Raybann Metasmark Lasses help you make the most out of every moment. Hey, Meta, takes Naeem, got us a table. The spot looks legit. Hey, Meta, look and translate this for me. It says "traditional lime soup with chicken." Hey, Meta, take a photo. Raybann Metasmark Lasses. Learn, connect and capture content, hands-free. So you can stay in the moment. Iconic style meets cutting-edge technology with Raybann Metasmark Lasses. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B. But with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply. Linked in. The place to be. To be. What is going on IB? Welcome to another edition of the Irish Breakdown Podcast. It's Friday. And so you know what that means. It's the Friday free-for-all mailbag. The show's only as good as the questions that we get in the chat. So, no pressure. But. If today's show's not good, basically we're blaming you all. That's the only one bit to say. It's your fault. So come correct Notre Dame fans. Come correct. I'm good at passing the buck and that's what I'm going to do right now. So before we even start, if it's not good, it's your fault. If that tells you all at all what kind of mood vids is into today. I'm looking forward to it, man. I love Fridays. Friday's my favorite day. This is well documented over the last few years. And look, I've never been disappointed by the questions that the fans come up with. So I'm sure there will be some thought-provoking ones. I'm sure there will be some good ones. There's already a bunch in the queue ready to go. So Brian. Yeah, let's do it without further ado. And we've got some super chats to start off with. And obviously super chats get pushed to the top of the list once we see them. So let's get rocking and rolling with my guy Tyler Evans. Tyler, thanks for the super chat. What do you think makes a great recruiter and position coach now with this crazy football landscape? I don't think Vince, I don't know what you think about this. But I don't think that it really changes anything in regard to what makes it great. I think the story for what makes a great coach is still the same as what's always made a great coach. Are you a good teacher? Can you get the most out of your players mentally? Can you get the most out of your players physically? Can you make sure they're in the right position? They know their system. They know the technical prowess that you as a coach or you as a team have decided is important for that particular position. Can you motivate young men to push past their perceived limitations? Because most young people are better, stronger or whatever than they think that they are. They're just not pushed that way. It's one of my issues with dealing with our society today that we allow so much nonsense from young people and act like, "Wow, they're just young." Nonsense. They're capable of so much more. We're the ones lowering the bar for them, not them. Because we're all that way. If we were told, "Hey, this is all that's expected of you when you're very young." That's what I'm going to do. That's so true. I learned that as my first teaching job, I taught seventh grade. It was at a higher academic type school. Yeah, these kids were 12 and 13 years old. But I realized really quickly, I taught it like a high school class. These kids got there. They raised what they were doing and they got there. It was great. It was an awesome experience. And it's the same thing on the athletic field. I mean, kids, number one, they need structure. Number two, they need the bar raised for them to see what they've got. And at the end of the day, it's all about being a teacher. And I know, look, for all of his faults, one thing Brian Kelly always used to say is he wants teachers as coaches. And he's absolutely 100% correct. Now, he didn't always hire those people. You know, he followed through. They at least gave lip service to it and appropriate lip service to it, correct lip service to it. Absolutely. And Mike Bray used to say the same thing. He's like, at the end of the day, I'm a teacher because he started out in high school. I mean, that's what I do believe he thought that and tried to live that out. Yes, as far as from a basketball standpoint, maybe not always off field, but at least as a basketball standpoint. But set the bar high, teach these kids absolutely. Those are still things that matter. And that's something that Nick Saban certainly valued quite a bit as a coach. Recruiting wise, honestly, today, what makes a great recruiter in today's era, you're great at BSing. I mean, honestly, like that, or you're just a dog, you just recruit, you're just work hard. And you have a little bit of BSing in you. I mean, it has just become such a used car salesman type of industry. It really makes me sick and makes me sad. And there's always been some of that to it. But again, you go back to the original thing, there was always that level of, "Hey, we're going to push you. We're going to challenge you. We're going to," and then there was the BS kind of mixed in. But now it's just like, you know, I listen to, you know, you'll have like recruits. We'll like had some video of some kid talking to Kirby Smart. And I'm like, Kirby Smart's talking to this kid like he's 18 years old. And he goes, "Oh, I can relate to players." So, well, I don't think you should be relating to players that way. You know what I mean? Like, you don't relate to players by acting like you're their age, right? I mean, you know, Dang, well, Kirby Smart doesn't talk like that or act like that when he's around growing up. But it's just kind of, you know, instead of in shocker that Kirby Smart has all these discipline issues, you had another player arrested today on some pretty serious charges. Second time this guy's been arrested since he transferred over. He's only been in Georgia two years, you know, but that's what's acceptable now. ESPN won't crush him for it. Georgia fans won't crush him for it. As long as he wins, nobody cares. And honestly, that's what it's, you know, I'm a little bitter when it comes to that. Honestly, Vince, but, you know, there's always been this level of recruiting is about BSing. That's always been true to Kirby. But it's just got to the point now where it's just, it's, uh, coaches lie. It's just part of the business. Well, why are we accepting that? You know, why do we accept it? It's okay for coaches to lie. It's okay for politicians to lie. How about, I don't know, we hold them accountable for that, but that's a different story for a different day. I don't really care to get into that. It's got to be a pretty good salesman, honestly. And you've got to be pretty good at BSing because that's