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That's indeed.com/bluewire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Over 25 years ago, on September 29, 1998, we watched a brainy girl with curly hair drop everything to follow a guy she only kind of knew all the way to college. And so began Felicity. My name is Juliette Litman, and I'm a Felicity superfan. Join me, Amanda Foreman, who you may know better is Megan, the roommate, and Greg Grunberg, who you may also know as Sean Blunberg, as the three of us revisit our favorite moments from the show and talk to the people who helped shape it. Listen to Dear Felicity on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We are going to jump in our art jump into, excuse me, our anticipated topic for today, the one that we actually planned ahead for and had notes for, and the one that, you know, we are... We got all the votes. Very important, if not more so today. Well, good point. Good point. And we are going to discuss the defensive line today, Brian, and this is, by far, one of the strengths of this team, not only of the defense, but of the entire team itself. And so we're going to kind of dive into, you know, the defensive line as a whole. And then, of course, we're going to get into individual players who's going to break out, newcomers, all of that fun stuff, and I'm excited for this one because it's always fun to talk about really good players, Brian, and there is no shortage of really good players on this defensive line. PrizePix is America's number one daily fantasy sports app, with over 5 million active members. PrizePix is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps, on PrizePix, 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 PrizePix community today. 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There's not, and when you look at this defensive line, Vince, and just kind of quickly relay it back to the conversation we just had, there's going to be a lot of true serum handed out in the Notre Dame offensive tackles over the next month. Yes. And that's a good thing. That's a very good thing, because you've got to get ready to play some very good defensive ends in the first game of the year, very defensive lineman, first game of the year. Best way to get ready for playing against really good defensive lineman in August 31st is to have to face really good defensive lineman every single day of practice. And that is what this offensive lineman will face every single day of practice. Absolutely. And now we just got to find out, okay, how good are they going to be? It's like really, Vince, and as we kind of get into this first section, that's what a lot of the conversation is about is, you know, how good really were they last year and how good are they going to be now and how good do they have to be? Sure. And it's interesting because there's a very big variation of opinion amongst Notre Dame fans in regard to how good was last year's defensive line. And I think part of it is because there's a lot of event of emphasis put on sacks and pressures without an understanding of what Notre Dame's defense is and how they are meant to generate sacks and pressures. But when you look at it last year's defensive line, I think most people can agree on this. And I want to have it, the conversation be here, instead of spending 30 minutes arguing are they top five or top 10, let's just say we, the vast majority of the people can argue that last year it was a top 10 defensive line. Can we, in the chat and those listening at home, can we at least agree that it's certainly comfortable, we're all comfortable saying they were top 10, right? And some weeks they were top five and other weeks they were top five. So we can say, okay, top 10. So then the question is, Vince, is that good enough? Was that good enough? Like if Notre Dame simply repeats what it was last year on the D line, is that good enough for this team to be able to go out there and play for a championship? I think that's a fair question. Yeah. Or do they need, does this, and not every team has to have a top five defensive line to win a championship. Ellis, you didn't in 2019, Alabama 2020, didn't, we're talking about the makeup of this Notre Dame football team. I don't think Michigan could have won last year if they didn't have a top five defense. I don't know. Completely agree. They needed it. Notre Dame, I think, needs it, even if the offense is better. The question is, can they play that level? Does it need to be top five? That's a fair question because in certain years in the past, in 2017 and 2015, if Notre Dame had a top 10 defensive line, that team could have beat anybody. In 2012, they had a top five defensive line and it still wasn't good enough because other parts of the team weren't good enough. So that's kind of the question is, not necessarily just about the D line events, but my question to you is, is top 10, and when we say top 10, we're saying like, you know, outside the top five, is that good enough for this football team to say, okay, we are a top 10 defensive line, let's say six to 10 somewhere in there, is that good enough for this football team of what we know about this team right now, for them to go out there and compete for championship, or is it more of just a one and done? You know, one plus one and done type of scenario, that's the question that we have about if they simply just repeat what they were last year, if we just if they just do what we know and what they've proven, they can do. You know, it's funny that the way this day has shaken out from a Notre Dame news standpoint. When we first went over this about two hours ago, and we were kind of going over these questions, and you know, and I was thinking, whenever we, whenever we go over the outline of the show, we talk about, you know, questions and things, of course, you think about what your answers are going to be and things like that. And two hours ago, my answer would have been, you know what, if they repeat what they did in 23, they'll be just fine, and they will be able to supplement what I think the offense is going to be. And I think they can go out and they could potentially be in championship discussion at that point. It's going to be a playoff team at the very least they win one game and go on to the next round, you know, that type of thing, and they have the possibility of advancing even further. Well, in the last hour, I feel like my answer has changed slightly, slightly. Now here's here's my caveat here's why it has changed. Now obviously with the news about Charles Jagasau going down and and being lost for the season, it adds even more question marks to a position group that we had question marks to begin with because they didn't have their starting five solidified yet. And we liked where things were trending and we, I think we both, you and I both felt good about the offensive line and where they definitely could end up by the end of the year when playoffs and when it matters, right? Well, you just threw a giant curve ball with the offensive line. Do I think they can still be a very good offensive line, depending on how things shake