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(upbeat music) (upbeat music) Zach Martin prediction time using NCAA eligibility rules. Who wins freshman slash newcomer of the year on offense and defense for Notre Dame? And who wins most improved for Notre Dame on offense and defense? - Ooh, okay. So what he's saying is we can use the red shirt freshman. - Yes. - Okay, so offensively Vince, the eligible players are Charles Jagasal, who's a red shirt freshman. It would be... Really, Charles Jagasal is the only red shirt freshman that is really an... Then it would have to be a true freshman. So you'd have to go with Michael Gilbert, Cam Williams. - One of the running backs. - Morganius Williams, one of those guys, would have to be it, 'cause those are... I mean, Jeremiah loves a true sophomore. - Right. - Jaden Greenhouse, Jordan Faze on both. - True sophomore. - I think he's missed the other one. - Oh, okay. - My initial gut was Charles Jagasal. That's who I was gonna go with regardless. Even before you broke it down. So defense could be a little bit different, Vince. 'Cause defensively you've got, I think a Don Schuler played in more than four games last year. - I think he was a special teams guy, wasn't he? - I could be. Yeah, I thought so too, but I could be wrong. Let me just go check. Actually, now that you think... I think I might actually... - Oh no. - Yeah, he only played three games in the regular season or four games in the regular season and then played... - Freshman eligibility. - Yeah, his fifth game was not until the bowl game. So he only played four games. He played against Tennessee State Central, Pitt and Wake. So he is definitely that. So I would put him in that conversation as well. - A Don Schuler, you got KVA, you've got Bryce Young, you've got the Corners, whoever emerges maybe as the fourth corner. I boob a car, I don't think play. Drake Bowen, let's see. Special team, defense only played four. Did he play more? Drake's not a stretcher, he played a bunch of special teams. - Knowledge ability. - Yeah, he played a bunch of special teams last year. What about boob a car? I wonder if boob a car is... How many did he play last year? Boob a car on defense only played in four games. So boob a car would be in that, that's probably... That's a good one. So I'm gonna go with... Boy, I'm gonna go with boob a car. Is my freshman newcomer of the year. He only played four games in regular season last year. - Wow. - Yeah. Yep. I'm gonna go with the Don. I'm gonna go with the Don Schuler on this one. I was tempted, very tempted to go with Bryce Young. I'm just still not sure how, what kind of snap count he's going to get on a regular basis. And I feel like he's gonna have to be, he's gonna have to work his way up to like second man in to have an opportunity to win that type of an award. So that's the only reason I didn't go with him. So I'm gonna go with the Don, 'cause I think he's gonna get a lot of snaps. He's gonna get a lot of snaps as the third safety. Now, as far as we have to do most improved. So that could be anybody, right? So that doesn't even have to be... - I think offensively, I actually, 'cause like to me, most improved doesn't necessarily mean you're more productive, right? Like Jeremiah Love should have been more productive last year if not for the presence of all... And he should have still been more productive, but you know, you know, Audrey confronted. - Right. - Yeah, Jaden Greathouse could maybe be in that conversation. So I'm actually gonna go with Billy Shrout, though. I think Billy Shrout is gonna be a really good player this year. I could be wrong on that, but Billy Shrout would be my number one. I'd probably go Jaden Greathouse, my number two. - I was debating on Jaden Greathouse. I was also debating on Ashton Craig. I thought maybe he has an opportunity there. - Or Dorian Price is another one that I think. - Yeah, yeah. And he's coming back from not this year, coming back from an injury, but I've heard in many circles that it kind of takes a full year to come back from an injury like he had. And so this year he could just be absolutely dynamic. So that would definitely qualify. Defensively, should be an interesting one. - My initial thought is Josh Burnham. - Hi. - Yup. - Okay. - I've also thought about Drake Bowen. I think they're gonna need... Drake's more of a, they're gonna need him to be. - Yeah. - Probably the most improved. - Yeah. - That's fair. - Yeah. - That's fair. - I'm hoping that we're arguing about it maybe being Jordan Patel by the end of the season, but I'm just not going in it. - I'm not ready. - I just gotta see it. - I gotta see it, man. I'm in show me mode. - Yeah. - It's like Ryan and I last year, maybe a million times going into the season or kind of like show me mode, show me mode with him. And like every show somebody would ask about him and I'd be like, I gotta see it. I gotta see it. That's how I am with Patel this year. - 100% how I am with Patel this year. - Most improved, man. That's tough. I would love to go with one of the corners, but they're both pretty stinking good last year when they're not activities. - Right, 'cause playing more doesn't equal proof. - Right, right, right. - It just takes you to have more opportunity to play. - Correct. - Yeah. - And they're both good when they played. - Right. - I mean, I, you know, so can't really go that direction. You know, I'm just trying to work my way through. Josh Burton's a really good one though. 'Cause I don't think he's on a lot of people's radar either right now. He should be. And if you watch this show, he's on your radar. But I think the vast majority of people, I just don't think Josh Burnham is on their radar. And so that's why I think he's a good choice. - I think he is for this group of Irish breakdown fans. I think they're very, I don't think he's getting talked a lot about from what I've been told from outside of what we're doing. - Exactly. - Exactly in my point. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps, on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six players' stat projections and watch the winnings roll in, baby. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. Get in on all the excitement and win up to a hundred times your cash with the summer games on prize picks. With prize picks, you can turn $10 into $1,000 while watching Team USA rack up the gold medals this summer. You can make prize picks lineups of players across basketball, soccer, tennis, golf and more in as little as 60 seconds. 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Find your first day fits in store or online at Dick.com. - Ditro Hunter, Brian, I'm curious. If we know how we are getting the 85, last I checked, we were at 86 and the two players I thought could be another medical were present in some form or fashion. - That doesn't mean that they're necessarily gonna be present when we get to the end of fall camp. - Right, it has to be set by game one. - Yeah, because it could just be like they're trying to get those guys back and it just didn't work. I honestly don't, I gotta redo the math and make sure that we're actually still at 85. But the only thing I can think of is there's still someone that's gonna go on medical or somebody that they walk on that thought he was gonna have a scholarship this year doesn't have a scholarship. That would stink. - Yep. Yep, unless it's a graduate student 'cause it's not as expensive, I don't believe for graduates 'cause you're not taking as much and true. You don't have the room and board piece to it 'cause and if you're renting a house in town, that costs money, but it's not as much as it costs to stay on campus. - Right, 'cause it's not, yeah. - Right. - So, 'cause that does get paid for, doesn't it? When you're on a scholarship, you're off-campus housing gets paid for, right? - Mm-hmm. - Coach bent five, seven, four. Josh Pate said we had the second best combo of coordinators behind Ohio State. I think he's wrong, but it's debatable since Kelly only has to run the O. Who would be your top five combos of coordinators? - Well, look, I think Notre Dame's in the, it's funny, I was having this conversation with a Notre Dame staffer today. We were kind of talking around practice and such you, Alan, or a venture you know it was. And that's kind of one thing we were talking about is like, that's something that gives people around the program a little bit more confidence 'cause there's just that experience group there. And we were talking about Ohio State and Ohio State's in the conference. I mean, to me, it's Notre Dame and Ohio State is kind of who I would just off top my head say it is. As far as just assistant coach coordinators, like people say, well, USC, but I mean, Lincoln Riley's really the OC at USC. - Right, exactly. And so, but the thing is like, obviously Chip Kelly is gonna get that nod 'cause he's Chip Kelly and he's called plays at UCLA, I believe, but there's a different deal when you're the head coach calling an offense and then you're the OC running an offense, you know, because then as the head coach running the offense, you're still got play calling duties, but the OC's running the day to day. You know, he's got to get back to running the day to day. So I do think there's something for him to prove, but I think he's gonna be fine 'cause he has, it's like not like Chip Kelly hasn't called an offense. It's not like Al Golden, right? One of our concerns when Coach Golden was hired was, it's been a while since my man's called a defense 'cause he wasn't the play caller on defense, and Miami is the head coach. Well, coach Kelly was calling plays at UCLA, right? And even though he had an offensive coordinator, so I would say, 'cause I think Jim Knowles did a heck of a job with Ohio State last year. He actually got them going a year earlier 'cause in his past, year three was always the breakout year for Jim Knowles as a coordinator. Now, we did say there's a chance it could happen earlier in Ohio State 'cause he's got way better players than he had at Duke and Oklahoma State, right? But I mean, they were really good last year, really good last year, and I actually think their talent this year could be better. They're not as experienced at certain spots, but the talent, I mean, you get Kayla Downs there, he doesn't have the experience Josh Proctor had, he's a way better player. You're probably gonna be a little bit more, obviously, you don't know. Neil has experienced a linebacker without Steel Chambers and Tommy Eicherber, but you're gonna be better athletically. You've got a lot of your best defensive players coming back. You've got some really talented young up in Congress, and you're gonna be your talented. So Ohio State's in that conversation for me, Vince, certainly in that conversation for me. You know, I've got to really think about who some of those other ones are, the good coordinator combinations. I'm just kind of going through the conferences right now. No, we'll see about Clemson. I know that they're hoping to Florida State's one. I think the Alex Atkins, Adam Fuller, I think, is the DC. That's a really good OCDC combination that they have there. Plus, like Mike Norville is still heavily involved in the offense, but Alex Atkins is running kind of the day-to-day operation. I'm not sure who calls plays, but he is very heavily involved in that. So I would go if Florida State is in that conversation for me, Vince, with that pair, just looking through the big 12. There's a lot of good corners on one side of the ball there, but not necessarily both. Maybe Utah is in that conversation for me. With Andy Ludwig on offense and Morgan Scali on defense, that's a duo that I would have in my conversation for top five. That could be a very good coordinator duo. I mean, you're gonna laugh at this, but you almost got at least consider Iowa now, because Tim Lester's such a, he's kind of an average OC, but Phil Parker's so good that it might bring up the average. Well, no, but Tim Lester, even as a middle of the road, if Tim Lester's the 60th best coordinator in college football this year, 60th, that's about a 75 spot jump from where their coordinator was last year. 