what recruiting is turned into. You know, I will take this a different direction as the dad of a recruit and things of that nature, right? So I'm a little closer to it these days than I ever was in the past. And look, my kid's not a five star, you know, recruit who's getting offered a ton of money or anything like that. So, you know, when we're talking about Notre Dame recruiting and we're talking about my kids recruiting, it's different. And I totally understand that. But what I will say because the question just says in this crazy landscape, you know, what makes a good recruiter at all the stops that we've made it, it is still about relationships. And that is incredibly important. And I guess I'm speaking from personal, you know, accounts. And right now the schools at the top of the list for my kid is the school that he has the best relationship with the coach, you know? And the school is great. Don't get me wrong. It's fine. But it's about relationships at the end of the day. If you are good at having a relationship with a kid, you're going to be a good recruiter. Now all the stuff Brian said, that's absolutely part of it. Yeah. But it's all of that. You've got to think about the fact that what you're talking about is just a different type of recruiting than what 100% because we're not talking about five star, four star type guys where you're selling a bill of goods. So yeah, relationships matter to a degree, you know, but again, a lot of those relationships are just formed on complete BS, you know, just like you'll hear, you'll talk to a coach and you'll see how he talks around adults and then you'll hear him talking to a recruiter and you'll like to do it completely changes how he talks and he talks to a coach. I don't like that. That's just not my, that's just not my thing. So, you know, but there's a, there's a bit of just salesmanship, it's salesmanship because you know, you mean to see it all time, it's coaches, coaches get these top players and it's like, you know, they, they'll slide to that kid and told him these things. I mean, some of the stuff I've heard about Urban Myron and just the lies he would tell recruits, you know, just and ask him to do what, you know, unsavory things like he flipped another name kid and told them, don't tell Notre Dame, you know, that you're doing this until like whatever, because he didn't want to, it's just like, and then you wonder why kids would go to Florida or go to Ohio State, get in trouble and then he'd lose the program for a number of years. You know, there's just something to it because like it, it, it, the relationship thing matters vents. I'm not saying it doesn't, but if the relationship is all that it, there is, I mean, it, it doesn't at the end of the day, it doesn't truly matter. I mean, like at that level, you'll have, you know, I have a great list of this guy. I'm going to play over here because they offered me this amount of money or because they promised me this or they should, I'd get that, but yeah, I did have a great list with that guy, you know, and that happens way more, way more than it used to. So yeah, I'm just a, I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bitter about what's going on in the game right now when it comes to recruiting standpoint, and there's always been some dirtiness to it. I mean, very dirty business, but at least in the past, it was kind of like you kind of hid that you were dirty. Now it's just flaunted, you know, out there for everybody to see football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up, whether it's tournament season or the fight for playoff home court, there's no shortage of high stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get in on the excitement with prize picks, America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into some serious cash. 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So they're already contracted to play USC in '25 and '26, and I highly doubt Notre Dame is going to let USC gather that without a substantial financial penalty. But I mean, I'd say bring back a Michigan State, something like, you know, that's a team that I've always talked about Vince that I'd like to see Notre Dame play again as Michigan State. You know, there's not. And then I'd say, well, you know, if you want to get a top opponent, then get a top national opponent. You don't need a top opponent as a rival. I want a rivalry that is a rivalry. I don't care if they're good or not. I care that it's a rivalry. And Michigan State's a rivalry that I would would be the first rivalry that I'd like to see get put on my schedule. I will say this. If USC ducks out, that will likely enhance the odds that Notre Dame then will want to stick with Stanford as a annual rivalry because they're going to want that West Coast opponent still on the schedule. And if USC bales out, then you're almost kind of half to then re-up with Stanford. But she keeps Stanford on your list, you know, do you do go out and get a Michigan State? I mean, Miami's one, honestly, that I wouldn't mind seeing kind of on there. Vince, as we talked about this before, I don't know if I'd care about Miami being in every year rivalry like USC was, but I wouldn't mind playing in Miami a little bit more. But that's kind of how I would probably go about it is adding Michigan State. I don't know that I would want a like, because like, you just can't get a new rivalry. Right. Like, rivalry just happened formed because remember when Bob Diaco tried to like, yes, he even created a trophy, like, yeah, and it's like, dude, the other school doesn't care the fantasy care, like, you know, it just you can't create a rivalry. There's got to be something like, why would I talk about Miami's arrival? Like what does Notre Dame in Miami have to do with any like, how's there any kind of rivalry there? It's a rivalry because of some of the bad, bad blood that's happened on the football field, right? And just the dichotomy of what those two schools stood for at the time, you know, from from an outside looking in, created a rivalry. There's got to be something there that makes it a rivalry, whether it's a healthy rivalry or a contentious rivalry. And what I mean by that is there's some rivalry, so there's a level of mutual respect. I think there has been that between Notre Dame and Navy, for example, I believe there actually is that between Notre Dame and USC. I don't think USC and Notre Dame has like, even the fan base, now there's people that don't like each other. But the Notre Dame and USC fan base don't go at each other like Ohio State and Michigan fan base. It's not even close or North Carolina dupe during football