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That's indeed.com/bluewire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. School is back, and exporting goods has what you need to win your year. We've got everything from cleats to sambas, dunks, and more, plus the hottest looks from Nike, Jordan, and Adidas. Find your first day fits in store or online at dicks.com. All right, being nation, welcome back to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. That's Vince. No, that's Vince. I'm Brian, and we're ready to talk some Notre Dame football. I'm going to tell you all how excited we are for this season to get started. Today is that dude's 20th anniversary to his wife, and he's still here doing a show. That's right. Didn't even mention like, hey, can I not do this show today? I'm, you know, it's just like, let's roll. What time are we going with the show today? We got plenty of time for the anniversary stuff later. That's right. I didn't want to say to my friend, congratulations and happy anniversary. You know how much I adore you and your wife. I just love your family, and I'm very thankful that you and her are such a great example to your children of what it means to be in a committed, loving relationship and doing this life thing together. So proud of you, happy for you guys. And thank you for being, you know, for your dedication, Irish Breakdown, and being here with me today, because I know you're excited about the topics and about by so whole. If we weren't doing by so whole, it might have been a little iffy events would have been on the show today. But yeah, I'm ready to go. Hey, no, no, no problem. I appreciate it. And you know, all things go to the lady that's right about up there, upstairs, because she's allowing me to do the show today, basically. Oh, I already knew that. Yeah. It has to ask. And I mean, sports talk later on, you didn't have to ask. So no, it's been, it's been a trip. There's no doubt about it. It's scary how fast the years go by as anybody in the chat, or you can attest. I can tell you that it goes by super fast and, of course, 20 years and five kids later. And it's like, here we are. So you're getting ready to send your first one off into the world. So scary. He's over the line of year. He's already making adult decisions and doing stuff that is crazy. And I'm super proud of my other kids as well. And yeah, 20 years, man. So here's too many more. And I'm excited to celebrate with her tonight and did some shopping this morning. And we're going to go out tonight and have a good time. So looking forward to it. Very nice. 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 player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in, baby. 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And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/bluewire. Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com/bluewire. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need indeed. So this, not that that's not an important topic and we could talk about that the rest of the show, but we've got some other stuff that we want to talk about today. We want to talk about the Notre Dame secondary. A lot of fun stuff to talk about with the Notre Dame secondary because it's always fun to talk about position groups that are really good, frankly. And this position group is really, really good as we were talking about what we were going to specifically talk about with this group and doing our show prep and everything else and we're going to get, obviously, to the breakouts and it's like, wait a second, who can break out? There's already two preseason all-Americans in this group. You know what I mean? And so having a position group with that kind of talent returning for yet another year where one of those guys could have left and gone to the NFL and been doing his thing and getting paid even more money than he is now on an INIL deal. But in Xavier Watts, but he's decided to come back and he just solidifies this secondary and what it can be and all of that. And I'll tell you what, I'm excited about this secondary. There's no doubt about it. And I will say that this is a recent feeling as far as we're talking about the length of time that you and I have been covering Notre Dame, it's not often that we can go into a season with the kind of excitement and confidence in the Notre Dame secondary that we've had over the last couple of years. I'll just say that. It is wild how quickly things turn around for Notre Dame. And look, there have been seasons where the secondary was expected to be a strength of the team, right? I mean, 2020 or me, excuse me, 2018 is one of those years where, you know, Julian Lovett played a bunch. He was coming off of a year. He had 23 passes, defense, Troy Pride had kind of stepped in and into the starting lineup by the end of the year. You know, you loved what Jay Lenelli had done the year before in 2017, his first year really in the lineup. You're getting a low heat gillman into the mix. That was the first year he was eligible to play after sitting out 2017 because we watched the low heat play against Notre Dame and the game where Navy beat Notre Dame in 2016 was a freshman. So, you know, there was a lot of excitement about what that group could be and they turned out to be a heck of a team. But then a year later, it's like, okay, you're supposed to be good again. You've got Troy Pride coming back. You lost Julian Love, but you got Gilman coming back, Ellie coming back. You've got Kyle Hamilton. And the secondary wasn't quite as good. They were so good, but they weren't as good as they were the year before. And then in 2020, all of a sudden, just like that. So like, yeah, two years in a row, it was good. Then just like that, boom, your secondary falls