down? Sure. It's a possibility. I think the percentage of certainty on that has gone down a little bit, okay? Because of what has happened, right? And so in order to cover up for some of that percentage, I feel like the defensive line needs to pick up that a little bit. Does that make sense? Right? I feel like the defensive line now needs to pick up the slack a little bit for my drop in confidence of the offensive line. I would say my confidence is still very good for the offensive line. I think it'll take maybe a little bit longer to get them where they need to be, but we're talking about at the end of the season, we're talking about competing for championships in the playoffs. That's 12, 13 games from now. So much can happen, so much can change between now and then, but I feel like I'll feel a lot better if the defensive line takes another step to kind of cover up for my drop in percentage and confidence in the offensive line. So with all of that being said, do I think they need to be the same as last year? They could probably still get it done at that point, but my confidence level goes up significantly if they can take another step up and be a little bit better than they were last year. I think that's fair. I would argue if we're talking about winning a championship, I actually think they already needed to be better than they were last year. I do. And especially when it comes to rushing the quarterback and playing with consistency. Like somebody in the chat said, you know, were they a top 10 run defense last year? Well, number one, they were not a top 10 run defense last year. Al Golden doesn't care about being the top 10 run defense. He needs to be good against the run, but in modern football, you know, it's like, yeah, you got to be good against the run, but I don't care about being top 10. He said that. It's not that's not the focus, but the run defense has to get better. I would argue that the issues with the run defense last year weren't necessarily related to the defensive line. They were more second and third level related when they had those issues, right? And so when you think about the 60 yard touchdown run against Ohio State, that was a, that was a play about your corner and your safety D line did their job. Line back, Maris didn't do his job on that play Xavier Watts didn't do his job on that play. And then Cam Hart got held, but you need to be overall just better. I don't care about being top 10 on the against the run, but you need to be better. I did a whole show about that this summer. You got to be better. You've got to finish better at the quarterback. We've talked about that, then you've got to do a better job there. You've got to take it to another level. The question for me is, I think it is, is, is that what I want to see for the defense to truly become elite or is it more about, can they still be, if they just repeat last year, is that good enough to win a championship? My answer would be, if, if nothing else changes on the team, then no, it's not good enough. You need to be better to carry the team. If the, if the offense improves in the manner in which we expect the offense to improve, is it good enough? Yes. And then also how much better does the offensive offense have to be for Notre Dame to be able to compete for championship with the D line just being as good as it was last year? Sure. A lot of that has to do with other parts that have nothing to do with the D line. But the D line can only control itself. You know, I always say control the controllables, right? And the defensive line can't do anything about the linebackers, the corners, the safeties, the offensive line, the D, the offensive coordinator, any of that kind of stuff. They can only control what they can control. And what they can control is doing being more disruptive, being more dynamic and, and being more consistent, because this is the point that Andrew Gilmore was kind of getting at in the chat is number one, every defensive line has bad games, right? Every single one in some of the best defensive lines I've ever seen in my life have days where they weren't as good as they probably should have been. They do Georgia 2021, I mean, it was one of the best defensive lines of the last six or seven years. I mean, just, you had first round draft picks on the second team on that group, right? And then they come out against against Alabama in the SEC title game, and they can't get after the quarterback and Alabama rips them up on, on the offensive side of ball. They lose 41 to 24. Everybody has those kind of days. Alabama went for 536 yards and 7.7 yards per play in that game. The most yards they gave up at any point in time prior to that game was 387 to that really good. The hooker led Tennessee team, they give up 7.7 yards per play to Alabama that day. The highest yards per play against them previously was 4.83 by South Carolina. Everybody has bad days. But I do think that last year Notre Dame's defensive line didn't have enough of the really dominant games for me to be okay with that occasional down game, right? Their needs. The overall level of play needs to increase, in my opinion, in order for them to carry the team. However, if the offensive side becomes the unit it's capable of, and they don't miss a beat at linebacker in the secondary, I actually do think last year can be good enough. So part of me saying they need to be better Vince is about that they need to be better in order to make up for other areas, maybe not being as good as they were last year or as good as we hope they can be. So I think that the baseline is repeat last year. If they repeat last year they've got a chance. That's what I would say. They got a chance. They can't regress in order for me to feel even better about this team taking a step as a program. I think the defensive line can be that. And we should expect that from them Vince because it's a deep group. It's a talented group and it's a very experienced group. And there are some questions that we've got to figure out and we'll dive into those questions as we go along Vince. But the reality is, is if this defense can improve, it can be better. And then what does that mean to improve? As I said, finish up the ball better. That's the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this D line. Finish the ball better means two things, right Vince? Be even better with block destruction. And holding your point of attack when need be. And then two finishing at the ball. Get to the ball. Tackle better. Right. I mean if Riley Mills would tackle better last year, we'd be having a completely different conversation. It's just that one thing about his game improves. We're having it. Well we may actually be having a different conversation about him because we may be talking about how well he's looking in the NFL camp that he's a part of. Well that's a good point. Yeah. You know but that's kind of a double edged sword as far as like he wasn't a complete player last year. And so he came back to become a more complete player and yeah that double edged sword. He was very good last year. It's just you've got to finish better. You know you need to turn some of those