season or basketball season, I should say, or, you know, Alabama and Auburn fans, that kind of thing, there's not that kind of animosity. I don't think, for example, there's not nearly the animosity that I've known or experienced or seen for you between USC and Notre Dame fans like there is between Notre Dame and Michigan fans, for example. And I know that's the rivalry that most people want back. I told you, I'll never change my mind. I don't give a crap about playing Michigan. I don't. I don't. I don't. I think that's, that rivalry does more for Michigan than it does in Notre Dame, agreed in my opinion. So I agree. Miami or Michigan State's probably the two that I that pop in my head vents when I think about a rivalry that I would like to see maybe step in and replace USC. If USC cowards out, yeah, I have an article about this today, Vince. Yeah, you do. It's a total coward. Love it. This is what he's always done. He did the same exact thing against Oklahoma and he's full of crap because this whole scheduling first championship thing, you did that at Oklahoma. And here's a, here's a little statistic for you from, from the article today. I just want to point out that Lincoln Riley doesn't actually believe what he says. He just wants to have a bunch of wins and a bunch of stats because that's ultimately what Lincoln Riley cares about. He doesn't actually care about winning a championship. They played Ohio State in his first year there, right? And they beat Ohio State at Ohio State. That was the game that was scheduled under Bob Stoops because Bob Stoops would, would schedule well out of conference, Oklahoma used to play people, right? Scheduled Notre Dame multiple times, right? Lincoln Riley took a cowards way out after that Ohio State game. They, there's the scheduling that they had the rest of the way was very soft. Here's what in, and by the way, that 2017 season when they beat Ohio State, that was the closest Oklahoma came to winning a postseason game. If you remember, they took Georgia to overtime that year in the college will play off. But in future seasons, let's look at who Oklahoma has played in from 2018 to 2021. Here's their non-conference schedule, 11 and two army, five and five Southwest Missouri State, five and seven Florida Atlantic, five and seven South Dakota, four and seven Western Carolina, four and eight Houston, four and eight UCLA, three and nine U.S. UCLA, three and nine Nebraska, two and 10 to lane. That's who they played in their non-conference. And then so they, you know, in the big 12 was down. So they, you know, scheduled for a championship. They won the big 12 every year. They went to the college football playoff in 2017, the year that they played Ohio State in the non-conference, challenged out of conference, did a pretty darn good job taking Oklahoma, Georgia to the playoff. Next year, week non-conference, they get to the postseason, Alabama kicks the crap out of them. It was 45, it was 45, 34, wasn't that close. Oklahoma scored late to make it closer. The next year, they went out in 2019 with that soft schedule and got beat 63 to 28 by LSU. It was 49 to 14 at halftime. So how did that whole scheduling for a championship work out for them then? Soft non-conference schedule got to the postseason, got their brains beat in, right? Because that's not exactly how you get to a championship. And he tried using USC as an example, I mean, Alabama's example, Alabama has to play LSU, Texas A&M, Auburn and Tennessee every season, right? Like back when they would do that and they would still get a good non-conference opponent. They would still get Wisconsin or USC one year, teams like that. So he's just a coward, he's always been that way, he was that way to Oklahoma. He ran from Oklahoma because they were going to join the SEC. And instead of going to LSU, which wanted him bad, right, which is the place he could want to add if he cared about that, he instead, you know, high-tailed it over to USC where he thought he was going to be playing in a weak big 10. Now just so happens at that same off season, Dan Lanning joined the back 12, I said big time at Pac-12. Dan Lanning joined the Pac-12 and Caitlyn DeBour joined the Pac-12 that same off season. And you know, Lincoln Riley obviously had started off well for him there, Vince, but once the schedule started ramping up, he ended up struggling and I've got this little statistic for you. Lincoln Riley in games against Kyle Whittingham, Caitlyn DeBour, Dan Lanning, Marcus Freeman and Chip Kelly in his USC, he's a grand total of two and six in those games, by the way. And lost his most recent game to all of them because DeBour beat him this year, Lanning beat him this year, Chip Kelly beat him this year and Marcus Freeman beat him this year. And of those games, of those six losses, four of them were by double digits. He wants to play crap schedules where he has the better talent that can put up a lot of points, put up a lot of numbers, win a lot of games with no substance. That's who Lincoln Riley is and he exposed himself for that at the big 10 media day. And so if they leave, which would be a shame, be sad if that happens, Miami, Michigan State of the two teams, I'd probably say, Vince, what, what say I just had to get that. I don't see any other Lincoln Riley questions on there that I saw a notice. I had to get that out because it's just been really bothering me. I can't stand cowards. I can't stand coaches who were afraid of competition. I can't stand it. Look who Georgia's playing in the, I got a lot of issues with Kirby Smart. Who's Georgia kicking the season off with this year? Clemson. They've played Clemson a bunch in recent years. The year that the Georgia won their first national title under Kirby, who'd they start the season off with Georgia Clemson, right? So that's what, that's what real winners do. They're not afraid to play people. So Kirby Smart's a coward or let me see you're not, excuse me, Lincoln Riley's a coward. That's basically what it is. I can't stand that guy. I'll keep this real simple. If Notre Dame and USC are no longer playing each other, you might as well just forget any kind of rivalry game because if you're going to throw that rival real way, I'm not saying Notre Dame's going to do it. You're correct. But if you're going to throw that rival real way, then what the heck are we doing? Then there is no more rivalries. I'm sorry. Like it's heartbreaking that they would even consider, they meaning USC and I look, I'm not even saying USC is even considering this because I don't even think that they are. I think this is just a coach, just, just yapping at his mouth. This is the same team