off the cliff a little bit because you lose pride. And yet, and recruited well enough to reload. And so what this team is in a unique situation, Vince, because we've now had two years in a row of the secondary being pretty good. Yeah. It was good in 2022. It was great in 2023. And now can they break the trend of, okay, a couple good years and then fall down, couple good years, then fall down, or is what we saw last year, the beginning of this is just the reality of the Notre Dame secondary. I mean, that's kind of the question mark that we're at. Sure. That feels great that what they've done in the last couple of years, but is Notre Dame in a position to reload? Because in the past, for the past 20 plus years, when they lose multiple starters, which they did last year, they lost three starters from the secondary. Now, when we talk about starters, we're talking about the two safety positions, the two corner positions plus the nickel. Right. Right. So you lose Thomas Harper versus modern football. You got to count. Well, that in Thomas Harper played more snaps than Jack Kaiser did last year, started more games than Jack Kaiser did last year. So, you know, when you talk about who started, was it the nickel or the rover? Well, they started the season more in their nickel defense and they did their rover defense. That was more of their base defense than their quote unquote, you know, when I say it's not even base anymore. It's basically just their four three defense compared to their four two five defense, essentially is what it is now where it used to be, you know, they were a team that was, you know, four two five defense in four three personnel. Now, there are four two five defense that will also play for three personnel. You look last year, Thomas Harper played four hundred and thirty eight snaps. His backup was Clarence Lewis, Clarence Lewis played two hundred and thirty six snaps. I'd say at least half of those came in the slot. Jack Kaiser played three hundred and fifty four. So they're in the, they're in the nickel a lot more than they're in anything else. So that means you lost three starters from last year's defense and is Notre Dame really in a position in a secondary to just reload. We're going to find that out now now we think that they are right and we'll dive in the show is going to be about giving you the reasons why. But it's also kind of an interesting year Vince big picture because we're assuming a lot about Notre Dame in year three of this group, right? And I don't even know if you can even say year three, but I'll say year three because, you know, we did see a lot of Benjamin Morrison in 2022. It's a freshman all Americans, Xavier Watts, that was his first year kind of a, you know, in the rotation. So I mean, I'd say year three is fair to say, but can this group build on or at least sustain the minimum sustain what they did last year and then hopefully build on it? Can they reload with a lot of new faces and it's not even just on the field, Vince, they're going to have a new rover there, the two guys battling for the start opposite Xavier Watts didn't play at Notre Dame last year much. Don jeweler have played very little and Rod hurt was at Northwestern last year and not playing safety. He was playing nickel. Correct. And so there's a lot of questions and the other part too, Vince is new names have one of the best cornerback coaches in all of Cox football for the last five years, right? And Mike Mickens. So 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. This is the fifth year. That's the last four years. So then the question becomes, okay, can Mike Mickens do for the entire secondary what he did at corner, right? Which is now the entire secondary is going to be incredibly well coached or is the entire group going to take a little bit of a hit because he now can't focus all his time at corner and now he's spread a little bit more thin, so to speak. So like that's also a question now. I think you and I have our opinions of that and I, you know, because we've talked about it, we both think that they're going to be fine in that regard, but that's a projection because we have to see it happen now. This episode is brought to you by our good friends at NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. I'm sure by now you've all got back into your Sunday routines, but they could be even better with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. You get the most live NFL games all in one place every game every Sunday and you can even watch up to four different games at once with multi view, one of my favorite inventions of this decade. It's exactly what you need to catch all the action. Make your Sundays more magical and also YouTube TV is great. I got it this year. It's awesome. Sign up now at youtube.com/bsdevice and content restrictions apply local and national games on YouTube TV and if I'll send a ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games. And, you know, the little bit of practice that we have been able to see this last practice in particular, I kind of cut an eye on Marty Biagie. Now they were just running drills and they weren't doing a ton of stuff, but I was just kind of watching Marty or coach Biagie and just how he was interacting with the safeties because they were doing position specific, you know, drill work and things like that. And usually he's nowhere to be found, you know what I mean? Like usually he's with the special teams, the specialists, you know, doing his thing. And obviously this year is different. He's been working with the safeties and Mike Mickens was off working with the corners and he was working with the safeties. And I mean, not that I would expect anything different as far as what it appeared that the players were respecting him and doing everything that he asked and all that. But he really took control of that position group. I mean, he's barking out orders and he's running around and he's doing all these different things. Not that doesn't, that's not the be all end to all of the coach. Don't get me wrong. And it's just a snapshot. But I like what I saw in that moment, you know what I mean? Like he was in complete control of that position group and guys were flying around and they were doing everything that he asked and he was coaching them up and he was very vocal with that group. And you know, again, is that mean he's a great safeties coach? No, because he's not the safeties coach. Right. Right. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Like he's an assistant essentially of the secondary coach or safeties coach, the assistant to the regional manager 100% but I liked what I saw in that moment. You know what I mean? And so it gives me some more confidence than I even really had. You've also seen our golden working with that group a lot during the individual as well. Okay. And then when they, when in the one full practice we got and then when they were doing some team versus team stuff in a couple of other practices at the end, we, Mike Mickens was in charge of the whole secondary. Okay. You know, as far as like telling guys what to do in communication. So, but, but my concern was in those drill periods, are they being coached the same way? So right now Mike Mickens when they're in drill, when they're in meetings, he's got the whole room. When they're, there's certain team things they'll do in pre practice and individual that he's in control of the whole group. And then when they're in the team stuff. But what about those other times? You know, what about when he's talking to a corner who's talking to the safeties? Well, there's multiple people involved in that now golden Marty Piaji. And then there's a GA whose name I don't know that we've seen with that group as well. He may be an analyst. It's hard to tell now because analysts are now allowed to be on the field coaching. So I don't know if it's a GA or an analyst, but there's someone else there. So there are bodies there. Now we have to find out if this group that's working with them is good because there's two ways to look at it. One is it's really good when you have one coach that's talking to everybody, whereas Chris O'Leary did a great job. Mike Mickens did a great job last year. But there were times when the, you know, when there would be some misses and communication between the two groups, because they weren't always going over the same, the game plan together. Because you know how it is, then sometimes like, hey, you know, I think we're installing this correctly. You know, you may say something that's not quite what was meant or intended by the other coach or just some things are different. So when your safety say something in your corners or vice versa, it may not register wide or right away. And that could create an issue on mission communication. Well, now there's no miscommunication because of that. It's just I'm the, I'm the DB coach and I'm the one given these signals and then coach Piaji and these other guys are working you through drills and individual technique and things like that. And so we need to see it though, right? I mean, so I'm confident it's going to play out well, but now we need to see it. And we need to see if this group can still play at the high level that it did last season when it comes to limiting the big place because that's something this secondary was great out last year, especially in the past game was limiting big plays. Teams rarely, I'm, I'm trying to think of it now, like when Notre Dame gave up a big pass play when I mean big pass by, I mean like a long pass play, like a play where like they got burned for a big game that wasn't against their backups, right? You know, because I mean, Pitt had a big play against Notre Dame's third string corner last year. I'm more talking about, you know, teams that games where it was good. So you mean, you go through last season, I will say this, I can't, I'm trying to think of when that was, but, but I will say this Vince, Navy should have had one. Navy had a big missed opportunity that you remember that in the second quarter, I think it was, they had a guy that was pretty open and they, and they missed as missed them. Yeah, they missed it for a big play. So I mean, there, there just weren't a lot of those opportunities against Notre Dame last year. And you know, like, you know, I don't remember times when, when teams were hitting balls down the field against Notre Dame and I'm going through like, you know, the season, the season results and, and I'm looking at opponents like Tennessee State's longest game, game was 22 in the air, NC State's longest game was 38. And I believe that came late in the game again, when, you know, the game was kind of no longer in doubt. Sure. Central Michigan had a 37 yard game. I believe that was also late in the game. But again, still not to not, not a single 40 yard play yet Ohio State had one 40 yard game last year to save your Johnson after that their next biggest gain was only 23 yards to make a bucket. Now that was a big 23 yard game because it set up the final touchdown. But you know, let's see, get to the Duke game longest was 27 yards Louisville game. Longest was 18 yards. So longest play they gave up in the past game to Louisville USC longest pass play was 21 yards to their tight end. Back to back games with the longest play given up was to a tight end pit had a 50 yard gain. That's when I was talking about that was against a backup. That's the first time ninth game of the year, the first time they gave up a play of, of that big and it was it was a back, it