutouts in both NFC playoff games.
Razorbacks in the NFF College Football Hall of Fame:
2024 – Dan Hampton (DL)
2019 – Darren McFadden (RB)
2017 – Danny Ford (HC)
2012 – Jimmy Johnson (DL/AC)
2010 – Ronnie Caveness (LB)
2008 – Lou Holtz (HC)
2004 – Wayne Harris (LB)
2004 – Tracy Rocker (AC)
2003 – Doug Dickey (AC)
2003 – Hayden Fry (AC)
2001 – Barry Switzer (AC)
2000 – Billy Ray Smith Jr. (LB)
1999 – Chuck Dicus (WR)
1997 – Bowden Wyatt (HC)
1992 – Loyd Phillips (DL)
1987 – Johnny Majors (AC)
1984 – Lance Alworth (WR)
1983 – Frank Broyles (HC)
1971 – Clyde Scott (RB/DB)
1967 – Wear Schoonover (WR)
1954 – Hugo Bezdek (HC)
Dan Hampton makes a tackle during the 1978 Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma.
Jan 26, 1986; New Orleans, LA, USA; FILE PHOTO; Chicago Bears defensive tackle (99) Dan Hampton pressures New England Patriots quarterback (11) Tony Eason during Super Bowl XX at the Superdome. The Bears dominated the Patriots 46-10 giving the Bears their first ever Super Bowl victory. The Chicago defense had 7 sacks and limited the Patriots to a record-low seven rushing yards. Mandatory Credit: Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY NETWORK
A former Notre Dame head coach was quick to call out a current Big Ten head coach after that coach’s team was beaten as a favorite in a New Year’s Six bowl game last week.
No, it’s not what you’re thinking. [autotag]Lou Holtz[/autotag] didn’t say anything about Ryan Day (to our knowledge, anyway). Instead, it was what a different Big Ten head coach said following their recent loss to an SEC team that rubbed [autotag]Charlie Weis[/autotag] the wrong way.
Ole Miss, where Weis’ son is the offensive coordinator, beat Penn State, 38-25, in the Peach Bowl. Afterward, the Penn State head coach referenced there being too many moving parts for why the Nittany Lions lost.
Weis wasn’t too pleased and offered the following:
Congrats to the Ole Miss Rebels for their dominant will over Penn State. Surprised that Coach Franklin chose not to give Ole Miss credit, but chose to blame the loss on “too many moving parts!” Hotty Toddy! On to 2024
Sour grapes of sort or simply sticking up for his son in a way?
Either way, if anyone has experience in speaking to the media after losing a college football game as a head coach, the elder Weis certainly has a large file.
Lou Holtz may be just a week shy of his 87th birthday but that doesn’t mean the legendary former head football coach at Notre Dame doesn’t still see the game well.
Holtz made comments about Ohio State not being physical enough during an appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show” the day before Notre Dame battled the Buckeyes in September. Notre Dame didn’t win the game, but that doesn’t mean what Holtz said wasn’t true.
Holtz mentioned Ohio State had a bunch of wins under Ryan Day, but that the common theme in each of their losses under their head coach was the team was out-physicaled.
That was once again the case in Friday night’s Goodyear Cotton Bowl as the Buckeyes fell to Missouri, 14-3.
Ohio State’s defense played well, but the biggest difference in the game came late. Ohio State ran for 97 yards all night. Missouri gained 94 yards on 17 rush attempts in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.
Out-physicaled in money time again.
Oh, and social media had a field (Ryan) Day on the Buckeyes head coach while referencing Lou Holtz. Check out some of the best below.
The 2023 college football regular season has come to an end. Plenty happened on the field and plenty away from it. Perhaps no single moment off the field was as memorable as Ohio State coach Ryan Day reacting to Lou Holtz calling out his team for not being physical enough back in September.
Well, Coach Holtz has been found and weighed in on Ohio State and Day’s latest loss – their third straight to Michigan.
Check out the video below as his old ESPN sidekick (and Pittsburgh star) Mark May gets the coach to react to the Buckeyes loss.
In the biggest regular season college football game of the year Saturday, No. 3 Michigan outlasted No. 2 Ohio State en route to moving to 12-0 and the Big Ten championship game next week.