'Cause I think there's like 135 teams in college football last year, so I put him at the very bottom, 'cause he was awful. Yeah, I know. Ryan Ferens, I'm kind of joking about that being top five. That's a little bit of a joke, but you get the point that I'm trying to do. Yes, I do. You know, Oregon's got a really good, Oregon's got a really good coordinator combination. Will Stein did a great job with that offense last year. Great job. I mean, as good as Kenny Dillingham was in 2022, I think they were even better last year. I'm just not a huge fan of Tosh La Po. I'm just not, I'm not a huge fan of his. I think Dan Lanting's a big reason why that defense is as good as it was, as it is. I think Dan, I think the head coach has a lot more to do with that than the coordinator. I could be wrong, but that's just my opinion. I like the duo that Penn State has. I love Chris Cattlenicki from the kid guy came over from Kansas. I like Tom Allen as a decordinator. He just wasn't a head coach, but I think he's a pretty good defensive coordinator. We'll see if he's able to improve that group. So those are some guys in the conversation. Let me just go look at the SEC real quick. Alabama's not there yet. Auburn, definitely not. Florida, no. Georgia, no. I think Georgia is just really talented. I actually, I'm actually curious to see how Georgia does this year. Are they one of those teams at the further they get away from Todd Monkin, the less effective they're gonna be offensively? So are they just gonna rely on talent this year? We'll see. Yeah, I mean, I'm kinda, I don't see a lot of great coordinate. I mean, I thought Mike Elko made a great offensive coordinator higher, and then he made a bad defensive coordinator higher. So I don't know that I love a lot of the coordinator combinations in the SEC. I really don't. If Mike Denbrock would have stated LSU, they would have won. 'Cause I like the higher he made a decordinator. The guy he brought over, the baker guy he brought up from Missouri's burger football coach. And then Denbrock would have been there. So that's probably my group. The guys that I'd look at Vince, but I would say are in my conversation for that. Okay. Tommy Guns, could you see Teddy Rizak going out to Rover? Well, since he's already there, yes. Oh, whooping. Katie Keever's, how good does Riley Leonard need to be for Notre Dame to be championship contenders this season? I'm actually, Katie, I know you guys have been busy. I think they got a new little one at the house as well. I think somewhat recently, or they're maybe supposed to have a new little one somewhat soon. 'Cause her husband, John's also in the chat. Sometimes it's John on Katie's thing, and sometimes it's Katie, so I'm never quite sure. But I assume it's Katie. But Katie, I would say what I've said in the past is, if Riley Leonard repeats what he did in 2022 at Duke. That was my answer. I think this team is a final four caliber team. And then if you get hot at a couple other spots, you can do that. For them to be considered a true championship team, where there's good as anybody else, I think he needs to be the same kind of impact athlete he was at Duke, and he needs to be about 15 or so percent of a better thrower, 15 to 20% of a better thrower, not completion, because of just quality. He's improved his ability to hit the deep ball and eliminate some of the misses that he had at Duke. Honestly, if he repeats his athleticism and he can be more consistent throwing the ball down the field, then I think this Notre Dame team is one of the four best teams of cost football. I think they will be. By the time we get to the playoff, they may not be in September as the old line's getting comfortable and all that. They may just be a top 10 team in September. But I think by the time we get to November and then in December events, when this old line has, Charles Jaggersall's now in double digits and career starts, Billie Schrauff, an Ashton Craiger now in double digits, a career start of Neil Wagner and all that, I think this team's got a chance to be really dangerous, if Riley Leonard's about a 15 to 20%, overall better player as a thrower than he was in 2022. Now keep in mind, Jay and Daniel's probably made about a 30 plus percent jump from what he was and overall impact in my opinion. So this isn't like he's got to be. He doesn't have to be Jay and Daniel. He doesn't have to go be final year of Jay and Daniel's good. He doesn't have to be that at all. So I hope that answers your question. Iden Manami, do you think the fast pace of practice can make the players rush their proper routine technique? I love the urgency and focus. Sometimes I feel like they got caught up in tempo and not the skills. Only if you're not running your drill, this is why we talk, this is a great question I did, because this is a very good observation of what can happen if you don't properly teach your players how to work fast. And it's also about why coaching the right way matters so much. You have to be willing to coach in a way that you're coaching on the fly and you have to still, you have to hold them accountable to technique. If you're so obsessed with tempo that you lose sight of the importance of doing it the right way, then your team will struggle with the technical aspects of the game. So it's not so much the pace of practice that's the problem. It's what you're emphasizing and allowing in practice to become the problem. So if you as a coach don't handle it the right way, then that will be a byproduct of it. So it's not so much the pace as much as it's, are the coaches even more focusing on teaching the right things on the fly. If you're a coach and you're working tempo, Vincent, you and I know this, right? If you're just a yeller, and when I mean a yeller, it's just like you're pissed off, like, ah, come on, you gotta be better than that. You're not teaching anything. And when you're coaching on the fly, like old school, that was okay. You get pissed off, they come back over to you, explain it, and then you run the drill again. Now you only have time for that initial discussion. And if you're wasting time with this is, ah, come on guys, give me a break. Okay, well you just missed your window to actually teach him something. You know, and that's what you see from Denbrock. It's like he's constantly talking. But it's all instruction. It's all, it's not like, oh, come on