though that just abandoned a hundred year relationship with the Pac-12. Well, that's very true. Big 10. So like, do you really? But it's money. Yeah. And Notre, the Notre Dame game brings in money if USC ever sells out a game, there's no names there. They're, they're now partnered with the same network that already hosts Notre Dame anyway. You know what I mean? So like they're, they're going to make more money. Yeah. More money having Notre Dame on the schedule than not having Notre Dame. I would think so, but yeah. So if it's about money, that's an empty argument to me. If it's, if this rivalry gets canceled, forget about rivalries in college football. That's where I'm at. I'm very bitter about the whole situation. And again, I don't think USC does it. I think this is a coach spouting his mouth off, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Yeah. He's definitely spouting his mouth off. Unfortunately, I think there's a lot of people that view it that, that same way, sadly, that's, that's the thing that frustrates me so much, Vince, is because there are a lot of people. There's a lot of people in our country right now and then sports and a lot of ways that are just trying to figure out easy ways to win. It's ridiculous. You know, let me go join some super team, you know what I mean? Because I can't, I can't build up my own team the right way. So let me go join some super team, you know, I mean, call me crazy, but all my heroes as a child, one championships with the teams that they were drafted by and battled through and had tough, you know what I mean, like shocker. But, you know, I mean, it's different for like a Peyton Manning who got cut, right? The Colton won him anymore. So he goes, yeah, they let him go. They let him go. Right. That, I mean, that's a different kind of aunt. That's a different kind of story. Too many people look for the easy path and Lincoln Riley is the epitome of like that soft-minded modern coach, which is why I don't see him ever winning. I mean, I could end up eating my words someday, but I don't see him ever winning. Not anytime. Ever winning. I just don't think he's got the mental toughness and a team isn't going to be mentally tough if the head coach isn't like the Anton Lin is the coordinator can only do so much. Right. I mean, he's not the head coach. He can only do so much. Lincoln Riley is always going to be the stumbling block for that team. Oh, it's going to be that. And as I've said before, the further away they've gotten from Bob Stoops, the softer his teams have gotten, physically softer, the teams have gotten. There's no, it's, and that's, I say, I use a similar thing about Ryan Day. Right. I mean, it's like the further away they get from urban Myers tenure, the softer that team gets. Now we'll see if Chip Kelly and Jim Knowles together as coordinators can kind of fix that. We'll find out. Yeah, that, that's those two guys to me and the epitome of just that soft minded modern, you know, genius football coach, right? So yeah, thank you for letting me get that rant out. I needed, I needed that today. I think that's two. I think I should be keeping track. That's two. That was the first one. I don't even remember. Oh, about recruiting. Oh, this is a rant that's just stating the obvious. Yeah. All right, we got another super fax, brother, we got another super jet here from ICU RN with Irish luck. Thank you so much for the super chat. Do you think that Great House could be the same kind of place her player? Okay. Thank you. The same kind of player that Puka Nakua for the Rams, not super fast, but good route runner who just gets open. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I see the similarities, I mean, somebody in the chats upset about us using Puka Nakua as an exam or somebody using Puka Nakua as an example because he's only had one good season, but I mean, that one good season, he had over 100 catches. I was going to say it was a really good season. Yeah, but also Puka was a really good player in college as well. I mean, so I think there's some, you know, he couldn't stay healthy, but when he's healthy, he's a pretty good player. You know, I think Puka and Jayden are a little bit different. You know, I think they're similar in some ways, you know, neither of them are burners, you know, at least Puka had pretty good, if I remember correctly, had a pretty good pro day number, if I remember correctly. But I'm actually going to look that up, but he didn't, he's not like a, you know, he's not Chris Mitchell or Jayden Harrison or Chris Tyree, right? But he runs well, it's good athlete, you know, I, there's, there's some similarity events, but I just don't, I don't see, he ran a four five five actually, just similar to what Jayden Graves, that great house would be knows how to get open, though, broadly, I would say yes, broadly, specifically, I just think there's some differences of, in the most players that I'd say, okay, well, I wouldn't comp Puka Nakua, you know, Jayden Greathouse and Puka Nakua wouldn't be comps for me as far as like really diving in, but as far as, you know, just the overall bigger picture standpoint, similar impact, sure. Sure. I think Jayden Greathouse can be more of a volume player in college than Puka was, Puka was not a big time volume guy in college, he was more of a, he was actually more of a kind of a big play guy, to be honest with you, I mean, his junior year was his one healthy year, and he averaged 18.7 yards per catch at BYU, so, you know, there's some similarities there, yeah, knows how to run routes, just gets open, sure, sure, there's some similarities there. Okay. Again, I, and I didn't watch Puka a ton last year, I watched a lot of NFL, I'm, I'm going off of what I saw him in, in college. Maybe if I walks more of the Rams, I would say, oh man, that version of Puka is a lot like what Jayden Greathouse is, maybe I might say that Vince, but I can only go off of what he was at BYU. Yeah. That's fair. And at BYU, I don't, I don't know that I would say necessarily that type of, that type of player, they're, they're a little, a little bit different. Hey, it's Kaylee Cuoco for Priceline, ready to go to your happy place for a happy price? Well, why didn't you say so? Just download the Priceline app right now and save up to 60% on hotels. So whether it's cousin Kevin's Kazoo concert in Kansas City, go Kevin or Becky's Bachelor at Bash in Bermuda, you never have to miss a trip ever again. So download the Priceline app today. Your savings are waiting. Go to your happy place for a happy price, go to your happy price, Priceline. I'll let you take this one, Vince, because I, I got nothing on this