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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. Jewelry isn't a gift you give just once, it's a way to remind your loved one of a beautiful moment every time they see it. Blue Nile can help you find the gift that says how you feel and says it beautifully, with expert guidance and a wide assortment of jewelry of the highest quality at the best price. Go to bluenile.com and experience the convenience of shopping Blue Nile, the original online jeweler since 1999, that's bluenile.com to find the perfect jewelry gift for any occasion, bluenile.com. Welcome. I'll be nation. Welcome to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. I'm Vince De Dario. That guy over there is Brian Driscoll and we are back and it is Friday and it is a Friday free-for-all mail bag, it is the day that you guys run the show and we just answer your questions and queries and it's fun. I love it. I love myself some Friday show that's for sure so Brian, how you doing today on a wonderful Friday? Good man. You're messing with my rhythm here, changing spots and sounds and stuff, so I want to adapt a little bit. On location. But I brought my flag. Yes. Breakdown. Yes. That's the key. That's the key. That's the key. Home is where the heart is right. Well, the office is where the flag is. It's right. 100 percent. But now I'm ready to go man, we got, I mean, we got to, normally we have like in the 30s when the show starts, sometimes in the 40s, we have 50 questions start already. So you know what that means, Vince? Epic long show. Well, it means number one, our fans are locked and loaded, right? Well, I mean number two, this is going to be a good show. Yeah. 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A state of the union, so to speak. You really think we're going to be able to do that in a question to a show? You know what I mean? That's a good two hours to show. That's a cool show by itself, man. I'll give you a really brief answer, and I kind of feel like I get where he's coming from on this, but I kind of feel like isn't every show we do kind of something like that, like on the whatever topic we're talking about, but I did a bit of a state of the program breakdown a couple months ago during the off-season. And really where it comes down to is you look, the program's headed in a good direction. Are they there yet? No, they're not, but they're definitely going in a good direction. You talk about the recruiting improvements that we've seen from the program. You know, defensively, they've added a ton of talent the last few years, offensive offenses. You know, we're disappointed in what the 25 class looks like, you know, they're struggling at receiver right now, and they're running back classes, solid, but not what recent classes have been. And then, of course, there's all the drama surrounding Deuce Night at quarterback. And that's, you know, that has some folks, you know, kind of in their feelings and feeling a certain way about certain things, but you're also coming off of what is probably the best offensive class. And their name is signed in 20 years, you know, with the only class that might be in the same ballpark, might be that 2008 class that like Dane Christ at quarterback and Michael Floyd and Dion Walker and John Goodman and those, I think Jonas Gray was the running back in that class. This offensive line class, I think, was better than that one, but that's the only one that can really contend with it. And that class provided, Kyle Rudolph, that provided another name with some big-time players. And so they're trending in a very good direction. And the school is doing its part a lot more than it has been, working with them in some areas, you know, spending more money being willing to invest in the program in ways that maybe they weren't as willing to do in the past and embracing the changes of the college football landscape. I was very concerned that Nerdame was just going to kind of be like, nope, we're just, we're not even going to go down that road. And said, they've said, look, we'll go down that road. We're going to go down that road a certain way that we're comfortable with, but we're going to go down that road because that's the laws now. And so I think a lot of those things are pauses. They're building a nine-figure new football facility that's just going to be for football players and athletes outside of the eating facility, which will kind of be for everybody. But you know, it's in a good direction. Now we need to find out if the on-field product can kind of catch up to what the other part is. I think the one thing that's going to be for the team is, can they win games in a way that matches what they're kind of doing off the field? That's going to be the question. Yeah. They definitely stepped up from a off-the-field aspect and, you know, paying coaches, facilities. You know, the indoor facility is unbelievable. I think that the admissions department is also working with the football team as well. I mean, they're still not just letting anybody in. Obviously, but I think that there is more of a give and take there to a degree. I think that, you know, to a degree, right, I just, I think that there's a better working relationship between the team and the university all around, you