guys, this is a bull crap. No, it's no, it's, it's like, you've gotta be better. You've gotta be perfect. You've gotta make sure you get here. You've gotta make sure you're doing this. And that's, that's what it's gotta be. So it's a coaching thing more than a pace thing, in my opinion, I just, and that also is part of what you've been preparing for since January. So no, it's just everything you do. I mean, you watch the all the weight room videos Vince, they are working fast. It's gotta be what you do with and everything that you do. - Yep. So win the interim. - That's what you gotta do. - Yep, sounds good. - Detrol Hunter, do you think Underdame should do an NIL fundraiser similar to other programs where they have a fan appreciation day where fans can purchase tickets and attend? - I don't know that they need to though. I mean, I get it. I think that would be, that could be a fun way for fans to maybe interact with players and things like that. - And that's cool. - I get that. I actually do like it, Vince. - Yeah. - I do. I think because again, if you can raise some funds to say, hey, we're gonna raise, let's say you're able to raise 100 grand or something like that, you know, like that, that, something like that, we're gonna use this to give to our, you know, four string guys and walk-on guys and stuff like that, then we can reallocate the collective money to other things. I certainly, look, here's the thing that I don't think Notre Dame does enough of. I think Notre Dame and their attempt to kind of shield themselves from the outside. They do a lot of, that Notre Dame program does a ton in the community. - Yeah. - Like, so I wanna make sure I'm clear about that. They do a ton in the community and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the job that, and I think 100 Bivens, a big part of this, a lot of those guys that are part of that, Vince, like, you know this, they're at the Boys and Girls Club all the time, they're at the food bank all the time, they're at shelters, I mean, they're at schools all the time. I love how much they're involved. But that's not the same as interacting with fans. They close themselves off to fans entirely. I mean, they don't do, and then the only fan events they have are for fans that have a lot of money. It's called the, you know, the thing they can come play, the, you know, the-- - Oh, the fantasy camp? - Yes, and I do think they need to do more to incorporate fans into what they do. I think there should be something like that. And maybe, and I don't even know that they need to do an NIL fundraiser, I'd say do something like, in this, you know, hey, Vince, if you think they do enough, okay, let's do something where we're gonna do this and we're gonna, you know, raise as much money as we can and we're gonna give it to the Boys and Girls Club and the food bank and this and that, you know, do it sort of as a fundraiser. I do think they need to do more things where the players and the fans get to interact in a certain way. Now, of course, nowadays, you never know, you gotta be careful and all that, I get all that, but make people go through metal detectors, you know what I mean? Like, you do that when they get into stadiums. - Right. - So I do think that Notre Dame has done too much to disassociate themselves with fans. The everyday normal fan, and especially like on campus and I think it's an unfortunate thing, but I think something like that would be good will amongst the fan base. 'Cause that is something that I hear a lot. Like, yeah, I mean, I love the team, but, you know, it used to be where people would be outside practice in the first couple of days cheering them on. Now it's like, they don't want us to tell people in practices 'cause they don't want people to jump and cheer the team on. - It's funny because there was a question on our board about what time practice was. I had it all typed out, Brian, and I was like, "Wait a minute, we're not allowed to say it." - Right. - Like, which is whatever, it is what it is. But I agree, some fan interaction would be good. Iden Benami, who has got lit up the most by coaches so far? - I don't know that I could point to an individual player. - No, it's been nicely spread out and, you know, again, we're not there enough to see, you know, if a guy's messing up a player. - I see more guys get lit up by Don Shuler than they've got up by the coaches. You didn't see that today, even. Man, no, I'm serious. Like, Don, like, has gotten all this dude. Oh, yeah. - Guys, really. - Oh, yeah. - Don jumping on some guys. - I like that. - Yeah, he's showing some vocal leadership, no doubt. - No doubt. - No problem with that leadership. - Yeah. - That's awesome. - How would you compare, oh, this is from Iden again. How would you compare the beginning of practice to last year or two years ago? Skill-wise, togetherness, organized, the whole overall vibe. - I mean, a lot of that we've already talked about, right? I mean, we've talked about the unique aspects of how they're getting a lot of reps. We've talked a lot about they're a longer team, a more athletic team. I mean, there's a lot of good structure to what they're doing. And when guys aren't doing what they need to do, like getting out there, it's been players that have, and this is the thing about, like, so there was a freshman DB that was late getting out on a one-on-one. And so it had to hold up again, and man, after that rep, that was the end of the period, Vince. And Adon Schuller was like a beeline to that kid, getting on them. So, I mean, all that stuff, it's good. It's, you know, they look like a veteran team. Honestly, they look like you would not expect them to have as much youth as they have. But as we've also said, there's a lot of fifth and six-year seniors on this team too, right? I mean, so, you know, yeah, they look better than they have in past years, but that doesn't mean a whole lot. I mean, it just means they're a little bit more organized. It doesn't mean they're gonna be a better football team, but yeah, they're longer, they're more athletic. Those things that we've talked about in the last three practice reports, I mean, those things are all good. Togetherness, we can't