one. Okay. Josh, Gordian, not, are there any traditions from other schools that would fit right into Notre Dame, maybe instead of a giant silly drum, Notre Dame would have a giant bagpipe, or instead of Bivo, they bring back Clashmore Mike. I think stealing other traditions are stum, no offense to that. I'm not saying- Well, I think he's saying more of like looking at what other teams do and saying how can Notre Dame tailor what they do to that? And like his two examples, I would say Notre Dame already kind of does that. I mean, like in certain ways, I mean, they've got the leprechaun and, you know, Texas has Bivo Notre Dame has the leprechaun, you know, I mean, everybody has a mascot though. Sure. So I mean, I don't know how- Sure. I don't know. I just, I don't know that that stuff matters, Vince. Do you? I mean, first of all, you can't manufacture traditions, in my opinion. So like, if you don't have it already, don't try to create it because it's just going to look manufactured, I'll say that. I can't think of anything specifically, like a lot of schools have a player walk of some sort. Obviously Notre Dame already does that. You know, as far as like a big drum or, you know, stuff of that need, like I don't want Notre Dame to change their mascot or do anything like that. Look, their mascot's a person. So changing it to an animal is not really going to work. I guess they had Clashmore Mike, but it was like a, like a border collie or something like this. It's like little, itty bitty dog. Like what is nipping at your ankles, I mean, I thought it was a bigger dog than that. I thought it was a little dog. No, I mean, I've seen some pictures of one, I mean, again, whenever you have like a mascot dog, there's going to be different, different ones of it. But like the one Newt Rockney had was smaller, but then like later, it was different breeds of dogs and a bigger dog. So Irish terrier. That's what it was. Yeah. Irish terriers are not big. Yeah. But again, that's, I've seen pictures of the mascot dog and some of them were bigger dogs. So they weren't all small dogs, but, but that's the other thing too, is like it's different dogs from what I've seen, you know, at least where it's like George is like, it's Ugga, Ugga one. It's a bulldog. The 97. It's a bulldog. It's a bulldog. Right. But that's your mascot too. Yeah, I mean, I look, I love where your head's at, I G K, but I am a big fan of not manufacturing traditions. Yeah. Now what I don't, what I don't mind is like, okay, now they do smoke coming out. That's fine. That's not tradition. That's just a cool aesthetic or fireworks before night games. Right. That's cool. Like doing things that enhance the, the experience is cool. The light show. And then maybe some of those things catch on, like tradition needs to be natural, like you do something and it just over time it takes on that and becomes a tradition, right? There's some traditions. No name does it. I'd actually like see them get rid of. I'd like to see them get rid of the lines in the, in the end zone. And I'd like to go to a colored end zone with Notre Dame and I, you know, Notre Dame on one side and the Irish on, you know, Irish on the other, something like that. Yeah. But, you know, hey, it is what it is, but I don't know that I care, I might be, the reason I said this, maybe I might not be the best person for this because I just don't care about that kind of stuff. I don't care about cheerleaders. I don't care about, you know, like the Buffalo dude running out, but the only one that I've ever seen that was pretty cool that I actually paid attention to was at Florida State. The first time I went down there and when that horse comes out, Chief Osceola comes out and he's got that flame and spear and he's like, okay, that was pretty cool. Like, all right, man, like the little Trojan dude. What's his name? The traveler. That's lame. It's like whatever, dude, you know, it's like you got a little fake sword. They're not letting you in there with a real sword. You know what I mean? Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, but my man, Chief Osceola comes, I think that's his name, right? He comes out with like a legitimate spear on fire and throws it into the ground and the crowd goes crazy. All right. That's pretty cool. If the Sandman is way cooler on TV, then it is there because they're going to be the other way ever because like they go through this like long, it's like, okay, guys, it's been five minutes. Can you guys come out of the tunnel now, like please, right? But on TV, you just see it like at the very end, when they're about to come out and you're like, okay, this is freaking awesome. But it's like the buildup is take so long, you're just like kind of over it by the time they get there, you know what I mean? But I've seen that now twice and it was, you know, all right, whatever, you know, but Norman, the dudes coming out in the, that's only fun to watch when they, when it crashes sadly. I'm sorry to say I got a little, they ever seen that thing tip over the Oklahoma, the sooner, the sooner scooter or whatever it is, they turn too quick, and they always have some broad upfront and she just goes flying like, yeah, it's hilarious. Some broad upfront. Okay, Vince. Yeah, I went there to get me in trouble today. You know, like the dudes in Colorado running out the buffalo, that doesn't do anything for me. My only thought is I hope it doesn't go to the bathroom on the field. That's like the only thing I care about like, I just, I don't get into that kind of stuff. Now would it be cool to have somebody coming out with bagpipe? I don't know that you could really hear that in an 80,000 seat statement. Well, unless you mike it up, which, right, but like the lacrosse team does that. That's pretty cool. And I kind of feel like if Notre Dame football team started doing that, then maybe they'd be stealing a little bit of the country from what the lacrosse team does 100%. So I think they have, there's plenty of traditions at Notre Dame in my opinion, Vince. Oh my gosh. You know, you know, tradition, I would love to see you come back for Notre Dame, but I'd like to see them steal from like Georgia and Bama and teams like that, the national winning championships. There you go. I do love to see come back tonight. I knew that was coming. Yes. Yes. Well, now here's my question for your IGK, like, so I obviously don't care a lot about this. And I don't think Vince does either. But I mean, your question came from somewhere. I'd be happy to hear some things that you guys would like to see because like this is just our opinion. It doesn't mean we're right or wrong. It's just our