know, like there's right ways and wrong ways to work with them, right? The right way is, hey, listen, we'll work with you on maybe allowing you to get Riley Leonard in as a transfer, even though he's a grad, he's not a graduate, right, long as you bring us a kid that's academically, has thrived and Riley has, you know, exactly. That's why they bring in guys from like Northwestern, right, Duke, and like you can get those kids in as underclassmen. I mean, even all the way back, I guess, to a Loey Gilman because he was an underclassmen coming from Navy. Here's an example of a change that's happened in Notre Dame. They're not changing their standards of letting kids in, but one thing they've done is they've expedited certain processes to say, hey, look, we'll get this feedback on this kid six months sooner than we normally did, so that way he has time to put in the work to get into school. So like in the past, it got like Bronte Johnson never would have got the early feedback he got that says, this is kind of where you are. This is what you need to do. We'll work with you in not in regard to we're going to lower our standards, but we'll make very clear. Bronte, if you want to get to Notre Dame, this is what you need to do. You've got to do the work, but here's the work to do. And then, you know, Notre Dame, you've got to recruit kids. They're going to do the work. And Bronte did. There's a defensive end in the 25 class that people thought Notre Dame was going to get. He didn't want to do the work. So he's not in the class. There's another kid in this class that needed to do some work. And he did it. And now he's in the class. And so those are things they're doing. So it's not about lowering the standards, which is not necessarily what you were saying, Vince. It's saying, hey, we'll work with you if you promise to bring us quality kids, you know, and that's the kind of thing. And now it's up to the football staff, say, look, you better make some smart decisions about the kind of kid that you're going to bring in front of our admissions office, you know, not from an academic standpoint, but it's per se, but you better have a lot of faith that this kid is going to go out there and do things the right way, because if you start bringing us kids that are coming here and they're getting in trouble and they're not doing what they need to do and they're struggling academically, and all of a sudden all these kids that we work with you on are, you know, leaving and not doing well. Guess what? We may not be as willing to work with you next time. And the football staff so far has been doing what they need to do. So it's those type of things, Vince, that you're seeing a lot more of. There's, I was told this by someone, and I think I'm comfortable releasing this because I'm not revealing the name and I won't say the circumstance, but there was a meeting that this person I know was a part of a meeting with some higher ups in Notre Dame. And for the first time in a long time, the statement was made that when the football program is good, it's good for the entire school. And it wasn't a statement saying like, hey, we're going to sell our souls for football championships. It was more of a, we're going to stay true to who we are. But that doesn't mean we can't support the football program. If we are talking about where the best Notre Dame's always striving to be the best and shouldn't be strived to be the best in everything we do, especially knowing the ramifications of what a good football program will do for the rest. Hey, you know, dean of whatever school you want a few hundred extra thousand dollars to hire a few more extra professors, then you better get on your knees, head over to Grotto, light some candles, make sure you're at the Basilica every Tuesday morning praying that the football team is good this year because that's where the revenue is going to come from for us to be able to expand your department because of how much the football, when the football program is bringing in money, that affects the entire institution. And there's more of a recognition of that. Now there has also been very clear directions to the football program. There's a right way and a wrong way to go out and know about winning. And we need you guys to focus on the right way, and fortunately for them, they have a head coach at Notre Dame that already believed that anyway. So there was like, no, I guess I'll suck it up and deal with it. It's more of like, yeah, exactly. That's how I want the program to be anyway. So we're on the same page. And so, you know, those are all things, Vince, that you look at and say, for the first time in a very long time, the vast majority of the leadership at Notre Dame is all pointed in the right direction and willingly so like I kind of feel like the leadership prior to this. And I'm not talking about Jack Swarbrick, I'm talking about other leadership. Even when they were on board, it was kind of like they were dragged on board, you know, where now it's like, hey, this is what we need to do, right? This is we're all on board. This is this is the direction we got to go, man. And I think that's that's where a lot of this stuff comes from. It really is amazing. The ripple effect that a really good football team does for a school. And I'm not even