evaluate. I mean, you could look together in a practice field, but if you're not in the locker room, right? I mean, so that one I can't evaluate, right? - Adon will burn and be starting by the beginning of the season. - Oh, I wouldn't get too much caught up into who starts at certain positions. Like, big ends one. I honestly, if I'm Notre Dame, I'm probably starting RJ Oben, even if Josh Burnham's the better player. And the reality is folks, they're both gonna play. It doesn't matter who starts the game. It matters who's in there when it's the biggest moments and who's in their fourth quarter. It really doesn't matter who starts the game. And that's true with a lot of positions. You know, play the veteran as the starter, let him be the first guy out there and then Josh, you know, at the end of the day, Josh is gonna play 40 snaps and RJ is gonna play 25, whether RJ starts off at the beginning or not, if Josh is the better player in that instance. So, I'd say probably no, Barney injury. - Yeah, I'll be no. - I would agree with that, but it doesn't mean he's not gonna get the most snaps in a game, you know. - And ideally you want them to have split snaps 'cause that means both of them are playing very well. And then you get 10 or so from Bryce Young and you're good to go. - Absolutely. - That's kind of how I hope it is. - 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 laughing me to this day. - Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $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. - Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Honestly, when I started this, I thought only I have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at midmobile.com/save whenever you're ready. - $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes of city details. - Jake Rustman, Brian, have you been able to get eyes on Rod heard at practice? How is he looking if so? - Good, I mean, he's picked, you can tell he's picked up the defense pretty well. Just the way communicates being where he needs to be. He should've had a pick on day two. He should've picked CJ Carr off on day two, but he didn't. It was like high and he didn't time his jump correctly. And he missed it, but no, he's been good flying around. He's a good athlete. He's a little better athlete than I thought he was gonna be. - Okay. - So that was good to see. Not like elite athlete, but he's definitely a better athlete than what I thought he was gonna be a little bit better. And I thought he was a quality athlete anyway. He's definitely a better athlete than what they had there last year. That's for sure. Now again, does he know the defense as well as DJ Brown? Doubtful. - Well, DJ Brown was here like he's a doctor. - Right, right. - I mean, lots of guys go to school for seven years. Yeah, they're called doctors. (laughing) - Exactly. Or quarterbacks at Louisville. - Oh, yeah. (bell dinging) - Jesse Ferguson, who are the top five players for another day in this category? Guys that will probably not start versus A&M, but will make a major impact in 24. - Jenarian Price, Jordan Faison, and we're not talking about making an impact on special teams. We're just talking about making an impact on the offensive defense, right? Josh Burnham. - As I say, he just named one. - Right, Josh Burnham. Jason Onye. And... - Say it. - Jaylen Sneed. - Ooh, didn't see him going there. - You thought I was gonna go with either Kingston or Don? - I was going to Don. Yeah, that was what I was figuring. The last one would be, yep. - I still think there's a chance that Don starts. - Okay. - I don't, you know, - That's fair. - What co-starters type of thing at that position. - Okay. - But yeah, I think Jaylen Sneed is gonna have an impact as a pass rusher and as an imp. And that's more, that's as much wishful thinking as it is a prediction. - Could you see them, remember it was Kyle Hamilton's freshman year when they went three safeties? - Yeah. - Sometimes, could you see something like that? - Okay. - Maybe, maybe. Not as much because they have more of a true nickel now. - Okay. - They didn't really have a nickel on that team. - Fair enough. So, probably not. But I think now as far as rotating a third safety in a lot, and they did a lot of that in '19, that's where I thought you were gonna go with that. Yes, I would say that for sure. - Gotcha. Good question. - Ballpene Chalele, as Karen said, the present is a gift. So, what gift do you hope to get from Coach Freeman this year? Breakout athlete, USC beatdown, big playoff run. Be as unrealistic as your heart desires. - Well, if I can be as unrealistic as my heart desires, I'm going to the National Championship in a undefeated season, sure. You can imagine if Notre Dame's the first 16 and 0 team in history, that'd be pretty amazing. - Sign me up. - 'Cause Michigan went 15 and 0 last year. Bama's had some Clemson went 15 and 0 one year. So, we've seen that, but LSU went 15 and 0. So, it was first 16 and 0 team. That'd be pretty awesome. - Sign me up. - It'd be pretty awesome. I mean, if we're being a little bit more realistic, I mean, look, I think I, look, my prediction is a playoff plus one is the minimum of what this team should be this year and depending on what their seating is. But yeah, I mean, I think a playoff run should sort of-- - That's mine. - A big playoff run is exactly what I think is realistic but also I would be ecstatic. You know what I mean? It's possible to be both. And I agree that they should win their first playoff game. No question. And I would anticipate that they should win their second depending on who it is, where it is, all of those different things. But yeah, a big playoff run would be making it to the final four and potentially winning that game as well. So that would be where I think this team should be, but I would be over the moon if that actually did occur. - Good stuff, Vince. - Here we go. Now let's get to Mark Avalon. - Do you see a huge difference in quote unquote elite receivers from regular receivers justifying the almost $30 million salaries in the NFL? Will it regress eventually like running backs did? I don't think it'll regress like running backs did because I don't see offenses going back to run oriented offenses anytime soon. - Well, I think what you'll see however, is you'll see teams that are winning are not paying that kind of money for receipts. - Sure, that I could see. - Yeah, that I could definitely see. - You'll see teams draft guys and then year four, trade them or let them walk and go replace them with somebody else because that I could see. 