opinions on this. Other people are going to have other people love that there's cheerleaders that came, right? Like I know, I know some, some dads that have daughters and like when they're at a football game, like that's something that they can kind of aspire to be a part of. Sure. Just like, you know, you're a band person, like man, I would love to grow up and be part of the Notre Dame band. That's a pretty real, you're not an athlete. That's real. Like you're good at this and you're part of the environment. You're not necessarily part of like what's happening on the field, but you're a part of the experience of being Notre Dame. That's pretty cool. And respect to those people. It's just not something I care about. Like I'm not like, get rid of cheerleaders. I don't know. It's fine. Like they can do it. I just don't have to care about it. You know what I mean? So, but you know, because it just doesn't add anything to what I view and what I care about being in a football game. But I'm also, I've never been to a whole lot of football games, Vince, this is a fan. I mean, I've very, very few couple Notre Dame games and Ohio State game was in the fifth grade couple NFL games, but like for the most part, every time I've ever been to a college football game, it's either been as a player, as a coach or working. And so I kind of understand the need to have somebody to kind of keep the crowd engaged in them. I get all that, right? It's just for me, I don't care. You know, so I'd be curious what you guys think about that. Like what are some traditions you guys would like to see maybe Notre Dame have or, you know, or either ones that they have or ones that you'd like to see them do? That would be a more of an interesting discussion. So very curious here what you guys think about that. So let me know in the chat what you guys, what you guys think. So as long as you, your suggestion isn't that crazy thing that the Texas A&M weirdos do the night before my room, as long as it's not that well, during the game, it's pretty weird too. But that's a, you know, do they do it during the game? Just like the, whatever they do, you know, they, that's during the game, man, like, it's weird. Yeah. So somebody said, coach, you've played God's football. Of course you cared about the hot cheerleaders. I just not a football, not a football. I might have carried out of it, you know, about them after the game or something like that. Right. I mean, it's not like I looked over like, Hey, check out the cheerleader. Like, first of all, I'm like, they're, they're kind of doing their game day thing. They're, you know, you respect what they're trying to accomplish. Right. But I was usually too busy focus on, I don't know, trying to win or in the case at Salisbury, trying not to get killed, you know, because my offensive line was so bad, but I didn't care about that stuff. Again, I don't say that disrespectfully, Vince. I have no disrespect towards cheerleader. It's all part of it. It's just, it just isn't something that I care about at a football game. So I'd be curious to hear some, some of the people, some of the, some of the drum lines doesn't know. The name has that though. Right. Don't they have, they have a drum line and they do the, they do the drum line thing at midnight before games. It's a drum circle was what they call it. And it's at midnight on Friday nights or Saturday morning, depending on how you look at it. Every home game, they have the drum circle. So that actually happens already. Just maybe some of the people are in bed. Well, and then, you know, like there's other things that their name does that a lot of people don't experience because they're, they're either get there before the game or they're open a lot or they're like the trumpets in the dome are really cool. That's awesome. It's not a little awesome. I don't think they do that any inside anymore. I don't believe which I think they do. I was told they haven't done it since COVID. Really? Yeah, they do it outside now. That's stupid. The whole point of it is to say it's a, it's a, you know, fire hazard because there's too many. But it's above the fire. It's just stupid. Yeah. So yeah, get me started on that stuff. All right. Next question. Kish squared. I could maybe be on the verge of getting a rant at events today. Let me see what buttons I can push here moving forward. How would you compare the feeling of entering into Freeman's third year to the feeling of entering into Weiss's third year, which also had everyone optimistic? I wasn't super optimistic going into year three. I mean, I thought they'd be a lot better than they were, but there was a lot of uncertainty because it was just a brand new overhauled roster. Over seven was the third year, right? Yeah, exactly. I mean, they were just, they were completely overhauling the roster. Yeah. And the other part of it is people on the inside, you know, people who covered the team also knew how they practiced and were very wary of the product that was going to be put on the field because most of the guys that were going to play had never seen the light of day at practice. I mean, that's just the reality of it. And for better or worse and in '07, it was for worse in '05 and '06, it was for better. He inherited a team that had some experience and those guys, especially offensively, specifically, those guys were going to be around for a while or a couple of years. And so he just focused on the starters on offense, made him really good. But the Quinn and company, they were really good and it was fun to watch, no doubt about it, right? But as soon as they left, all those guys that didn't get any reps at practice now had to be the starters and they just didn't have the foundation. They just didn't have it. And that was the problem with Weiss and company was that they didn't teach the fundamentals. It was, they treated it more like the NFL. And in the NFL, guys, come to you with fundamentals, you don't have to worry about that. It's more about the X's and the O's and game planning and the decided schematic advantage and all of those things. College is still, you've got to worry about fundamentals, man. You still got to teach these kids and all those kids that were standing on the sidelines at practice were now going to be your starters and they had no foundation whatsoever. And it showed in '07 and it showed moving forward even under Willingham. And so, or, you know, can I ask you a question, Vince, this is a genuine question. Everything you're laying out now is spot on as far as retroactively looking back to how bad '07 was. What was your feeling? Do you remember? I mean, first of all, 17 years ago, so I