just talking college, it's a high school level too. You see attendance rates go up, you see grades go up, and you see obviously school spirit, like that kind of the thing go up, you know, and I'm talking high school, but also college. And then to your point, there have been studies that have been done for schools that have really good football teams, applications go up by students that want to attend that university. You know what I mean? And I'm referring to like schools that maybe aren't perennial winners, you know what I mean? Maybe they have a year where they're just really, really good that following year applications go up. I mean, it, it really is, you know, a ripple effect between one and the other. And so there's no doubt that if you open your eyes, if you're an administrator of the school, if you open your eyes and realize what a positive effect that athletics can have on your school from a financial standpoint, from an application standpoint, and I realized other names not hurting for kids applying to their school. That's not what I'm necessarily saying. For them, it has more to do with donations. 100%. But, but, but Vince, it does impact it though, because maybe some kids that might otherwise choose to go to a Northwestern or something like that. Sure. Hey, man, I went to that Notre, you know, I visited campus the weekend at that Notre name versus whoever game and that place was lit. I mean, I get a great education there, man, but there's a lot of school spirit there. Kids like that stuff. And it makes a difference. It's funny, you know, talk about, you know, depending on the program, because yeah, you go 11 and 2 at some schools and, and, and it's like, you think you'd won a championship, even though you didn't go 11 to 2 at Bam and people are like depressed. I believe you've gone from the current coach that we have now, you know, it is kind of funny how that is, but now, I mean, look, the program is, it's, it's in a healthy place. It's in a good direction, but it's not there yet. And you know, but it's not going to happen overnight. Now what's going to happen on the football field this season is going to, is going to have a big impact on that, in my opinion. And that's what makes, makes this a very important season, there's no doubt. Mohamed Abdi, Brian, tell us Notre Dame schedule since the Lou Holtz era and easiest with the benefit of hindsight, 86 to the present. Oh boy. That's a lot of years going through schedules, man. Yeah. And it's also a real tough one. While you are researching, it's also difficult because perception of a schedule going into a season and perception of a schedule after the season is over are two different things. But I like from his question, though, is he answers that in his question. He says, with the benefit of hindsight, we're the toughest schedules that I've ever faced. I, you know, I think that's kind of a good place to be. You know, look, it's going to come, it's going to come down to this. And I've got to kind of think through which one I want to go with. But I think the 2017 schedule was really tough and very challenging. Now we didn't know it was going to be that tough to your point, Vince, kind of going in because Georgia was coming off of an eight and five year, well, they ended up being a team that played for the college football championship that year, lost an overtime. Michigan State was coming off of a three and nine season. They went 10 and three and finished in the top 15. So, you know, Miami was a team that was not as good the year before and they ended up being a top 10 team. So, you know, that there's a lot of different things going to it. Miami was actually nine and four. And if you remember correctly, Miami was one of the few teams that they beat in 2016, right? That really bad four and 18. Well, one of their wins was a win over Miami. And so then the next year, obviously Miami got a little bit of payback. But that 2017 schedule was tough because Georgia ended up being a top 10 team. Michigan State ended up being a top 15 team that season, you know, you faced USC who was a really good team that year. NC State was a really good team that year. Miami was a really good team that year. And then, of course, the bowl game you played LSU. So, looking at the records, Georgia finished the year ranked second in the polls. Michigan State ranked 15th in the polls, USC ranked 12th, and this is final polls. NC State ranked 23rd in the final polls, Stanford ranked 20th in the final polls. And Miami ranked, let's see here, 13th in the final poll. That's that's who they played that year. And then let's see, one, two, three of those games were on the road for Notre Dame. And so, yeah, I mean, that was a pretty challenging schedule for Notre Dame that year. The other one that I've always thought looking back, and again, there's others you could consider. And I'd be curious what the chat thinks about this, because I thought Bob Davie, as much as I dislike Bob Davie and think he was not a very good football coach. Bob Davie had some brutal schedules at times in his career. I mean, he had some really tough schedules at times in his career. And I kind of always felt a little bit bad for him, but he had a couple that I thought were especially challenging Vince and you got to kind of pick which