'Cause if you're paying a receiver $30 million and let's say you have a big time, you've got $80 million tapped up in two players. - Right, that's unrealistic. And the salaries that these wide receivers are making are ridiculous for what they know. They actually produce and bring to the table. It's ridiculous. Now, obviously the passing game is much more of a thing in the NFL than it ever used to be. No doubt about it and it still blows my mind that the Bears have never had a 4,000 yard passer in this day and age. - Really? - But that's how they are. - Jake Cutler never got there? - I could have swore he had a year where he was a rider. - I don't believe so. - I mean, you're the Bears fan, you'd know. I just, I'm not surprised. - It's a fairly depressing fact, but either way. - Yeah, I'm looking at, his highest was, he had two years of over 3,600, he never got to 4,000. So, no, I was right. He had a 4,000 yard season, but it was his last year in Denver. - Okay, there you go. - I knew he had a 4,000 yard season, but it was his last year in Denver. - This wasn't wearing the Bears colors. - Yeah, yeah, so, but either way, the point is I could see salaries coming down, but I don't see, I don't see offenses changing. So I guess it's kind of-- - I don't think salaries for receivers come down. I just think you're gonna see teams, a lot of those big contracts are gonna start being given to free agents, not re-signing. I just, I don't, because you have to look at it too, there's so many more receivers nowadays. - Yeah. - Because of seven on seven, the teams, college teams playing three, four receiver offenses, there's just so many talented receivers. It's like, why do I, I'd rather pay 15 for two guys than 30 for one. - Absolutely. - For two guys who are really good than 30 for one. Yeah, and then I'll have the guys I draft. So that's kind of how I handle it. - Absolutely. I have some confidence. - I'm sorry, you can do. - Yup, yup, I agree. - Alex Flagstad, what are some things offensively you would do to maximize the Notre Dame offense against a front seven as tough as Texas A&M? - I mean, number one, don't sell your own player short. - Fair. - Don't coach scare neck like you can't handle those guys. I mean, look, you got a five, you got five star kid at left tackle. You got a top hunter kid at right tackle. You've got a top hunter kid at right guard. You're, you know, if Rocco starts, you're gonna have a top hunter kid at left guard and you got a pretty talented center. Don't talk yourself into being afraid of them. Respect your opponent, don't fear your opponent. That's number one. In the past, Notre Dame had way too much fear of their opponents. - That's a T-shirt. - Right, we had to convince yourself, well, we're not as good as them. And that's what I liked about what Notre Dame did against Ohio State last year. They didn't do a good enough job of doing what they needed to do to win, but they didn't coach that game like, I don't know if we're good enough to be these guys. - Yeah, they didn't coach scare. - The year before I thought they did at times, offensively, they didn't do that last year. It's like, hey, we're as good as you and we're gonna come at ya. And so it's the next cute at times and then didn't make the right decisions at times. But I don't like the call that Jared Parker made late in the game that I didn't like, that was not a scared call. I was not a conservative. If anything, if they were conservative, they would have kept Audrick in the game and just in that probably time, they should have probably been a little bit conservative 'cause they were leaning on them, but they were trying to make some plays and that type of thing. But just don't, first of all, don't convince your, don't make your, 'cause if you game plan, you can say, tell them all things, but if your game plan is your coaching, hey, we're max proing every time we drop back to throw. We're going 12th personnel and running max pro, the first eight, you don't think you can block these guys, do you? But some things you can do, obviously, establish the running game. Take advantage of the fact that they're in a new system. Mix up your motions and shifts a lot. Get them thinking and communicating. It's the first game that they're communicating in that defense, right? Do things like that. Utilize the, who you are, utilize the RPO game. You know, make them defend the width of the field. If you're worried about they're really good front four, and I'm not worried about their front seven, I'm worried about their front four, if you can't handle their linebackers, you're just not very good at this point in time, in my opinion. You know, but make them defend more of the field to neutralize the pass rush with screen game, with move in the pocket, with your quick game, with your RPOs, and the best way to neutralize a really good pass rush, be physical and run right at them. You know, I mean, those are things that you can do, but trust your players. Like here's my thing that I would say that is frustrating for me, is the entire conversation about the A&M game are the couple areas where A&M seems to have an advantage over Notre Dame. - All right. - And Notre Dame fans are completely ignoring the fact that their receivers, Notre Dame's receivers should be better than A&M's DBs. And Notre Dame's DB should be better than A&M's receivers. And hey, here's a thought, how are they going to block Notre Dame's defensive line? Because Notre Dame's offensive line should be better than Texas A&M's. And Notre Dame's defensive line, maybe an NFL talent would take a back seat to A&M, but as far as the production, I don't think does take a back seat to A&M. You know, so like, you're the better team, coach like it, act like it. Don't go when they're scared, 2019 Georgia, they went in there hoping that