Ohio State now packs up and gets ready for a New Year’s Six bowl game but unless something utterly ridiculous and unforeseen happens, won’t be going to the College Football Playoff.
Michigan led 27-24 when they got the ball back following an Ohio State touchdown with 8:05 remaining. Michigan proceeded to pound the ball down Ohio State’s throats, moving the ball down the field, almost exclusively on the ground as they ran the clock down to 1:08 before kicking a field goal to increase their lead to 30-24.
With how the final score came to be in “The Game” Saturday, it certainly spoke loudly to what Holtz proclaimed.
As Michigan proceeded to pound the ball at will, social media recalled what Lou Holtz said about Ohio State and Ryan Day before the Notre Dame-Ohio State game back in September.
Get ready for Saturday by watching Lou Holtz roast USC
We’ve all heard that USC stands for the University of Spoiled Children, but why did so many USC football players choose to attend USC instead of cross-town at rival UCLA?
Lou Holtz had that answer for you a few years back when he spoke at a pep rally the night before the Notre Dame-USC game. Take a look at this short video to get you pumped, or perhaps even more pumped, as one of the absolute best rivalries in college football once again gets renewed.
If it were a list of the most disrespected then the ’93 Irish would have been #1!
When I recently clicked on an article at 247Sports titled “Miami, USC lead college football’s 10 most-hated teams of all time rankings” I wasn’t expecting to see the team that made me go from liking college football to being obsessed with it.
Had it been a list of the most disrespected teams of all-time I’d have expected to see 1993. That version of the Fighting Irish showed up on the list at eighth overal. Here is what Crawford had to say about that ’93 Notre Dame squad had a national championship blatantly stolen from them.
What is it about Notre Dame that makes the rest of college football fandom rolls their eyes when the Fighting Irish are mentioned among the elites? Go back to 1993 after a late-season loss to Boston College squandered a perfect season and national title for the program. The Fighting Irish were angered after finishing No. 2 behind Bobby Bowden’s Florida State Seminoles — a team Notre Dame beat head-to-head in the ‘Game of the Century’ earlier that season. Lou Holtz let poll voters hear it and the noise indirectly led to the birth of the Bowl Championship Series, a computer-based rankings system used to determine which two teams would play for the national title. Between 1988 and 1993, Notre Dame won 88 percent of its games and became one of America’s teams as a national television staple. But the Irish had plenty of enemies.
No doubt Notre Dame had plenty of enemies, Crawford is right about that and you can view his entire list here. The enemies are why the voters awarded Bobby Bowden a lifetime achievement award in the form of a national championship that season.
For fun, here is a quick look back in photos of the 1993 Game of the Century between No. 1 Florida State and No. 2 Notre Dame. If you don’t recall the game the frustrating thing is that the Irish really did lay the wood to the Seminoles that day but because of legit five dropped would-be interceptions and a couple of offensive lapses that kept Florida State even within shouting distance.
Regardless, enjoy the photos from Notre Dame’s 31-24 victory over the “national champs” that day below as plenty of the “experts” decided to overlook that event in early January.
Lou Holtz and Ryan Day coming to a daytime soap opera near you…
Perhaps you or a close friend of yours loves reality TV. The love is probably there because it offers an escape from ones own reality and the indescribable drama that is observed usually can’t be made up, even though it often is.
The drama both on the field and off, certainly is the same for college football and Lou Holtz continues to participate in it with Ohio State.
We’re all aware of Holtz’s comments about Ryan Day and Ohio State the day before they met Notre Dame in South Bend. We’re aware of Ryan Day firing back right after the game and Holtz reacting.
But it’s seemingly still somehow not over yet.
Holtz participates in the Football Writers Association of America/National Football Foundation Super 16 Poll each week.
Do they actually matter?
If the AP Poll doesn’t really matter then Lou’s really don’t, either. However, that doesn’t mean they’re not compelling.
Check out where Holtz ranked Ohio State in this weeks’ rankings below after Ohio State had a week off.
College Football Hall of Fame head coach Lou Holtz also votes in the FWAA-NFF Super 16 Poll.
He served as head coach at William & Mary, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Minnesota, Notre Dame and South Carolina.
Holtz compiled a 249–132–7 career head coaching record and won the 1988 national championship with the Fighting Irish. He earned Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2000 at South Carolina.