one you want. One of them was the 2000 schedule, they started that season off against Texas A&M. This is their schedule that year, Vince, right? This is just, I'm not even going to say started with, I'm just going to give it to you in order. Texas A&M, Nebraska, Purdue, at Michigan State, Stanford, Navy, at West Virginia, Air Force, Boston College, at Rutgers, at USC, that was their schedule that year. Now, I don't think that one ended up being as tough. Nebraska was ended up ranked 8th that year, Purdue ranked 13th that year. Some of those teams kind of fell off. Air Force did not finish ranked, but they were 9-3 that season. So there were some decent teams on that schedule. I thought the 1999 schedule was pretty tough, Vince. They started off with Kansas, who wasn't good, but then they had to play at number 7 Michigan. They had to play at Purdue, and I believe that was in the middle of the Joe Tiller era, right? So that was obviously a good time. I think it was the year after, or it might have been Drew Brees's last year, maybe the year after Drew Brees. You know, so you look at that team, Michigan finished that year ranked 5th in the final polls. They had to play Oklahoma that year, they had to play USC, they had to play at Tennessee in 1999. If you remember correctly, that was a really good Tennessee team. They were the defending national champions. They finished 9th of that year, and so that schedule was pretty tough, but I've always felt the toughest Bob Davie schedule was the 97 schedule. That's the one that I've always kind of felt was the '98 schedule when they had that one good year. That ended up not being a really tough schedule, but the '98 schedule, Vince, they played Georgia Tech, they played Purdue, at Purdue, Michigan State, at Michigan, at Stanford, who was ranked when they played at Pitt, home against USC. They played Boston College at home, BC at the Navy at home, at number 11 LSU, home against number 22 West Virginia, at Hawaii. And then the bowl game, they had to get a rematch against LSU, who they beat on the road that season, then they had to play a rematch in Louisiana in a bowl game. So that was already a tough schedule, basically, yeah. Georgia Tech finished that year ranked 25th, Purdue finished that year ranked 15th, Michigan State finished 7-5, Michigan won the national championship that season. If you remember correctly, that '97 season, Stanford ended up falling back, but they were good when they played, they had to obviously play Pitt, who had a 500 record USC, had a winning record that year, LSU finished the year 13th, and yet to play them twice, and then, of course, like I said, West Virginia was ranked when they played them as well. So that was a really tough schedule. I'd say, so I'd say probably 17 and 97, in my opinion, were probably the two toughest. That's debatable. There's some others that can kind of share their opinions and thoughts on other schedules they thought might have been tough. Somebody said 05, I don't think that 05 schedule was really all that challenging, to be honest with you. You had a couple great teams at the top, but there was also a lot of really mediocre teams on that schedule. If you look at the rankings before they played, it would have looked a lot tougher. They played at Pitt, who was ranked in the top 25 at the time, had to play at number 3 Michigan, had to play Michigan State at home, had to play at Washington, had to play at Purdue, who was ranked 22nd at the time, then, of course, you hosted number 1 USC. They played BYU at home, Tennessee at home, Navy at home, Syracuse at home, and then at Stanford. But a lot of those teams ended up not being that good Vince. Pitt that year, who was ranked when they played, finished the year 5 and 6 Michigan, who was ranked number 3 at the time, finished the year 7 and 5 Michigan State, finished 5 and 6. Washington was 2 and 9 that year, Purdue finished 5 and 6 USC, obviously, was the National Runners up BYU was a 500 team, Tennessee finished 5 and 6, Navy was 8 and 4. Syracuse went 1 and 10 and then Stanford had a losing record. So, at the end of the day, you really only played two decent teams all year. And that's the... It looks real hard. It looks real hard. Like, if you look at the Notre Dame schedule on Wikipedia, for example, it will show that they played number 23 Pitt, number 3 Michigan, number 22 Purdue, number 1 USC, and then also had to play, you know, Tennessee. But like, none of those teams finished the year ranked. I think the only team that I believe finished the year ranked that year is USC, is the only team that finished that year ranked and most of the teams they played finished with a losing record, you know? So I just... I don't... Purdue finished... They were ranked number 22 when Notre Dame went on the road, beat them in a night game. That's why it was on prime time, if you remember, Vince, it was I think it was the ABC game that night. 