they can hang on and maybe win that game. - Right. - You're the better team, act like it. You know, it's like, it's seen from Rudy, right? You know, you're an all-American and are a captain, act like it, you know what I mean? Like, dude, you're the better team, you're the top 10 team. - I believe I am. - You're the team that's third year of your new head coach. You're the better team, act like it, right? And utilize your, make them defend your speed, right? Make them defend your mobile quarterback. Get them chasing. Don't just line up in 13 personnel, 12 personnel, run downhill and hope that you can do, you know, and get into the flow of the game, right? I mean, go at 'em, attack 'em. - Sure. Now, schematically, there's some things that you can do, obviously, to minimize the impact. - Right, yeah. - That's what's on motion shifts. Make 'em defend the width of the field, those are all those things, but go after them. - I'm gonna run some read option, which means I'm not blocking one of their guys and making him wrong, you know what I mean? - Maybe you're gonna have a tough time with Nick Skowerten. Who's covering Mitch 11s? Why aren't we talking about that conversation? Who's gonna cover Jeremiah Love out of the backfield? I wanna talk about that conversation, like, use those things to your advantage. But I think Notre Dame fans need to be, make themselves realistic, hey, you are actually, your team that you follow has the better roster than that A&M team. Stop believing that you guys all complain about how much the bias there is in the media, but then too much of our fan base believes it. That's the problem. A&M does not have a better roster than Notre Dame. If A&M beats Notre Dame in the opener, that's concerning to me. You're three versus game one. I'm sorry, that's a problem for me. That's concerning for me. If it's close, I expect it to be close. But Notre Dame has the better team. They should win that game. It's not gonna be easy, but they should win that game. The players gotta believe that to be true. But the fans gotta believe that to be true as well, 'cause otherwise you're just gonna be freaking out going into that game. Archer four, five, two, which team do you think has the biggest variance of possible season outcomes? For me, it's Wisconsin. I think I see them winning nine games, but I could see them winning five. I don't, I have a hard time seeing them win nine. I'm just, I'm not high on this Wisconsin team this year. I'm really not. One team that pops into my head vents is Georgia Tech. Yeah. Like they're a team that talent wise could win nine games, but then I could also see them going five and seven. Like that's that nine and five thing 'cause their schedule is so hard. Like Michigan, I think, could be that team too. I think there's a possibility. I could see some variance in that. Yeah. Do you think they could be like a 10, 11, one team? I think they could be a double digit win team, but then I could also see them being a 500 team. So, you know what I mean? And I think a 10 wins is like the ceiling, but if things go south, I could see them continuing south and then you're looking at like a 500 team. You know what I mean? I could definitely see that being the case. I have a weird one for you, a very weird one for you. There's two in the big 12 that I think of when I think of this. One is Arizona, okay? 'Cause Arizona has talent. They have a talented quarterback. I think he's not as good as some people may come out to be. I think they have a very talented receiver and they've got some good athletes there. I could see them win nine, 10 games again this year. I could also see them struggling. And last year being a little bit of a flash in the pan and they've got a new coach. The guy that built them up is not there. I could see them dropping off. The other one is Oklahoma State. Now, this is gonna sound weird because Mike Gundy's been such a consistent coach, but I could see Oklahoma State and I'm gonna pull up their schedule fence. You know, I look at their schedule. They play South Dakota State in the opener. Arkansas in game two, at Tulsa in game three, Utah in game four at home, at Kansas State, home against West Virginia, at BYU, at Baylor, home against Arizona State, at TCU, home against Texas Tech, at Colorado. I could see them winning 10 games. I could see them winning 10, maybe 11 games. I mean, they got a really good team coming back. But they're also the kind of team that if they don't come together early, or if they have a key injury to a couple of spots, I mean, South Dakota State is a defending national champions at the FCS level. They could beat Oklahoma State. They could beat a lot of teams in Division I. Arkansas is athletic enough to upset you. And then you get Utah. There's a chance, if they don't come out of the gate, well, that they could struggle early and then it's snowballs and they struggle. I could see that. I'm not predicting it, but I could see that. Oklahoma State's a team. 'Cause they've got, to me, one of the more challenging big 12 schedules, they've got to play at K-State, at BYU, at TCU, at Colorado. And then they also get Utah in West Virginia at home, and Arizona State at home, Texas Tech at home. That's a challenge. And then their non-conference is actually pretty tough. You play a South Dakota State to me, if they were an FBS team, would be a lot like James Madison when they jumped up. They went from FBS to immediately winning nine 10 games to the FCS National Championship contending team to immediately win in nine 10 games. I think JMU won 10-11 games last year, Vince, and like year two of being in an FBS team. And they're not nearly as good as what South Dakota State was. Well, I should say, they're not as good. They're close, but they're not as good. So I could see them beating Oklahoma State. And if that happens, then I think they could go on a, they could collapse because their schedule just doesn't get any easier after the outcome. So I could see that. Casey Curley, how much different did the receivers look compared to last year? And does it seem like the quarterbacks are more willing to take shots down field in this new Denbrock offense? I'm gonna work backwards