barely did 17 days ago, much less than 10 years ago. But do you remember kind of, did you feel that way going into that season? Because a lot of this is like a realizations afterwards because I didn't come to the games but I wasn't at practice. I didn't know how bad it was fundamentally. I can only go by what I saw on TV. Sure. Did you feel that way going? Like did you think that, did you see a really rough season coming or did you think they'd be better than what they were? Look, I am not going to be the guy that was like, I saw this whole thing coming. No, I did not see what happened in '07 as an entirety coming. I remember talking to people though saying, man, I'm kind of excited to see what practice looks like because we've never seen these guys take snaps before. You know what I mean? And we all thought that there was talent on the roster, which there was, I mean, there was talent on the roster. And so I think... I was just young. It was just really young. Exactly. Jim, he was a freshman. Yes. Golden was a freshman. And I just think that a lot of... Davole was a freshman. Sure. I just think a lot of people figured that the talent would take over and win some of the games that they lost, right? I didn't think that they were going to be able to repeat what they did in '05 and '06, but I didn't see '07 call me. You know what I'm saying? There's a happy medium in there somewhere where it all makes sense now that you look back on it, but I was expecting them to take a step back, just not as big of a step. Yeah. That team was... Yeah. That was a very young team. Well, I'll just say this. And there was a lot more what-ifs, I was actually probably, because again, I looked at it more as a fan that season, but there was a lot of ifs going into that season that were far more extreme than this year, because then it was like, "Man, if Armando's back to being healthy before the leg injury, if Jimmy's is this, and if this guy's that, and if this guy does this, you know?" And the other thing too is one big difference. One thing that I was concerned about is when I read that they were tinkering with the offense to possibly fit Demetri's Jones, I was like, "Yeah, that's a mistake," right? Because Demetri's was a quarterback I liked coming out of high school, didn't love him, but I liked him. Sure. It's kind of like he was never going to hold off Jimmy Clausen for three years. I mean, it was always going to be eventually Jimmy, and because Jimmy was way better than him, and he was way better than Demetri's Jones, way better than Zach Frasier, way better than Evan Sharpley, and he was going to be the guy at some point in time, "Why are you tinkering with your offense to add some stuff for Demetri's Jones?" And they did it all off season and it lasted a half, and it's just like you wasted all that practice time for nothing. So I think that that was the only thing that I looked at and didn't understand, but I didn't think it was going to result in a three and ninth season. I'm not going to -- like you Vince, I'm not going to pretend like, "Oh yeah, I saw bad season coming." Because there are people that say that kind of stuff. I'll say that about 2016, because I mean, I'm literally on record, like if you told me about it. Right. You're like, dude, there are some issues in the locker room, and I said on the National Radio Show, this team's either going to end up being really good or they're going to implode, and they implode it. Right. I did not have that same feeling in '07. So I think that's something that is very different about this team. This is a far more experienced football team. I mean, the question marks that we have on this team are some sophomores, you know, Jaden Greathouse and Jeremiah Love and Christian Grace. But it's for the most part, it's like, okay, how good is Senior Riley Leonard going to be? You know, how a six-year senior Jack Kaiser going to transition to playing Will? How good is six-year senior RJ Open going to be after transferring over from Duke? How good is fifth-year senior Rod Hurd going to be a transfer from Northwestern, right? Can Xavier Watts repeat his unanimous All-American caliber season, right? How good is sophomore Charles Jagger's all going to be? How good is Redshirt sophomore Billy Shrouthe and with that O line that year, you were hoping that certain guys were better than that. That was the other concern I had. I did say, I will say this. I wasn't sure how good the old line was going to be because there were guys starting on the line that I just didn't love coming to high school. No, the late Paul Duncan, Michael Turkovich, some of those guys. And you had Sam Young, but outside of that, there were some question marks there. But I just thought, ah, they'll be fine, they'll figure it out, you know, and they definitely did not figure it out. That's for sure. I just think there's far more knowns, and here's the other biggest thing. That team, if the offense wasn't great, that team was going to struggle because they just weren't going to be great on defense. I mean, they weren't as bad as like the B, B, Brian and Gordon era, but Charlie, Charlie didn't quite understand how to build a great defense either. And I did have some concerns about that. What did we got another super chat from Ryan Elliot. Thank you very much. Ryan really appreciate you. This is good show. Boys, man. I'm ready for football. Can't argue with you there, man. I am chomping at the bit. Like I have seriously considered like just going and watching the high school team practice. Hey, you know what I mean, just like, I watch the huddle every night, like of their practices and everything just to get my fix. And luckily on Wednesday, we finally get a chance to see Notre Dame practice and, oh, well, at least run around with helmets on. But I dude, Ryan, are you going to be there? Are you going to come back in town for that? TBA. Okay. As you said, we, I'm like, oh, okay. We at Irish Breakdown. Okay. We'll see. We'll see. I got you. Irish Gordian, not will a national championship propel Marcus Freeman to stick around and pursue Notre Dame legendary status. Or will the NFL, Ohio State siren song prove too enticing? Can I just say, can we relax on the Ohio State thing with Marcus Freeman? Please, I just, I don't have a thing. I don't get this. I mean, look, I understand where people would ask the question, right? I mean, look, the guy played at Ohio State. I understand it. I get it. But at the same time, it's kind of like what do we, what evidence do we have that he has a desire to go back to Ohio State, right? Like why are we worried about something that we have 15 ifs have to happen before