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Coaching icon Lou Holtz to attend Notre Dame-Arkansas game

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Lou Holtz is making the trip back to Fayetteville.

The 88-year-old coach confirmed, in a Sept. 15 video that was posted by the Notre Dame Club of Arkansas on Facebook, that he will be in attendance at Donald W. Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 27 for the Week 5 college football non-conference matchup between No. 21 Notre Dame and Arkansas.

Holtz, a well-known and respected college football icon who has had a fiery ‘friendship’ with Ohio State coach Ryan Day the last several years, spent different parts of his illustrious coaching career with both Arkansas and Notre Dame.

After starting his coaching career at William & Mary and NC State, Holtz took over the Razorbacks program in 1977 and led it to an 11-1 record and an Orange Bowl win that season. The Razorbacks would go 60-21-2 overall in the seven seasons that Holtz was at the helm of the program for.

Holtz, of course, rebuilt the Notre Dame program into one of the best in college football during his 10-year tenure in South Bend from 1986 through 1996. The latest coach to lead the Fighting Irish to a national championship, which came in 1988 when they went a perfect 12-0, Holtz is one of three Notre Dame coaches who won at least 100 games with the Irish.

Saturday’s game is the first leg of a home-and-home series between the Fighting Irish and Razorbacks that was announced back in 2017. The home-and-home series was originally scheduled to begin in 2020 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the game was moved to 2028.

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