was a late in the game against a backup Clemson's longest game last year was 18 yards. So we're now multiple games against good teams with the bowl games with the longest pass play they had was less than 20 yards fence. We've seen that multiple times now. Like for us as long as game was 17 yards last season. And then Stanford with Alec Aya manure gave up a 53 yard game to a running back out of the backfield. Do you remember that was a blown coverage to EJ Smith out of the backfield wasn't against the defensive back. So you just didn't give up big plays. Does that continue this year, right? Do they give up more big plays? Do they make more plays there's you know, is that the new normal against Notre Dame or was last year just sort of that everything went right season. That's kind of what we're going to find out because I don't know that Notre Dame is in a place yet Vince where we can just assume that these parts of the team are just going to keep being good. I think I think we can project it based on what we've seen the talent coming back things like that. But this is not a program that over a course of six, seven, eight years has just every year shown that hey, this is this is what we do. This is right. Exactly. You know, and so I think this year is big for that again, I don't want it to come across like we don't think they can do it or to diminish what they did last year wasn't flooky. You know, again, they played against Ohio State. They played against Clemson. They played against NC State. They played against Caleb Williams and USC like they played against good teams. And it's just it's okay, but can we can we can we be in a situation where this is just the new normal of Notre Dame limit the big plays, you know, like like Benjamin Morrison, I think gave up three touchdowns last year. They were all short to him or like scrambles, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. You're you're it's just hard to beat this team through the air. Is that the new normal or was last year just a wow, they just everything went right for that. Yeah. Which Vince, let's be honest, we've seen that in the past where Notre Dame had that kind of everything went right season. Sure. And then like 2012 is part of that. So you know, part of it, I mean, I would I would use like Bob Diakos defenses were always good. Sure. They were never that good. Right. You go back to 2002, that great defense had no two, oh one, oh three, not the same. I'm close to the same. Is this just the new normal at Notre Dame? Like it is at Iowa, like it is at Georgia, like it is at Ohio State or and I say that at Ohio State because they had a couple down years, but those were the anomalies on defense. And then they fired that decordinator hired a guy who has made a career out of putting really good defenses on the field. So there's there's an assumption that I'm willing to give Ohio State on defense because of their history, because of their history that that we need to, you know, I think Notre Dame is there now too, but I need to see it. Yeah. And in the secondary is going to be a big part of that. Right. No doubt about that. It's going to be. I mean, it's going to be fun to watch. Obviously, I think the secondary has obviously a lot of talent. There's no doubt about that, they've got a lot of returning talent. They've got a lot of new talent. And the fact that, you know, I hadn't really sat down and really thought about it. But if you, you know, you assume that there's five starting positions accurate, that the fact that they have to, they've placed, excuse me, they have to replace 60% of those starters. Now the 40% that they're returning are really freaking good, but they still have to replace 60%. To your point, they weren't great last year in the secondary just because of Xavier Watson Benjamin Morrison. Absolutely. To your point. Yes. Cam Hart was exceptional. He got drafted. Thomas Harper had an excellent season coming over from Oklahoma State where he was coached by Jim Knowles. Yeah. Right. You know, who's who's now doing a great, some great things in Ohio State. And then of course, DJ Brown had the best year of his career, right? So now, now you say, well, DJ is not as big of a loss because he wasn't as physically talented. But the one thing about DJ was he was always in the right place in the past game. Now, look, okay. Yeah. You got to catch that ball against Ohio State. But again, he was where he was supposed to be. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's, that's what you got to, you know, you've got to try to, you got to try to replicate that some way, somehow with a much different looking group. No doubt. That's, that's going to be the big key. It's going to be a very big key. So I believe that's the end of part number one. And so make, yep, did I forget something? Nope. Okay. Make sure you hit the like button, the subscribe button, the notification bell, share with your family and friends. Of course, boards, boards.hoursbreakdown.com. There's a wonderful intel piece on there right now about recruiting. You're going to want to be a part of the board. So you can check that out. It's, it's, it's big news. I'll just put it that way. So make sure you are a member of the boards at boards.hoursbreakdown.com. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] If you're a facilities manager at a warehouse and your HVAC system goes down, it can turn up the heat, literally, but don't sweat it, Granger has you covered. Granger offers over a million industrial grade products for all your operations, including warehouse HVAC maintenance, and even better. They offer access to experts and fast delivery, so you and your warehouse can both keep your cool. Call 1-800-GrangeR, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done.