'Cause Purdue was ranked at the time. Well, Purdue ended up not being any good, you know? So like Notre Dame kind of exposed that, you know, they were two in one, they started the year 13th, won two games, lost that Minnesota, dropped it from 11th to 22nd, Notre Dame smacked them, and that was part of a six game losing streak for Purdue, you know? So like they weren't that good. So the 0-5 schedule actually wasn't that hard. I would argue that 0-6 schedule was harder, 'cause Michigan was really good that year. If you remember Michigan, that year Michigan in 0-6 played in that number one, verse number two, shoot out against Ohio State, you know, they played a good Penn State team. So I don't think the 0-5 schedule was all that tough. So and sort of people talking about like '88 and '89, the question was from '86 to present, I kind of read that incorrectly. I looked at it kind of since the Lou Holtz era, you know what I mean? He mentioned since the Lou Holtz era, so I kind of was focused on post Lou Holtz. Yeah, like after he was done, yeah. But yeah, the 1989 and 1988 schedules were incredibly hard as well. In 1988, Notre Dame beat. If you look at the end of the season, Vince, this is great. Now, it was very top heavy schedule, but Notre Dame beat, and this is final rankings. They beat the number two, number three, number four, and number five teams in the country that year. Notre Dame did. They beat, and they also beat number, what was you, what is USC finished? Number seven. So they beat number two Miami. They beat number four Michigan. They beat number five West Virginia, and they beat number seven USC that year. 1989 was even tougher, in my opinion, because they played a lot of really good teams at the top, but they also played a lot of teams that finished ranked. So they started a season that year against Virginia, who was unranked at the time. But Virginia finished that year 18th. That was that Sean Moore Herman Moore, Chris Slay team. They played Michigan that year who finished seventh. They played Michigan State. They played at Purdue. They played Stanford. They played at number 17 Air Force. They played USC, who was ranked ninth. They played Pitt, who was ranked seventh. They played Navy SMU, who had just started their football team again. They played at number 17 Penn State, and then they played at number seven Miami. And then obviously Miami ended up going on to win the National Championship that year. So that season they played, as I mentioned, what I say Michigan ended up ranked seventh. They played number 16 Michigan State. These are final rankings. Number 16 Michigan State, they played Air Force who went 8-4-4, 8-4-1. They played number eight USC. They played number 17 Pitt. They played number 15 Penn State and then number one Miami. Like that was a brutal schedule. So if I'm looking at this correctly, Vince, that 1989 team beat, see here, number 18 Virginia, number seven Michigan, number 16 Michigan State, number eight USC, and number 15 Penn State, number 17 Pitt, so they beat six top 20 teams that year. And then their only loss was to the national champs. So if Lou Holtz had those back to back years, and that's why I don't hear people complaining about those schedules too hard, you know, like no, those were brutal schedules and they got it done. But since Lou Holtz is how I originally took the question, why I went 97 in 2017, just listening to you go over all of those, the schedules in general were harder back then. Just from a, man, those are all power five schools. You know what I mean? And I realized a lot of things have changed and I get everything, right? But just as you're rolling through the names of all of those teams, it's like, okay, well, there's no Mac schools on there there, you know, sometimes they had double service academies, you know, that kind of a thing, which I was saying, like maybe back then was worse than a Mac team. I mean, maybe back then was terrible. That's a, you know, like in 1989, they played SMU who literally was in their first year back after having been, and then were having football for two years, right, so I mean, like they played rice one year. So no, there's no Mac team, like the year they won the title, they played rice. So yes, those schedules were definitely harder at the top events. But what I've always kind of contended is those schedules also had a lot of softness at the bottom. And that was a little bit of, but the 89 team was like, like Purdue wasn't great back then. Michigan State wasn't, was up and down back then, so it just, it depends on, on who you're talking to, you know, so like Fred acres was the head coach at Purdue from 87 to 90. They went three, seven and one, four and seven, three and eight to a night. Yeah, you're playing a power five team, but they're not good. And back then, it had been like what the power eight, so that power seven, something like that because you had the Southwest Conference still and the big eight, but then, you know, you know, George pearls at Michigan State was, was very up and down. There was teams he had that were good teams that he had that weren't. So, you know, he was the head coach the same 10 time as Lou Holtz, his career ended in 94, but in the time when he faced against Holtz, they went six and five, nine, two and one, six, five and one, eight and four, eight, three and one and three and eight and five and six and six and six and five and six. So there was a lot of up and down U.S.D. had some, some good team some years, but other years they weren't as, they weren't quite as good. So I'm not saying the schedules weren't hard. I just think we kind of, we mythalize it a little bit, you know, I