this is even a conversation, right? Like, I was not open, by the way. I just, and what, what would make you think that Ohio State would want Marcus Freeman right now? Like fair. So, so let's, let's think about this logic because I actually know some of Ohio State fans are like, I'd like to have Marcus Freeman is my head coach. So, so you want to fire the guy that has twice beat Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame and hire Marcus Freeman. Now I would much rather have Marcus Freeman for Ryan Day, but that's for different reasons, right? But like you don't fire a guy that's done what Ryan Day has done and replace him with somebody who he's beaten. That's like Michigan fire and Jim Harbaugh and hiring Ryan Day. Like think about that, like that just makes no sense to me. But I just, look, there's enough to worry about for Notre Dame. We don't need to invent things to be worried about. And I just, I just feel like this whole Ohio State thing is, is just, I mean, it is not often that guys go back to their alma mater's and coach, I mean, dabble, dabble could have gone back to Alabama if you want it, you know what I mean, like, but he didn't want it. He wanted to stay at Clemson, you know, and you, you don't see a whole lot of times where coaches end up, end up doing those type of things. And so, yeah, our coach bent 574 with a question, are there any past concepts and family of run plays that Dembrox used in the past that you were hoping that he incorporates this year? Are there any that you absolutely don't want to see and why not? Well, I don't know that there's any that I don't want to see. I mean, if, if you believe in something and you're good at implementing it and, and good at getting success with it, I don't care if it's something I like or not, things these run in the past. I mean, coach, I think you're a board member, so check out the film breakdown at the top, the film room at the top of the board that has the list of some breakdowns I've done. You know, slot fade that we'll see, you know, they're going to, I'm going to have a, hopefully have a four-verts breakdown soon, it's a lot I wanted to get done this summer. I haven't had a chance to get to yet, but, you know, there's going to be those type of things, but run play, run, you know, the run game, it's he's an inside, outside zone guy. He'll run some counter. He'll run some pin and pull a little bit as a wrinkle, but he's been an outside, inside outside zone guy. They did run a little bit of duo last year, and it wouldn't shock me if we see more of that in their name, but he's a, he's an inside zone outside zone guy. He has been so far, so, and I am fine with that. The only thing that I haven't seen a ton of from Mike Dembrock in the past is a really good running back and receiver screen game. That's something I'd like to see a little bit more from this offense, you know, even this year because of the unique weapons that they have, but they definitely do a lot of tight end screen stuff. Yeah. The concept I'm looking forward to is the one you described the other day in the show, you know, where basically to roll out, you got to run pass option for the quarterback. I mean, come on. That's going to be, it's going to be borderline deadly. So that's what I want to see. And all the ideations and variations that you can run it out of obviously, but that's a dangerous, dangerous play for Notre Dame. Yeah. Somebody asked, uh, what has Ryan Day done? He is a big 10 version of the USC coach. I mean, I, I said it earlier that I think him and Lincoln Riley are somewhat similar, but you did, I mean, here, here's one difference between Lincoln Riley and Ryan Day. Ryan Day's won a playoff game. True. And that's kind of a thing. He doesn't get his brains beat in every time he plays a playoff game. Right. I mean, in 2019 Ryan Day's first year, they were a fourth quarter Trevor Lawrence being Superman come back away from beating Clemson in 2020. They beat Clemson and lost to Bama. And in 2022, they almost beat Georgia. I mean, they took Georgia down. I mean, they were a missed field goal away from beating Georgia. So let's be honest, I, I dislike Ryan Day, but his teams have been far more competitive in the postseason than Lincoln Riley's have been at Oklahoma and at USC. So that's, that's one pretty big difference between the two. So again, and I do think there's some similarities, but let's not act like Ryan Day hasn't done anything in his career, but let's, let's also not act like Ryan Day's a world beater either. It's just the thing is you just don't fire a coach that has had his level of success just because he's not having enough success. I've said this before, John Cooper did not get fired just because he couldn't beat Michigan. He got caught fire because he couldn't beat Michigan and his team were fading in his last couple of years. I think they went eight and four his last year as a coach and, and what, and what actually his last two years, they were, they were not very good and I'll just pull up his record here real quick, Vince. Last two years at Ohio State, they went six and six and eight and four. That's why he got fired. Now was, were they maybe looking for a reason to fire him? Sure. But the reason that they were able to is because he went 14 and 10 in his last two years. If he was still going 11 and one and 10 and two every year, Vince, they probably don't fire him. Let's be honest about that. They fired him because he stopped winning and that's just, that's the reality of, you know, Ryan Day goes out and goes eight and four this year, then he may get fired. And honestly, what the team he has, you probably should consider it because he clearly doesn't how to run the program anymore, but you're, you're not going to fire Ryan Day just because like, if he loses to Michigan, they might. So if he goes 11 and one and they lose to Michigan, you're going to fire him and you think someone's going to, you think Marcus frame is going to look at that job. So yeah, that seems like a reasonable expectation of a job over there. Let me take that job. No, no, sir. And I, and I would be willing to bet you that Marcus Freeman still has in the back of his mind some of the things that were said about him by Ohio State fans when he took the Notre Dame job. I'm pretty sure that he'll, he'll remember some of that as well. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
This week's Notre Dame Football Mailbag was loaded with great questions from Irish Breakdown subscribers and listeners. Bryan and Ryan dive into questions and answers this week. This is part one of the show.
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