on this, Vince. It's not about willing, it's demanded. Exactly. It's, you don't have a choice. If you don't, if you're not willing to throw the ball down the field, Mike Denbrock's not gonna play you. Exactly. And we saw that in the spring. I mean, and we, from a Mike Denbrock talking to the team, you know, yelling at that, this is what we do, you know? Stuff like that. That's what we saw more in the spring. We haven't had a chance to see anything like that in the fall. It's been more the spring. And that's just the offense. That's part of the offense. So yes, that part is easy. - I, how do they compare to last year overall? Just a lot faster. - Yeah. - I mean, Jayden, great house is faster than, like you have Chris Tyree, right? Who's as fast as anybody that they have, but their name has like three guys that are in the conversation with Chris Tyree. I mean, Jayden Harrison's in the conversation. Chris Mitchell's in that conversation. KK Smith is healthy. He didn't practice, he wasn't part of this group last year. Jordan Faison's faster than he was last year. Jayden, great house is definitely more explosive than he was last year. Bo Collins is faster than Jayden Thomas. And then you've added Cam Williams, who's really fast to the mix. So they're much faster. They're longer than they were last year. I mean, one of your fastest guys, arguably your second, you had, you had Tyree into bias. And then after that, there was a lot of speed. Your next fastest guy was Braylon James, who didn't play. You know, this year you've got a lot more speed in the mix. You've got KK in the mix. You've got Chris Mitchell in the mix. You've got Jayden Harrison in the mix. Plus you add in great house and Faison who are faster than they were. I mean, I say what you want. Some people might disagree. Rico Flores, I don't know if he's in the top six, if he's on the team right now. He was their number two leading receiver last year. - I agree with that. - He's not in the top six for me right now. Who's he over? A healthy Jayden Greathouse, a healthy Jordan Faison. He wasn't better than either of those two guys last year when they were healthy. He's not over a healthy Jayden Thomas 'cause the only reason he played lashes 'cause Jayden Thomas got hurt. - Correct. - He's not over Chris Mitchell. He's not over Bo Collins. Like that's five right there. They're off top of my head, right? Great house Faison Mitchell Collins Thomas. He's not over in those guys. In my opinion, if he comes back. So I mean, think about that. So yeah, it's an interesting one Vince. I think just a more dynamic. And here's I think a lot more experienced. - Yes. - Way more experienced. - That's massive though too. - The bias had one career catch coming into last year. Chris Tyree had 56, but he was, they were all running back. You know, so I mean, you were very inexperienced. 'Cause what did we say last year Vince? The freshmen had to play at least one, maybe two freshmen had to play. You said that last year. Right now, none of them have to play. Not a single freshmen is gonna play because they need him to. Unless they have a couple injuries. If any freshmen play this year, it's 'cause they earned it. - Absolutely. - Like Mike Gilberts in the rotation because he beat out Dion Colsey in the spring. And he's pushing those other two veterans. That's why Mike Gilberts getting reps with the ones and twos right now. Not because they need him to. - Yeah. - 'Cause I can still Dion in there and be like, Dion's played a lot of football in the last couple years when he's been healthy. Let's go deep. He's there 'cause he's beat people out. He's earned it. Now he's gotta keep earning it if he's gonna actually play by the time we get to August 31st. But he's only playing 'cause he, last year Rico and those guys, they played 'cause they, Jane Greathouse is the only freshmen that played a bunch early. He's the, you know, he kind of earned it. The others kind of played like Rico played early last year, honestly, Vince. And this is not just true by what we saw, but also true by what I was told 'cause they needed him to play. - Yeah. - You know, I mean, he had to play. They didn't, I mean, they had to play at least two freshmen in the rotation to get to the numbers that they wanted to get to. And that's not the case this year. So it's definitely, it's a different animal, man. It's a very different animal. So I'm actually looking at it last year, Vince. Let me just look at something here real quick. Yeah, Rico Flores played 19 snaps in the opener, which is a blowout 24 in the next game, which is a blowout. He was only in there for 17 in the third game. A lot of that was late in the game. He didn't start getting a lot of snaps 'til Ohio State, Duke, Louisville, like late near there. He didn't play a ton early, it was, you know, occasional rotation and coming in late when they were pulling people out. - Right. Mr. Murdacap, do you think Jaden Greathouse is going to have a breakout year? Vince, I've answered this one a bunch of times. My answer is yes, I'd love to hear what your take is. - Oh, I'm with you 100% and as much as I, you know, we like to give Salty a hard time 'cause he's such a big Jaden Greathouse fan and all those different things. He's just, he's playing with a confidence right now that we saw at times last year, but the injury definitely slowed him down a little bit. Then moving him around when I don't know that he was ready to be moved around, I think made a difference. And part of that was because of other injuries and things of that nature. He's best in the slot, in my opinion, and that's where they've got him primarily working right now. He'll understand other positions and can still play other positions. But he was dominant in the slot last year when he played. And I think he's playing with a new bit of confidence. I think he's stronger. I think he's a little bit faster. And so yeah, I think I am very confident that he is going to have a breakout year this year. But I also think that his absolute national breakout is going to be his junior year. So breakout, yes, for Notre Dame fans, breakout nationally as a junior in 26. 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