some of those disruptions into finished plays where you're getting TFLs and TFLs like quarterback. Yeah. So I think that's the area where I say is those two things right there right. Getting to the ball. And all that that entails and finish better that that's because they were close Vince. They were really really close. Yeah. Last year. It's just that's what you need to do. Well and I think we've talked about this a lot and we're probably going to talk about it even more tomorrow when we talk about the linebackers. But I think you know there's been a an increase in athleticism I think overall with this defense in general especially the front seven. And so that will help them I think be put into position to make those TFLs and some of those disruptive plays behind the line of scrimmage but they but they still need to complete them. You know we we've seen over the last two years with it under our Golden's defense. They're not having the issue getting to the ball in the backfield that they're getting to the ball in my opinion. They're just not finishing. And so there's got to be an emphasis on finishing. I think even more this year but again with that increase in athleticism up front. I think they have an opportunity to do that. People just have to wait and see if there comes to fruition or not and that will have a tremendous impact obviously on this team and on this defense and what they are able to do because you and I both know you know second and 13 is a heck of a lot different than second and seven. You know when you're when you're diving into the playbook and trying to figure out what to call on second down or third long as opposed to third and short you know all of those different things. So you know that's going to be up to this defensive line. You know can they be disruptive can they finish the plays that they were in position to finish last year and just overall didn't finish enough of them and we'll get into some specifics and segments of the show that are upcoming but obviously the edge is going to be a big part of that. More production from the edge is going to be a big part of that and the other part of that which again we're just kind of previewing what's to come with the rest of the show. The backups have to be more disruptive and to me here's the final piece to Vince especially with the news that we learned today about the offensive line with the fact that you're playing Texas A&M with the fact that that that you are are having a situation where I mean I'm trying to think of the way say this you've got a lot of talent in the back end but it's a lot of new parts. I mean you got a new nickel you're going to have a new will a new mic now the new will is going to be a guy that's played a bunch but he didn't play it will and Jack Kaiser you've got a very experienced boundary safety that's got over 2,000 snaps of college football in his career and Rotherd but zero in another day uniform and at that safety position right so and you've got a brand new field corner so you've got some very important parts that are missing I think where this defense really needs this D line really needs to be at its best they need to start the season off better than they did last year and I think that's one area where I would say I actually think you know I say you don't blame the playing Navy on things and I'm not blaming them for anything but I do think when you are preparing to play Navy in the first game of the year it's two weeks of work from your D line where they're not worried about getting to the quarterback and they're not worried about getting to the ball carrier per se they're worried about eating up gaps and keeping guys off their legs and freeing up your runners it's a little bit of a different deal when you talk about your D line did was there an adjustment period after that that's a good question since it did happen so early so now you don't have that that potential excuse you've got to start off early because one of the most annoying narratives for me this offseason has been the obsession of talking about the Notre Dame offensive line against the Texas A&M defensive line and how that could be a match up that is why Notre Dame loses that game and then nobody wants to talk about the Notre Dame defensive line against the A&M offensive line A&M has just as many A&M would love to have a couple of their names back up offensive tackles right now like they would be very happy with that to play opposite Trey zoom right I mean that's just their offensive line was a mess last year they've also got to block the Notre Dame defensive line and that's gonna be a big part of that game Vince's they need to go out and have the kind of game where we can look back and say this is why you all were talking about the wrong things all summer because of that right there yes Notre Dame's offensive line needs to figure out a way to block a really talented Texas A&M defensive line but how's Texas A&M going to block a really good Notre Dame defensive line if the Notre Dame defensive line doesn't play to their potential then it becomes a problem because you now have to figure out okay how do we stop this team with the best part of our defense at least in game one isn't playing like an elite group or top 10 group so even if they are just top 10 they need to be top 10 day one where last year think Vince I don't think they were as good in September as they were in October November the D line sure we're gonna have to start a little bit faster and and I think the the edge is gonna be a big part of that and the depth is gonna be a big part of that well and there I mean they're gonna have to start faster because the level of competition is obviously higher you know or one of the reasons they have to start faster and everything you said is absolutely accurate but they're gonna have to start faster because game one isn't Navy I mean bottom line game one isn't Navy game one's Texas A&M who's a top 25 ranked team and you're going to their place when they're you know fans are gonna be going bonkers because there's zero and zero and they got a new head coach and they got their quarterback healthy and you know go down the list of reasons for Texas A&M fans to be excited it's there and so the defensive line when we're doing the post game show on August 31st if Notre Dame wins that game we're going to be talking about the defensive line and the plays that they made that I bet that I don't yes if they win if they win because I don't think they can if the defensive line doesn't absolutely doesn't play well completely agree with that so before we jump into some more specifics make sure you hit the like button the subscribe button the notification bell share with your family and friends all the good stuff and make sure you jump on the boards boards on ours break down calm line of good discussion gonna be happy over there I have a feeling over the next 24 to 48 hours and of course tomorrow we've got a live look into practice and that's where the practice report goes folks so if you want that practice report you better check out boards on ours break down dot com (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