don't think that's the right way to say it. There was also some garbage on that schedule too. Now those schedules were still way harder than some of the schedules Brian Kelly had at the end of his career, if we're being honest. But even then part of that was some of that was his bad luck. Like the 2021 schedule, they did not intend for that to be a crap schedule. You know, like you had Florida State to start the season off on the road. You usually expect that to be a tough game. Toledo's a really good Mac team. You got Purdue. You play Wisconsin on a neutral field, Wisconsin's usually pretty good. You're playing Cincinnati at home, you play at Virginia Tech. You got USC, you got North Carolina, you play at Virginia, played Georgia Tech. Well, Stanford, a lot of those teams were down. You know, I mean, if you'd got Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech a few years before, that's much tougher game. You know, North Carolina from some years is real dangerous. So sometimes having a tough schedule or not a tough schedule is bad luck. You know, just like, look, we tried to schedule tough, but it's not our fault that those teams all kind of went in the tank from the time we scheduled them, you know, so that's kind of, that's kind of part of the conversation to events is did you schedule with the intent of it being challenging? Right. Back in the 80s and 90s, they scheduled with the intent of it being a challenge. Some years pit wasn't as good as they were other years, but you're still playing pit. You're not playing bowling green, right? But there's still words and their needs to think they're needed to be that. Notre Dame, you can't go undefeated when you're playing that every single week. Right. Right. This is the video game where you load up with like top 10 teams. Yes. Not realistic. Like Miami back then, like my, you know, my, it's one thing I always give a lot of credit to Miami too, because back then, Vince, they would schedule tough. And you know, you look at the 1988 season when they beat Notre Dame, or when Notre Dame beat them, they started the season off against number one Florida state, then they went on the road to play Michigan, who was only ranked 15th because Notre Dame beat in the week before they ended up being ranked fourth that Notre Dame game was in Miami games where they're only losses. They started the season off. Oh, and two against Notre Dame and Miami lost by two points in one point because remember, they were beating Miami big in that game. And then they tied Iowa and they beat Indiana was ranked beat Ohio State on the road beat USC and the Rose Bowl and all that. Right. But USC Miami played that, that those two teams they played Wisconsin Missouri who weren't very good, then they played at Notre Dame. They played at LSU that year. They played Arkansas that year who was a top 10 team Arkansas finished 12th that year under Ken Hatfield. And then they played BYU who a couple of years later beat them. Yeah, that's tough, but then they also scheduled Cincinnati who at the time wasn't very good. They scheduled East Carolina, they scheduled Tulsa. So you've got to be able to have those games on your schedule. You have to. You can't manage the schedule that's that's that's worse than that that's any harder than what you already have. And so that's why I get fresh people to go, why are you playing Mac teams so you can make it through a season. You know what I mean? Like 100%. Yeah. So I mean, you're going to get a tougher test out of Miami will hire than you would get out of Vanderbilt, you know, so the intent back then was there. That's why I've always looked. I love Steve Spurrier from an offensive mind standpoint and he was a brilliant coach. But I never respected him as much as I respected Bobby Bowden because he wasn't willing to play tough, you know, where Florida State never, and I was actually watching the you the other night and I remember this quote, the guy from the you said, Hey, we always respected Florida State because they didn't duck us like the Gators did. They play us every year and Florida State's never gotten out of that schedule. But then, you know, they had to play, you know, Clemson in 1988, Florida State finished third Vince. They played Miami on the road in the opener. They played at Clemson who finished that year. Number nine. Remember Clemson had won a national championship like six or seven years before that they played Michigan State. They played at South Carolina who was ranked. They played Florida. So like there was an intent by those schools to to schedule well and I think the 93 team that won the title, I remember correctly, I think they played Michigan that year or one of the minute. No, they didn't play Michigan that year. They played Florida Notre Dame non-conference. There was a year in there that Florida State or Florida State was really good where they had to play Michigan. So there was an intent in my opinion for for teams like that to schedule well and that's all it was 19. It was 1991 is when they played Michigan 90 and 91. I think they had home and home against Michigan, I believe. No, they didn't play him in 91. They played him in 90 they played in 91. So I just remember Charlie Ward playing against Michigan. So it would have been 91. That year they played BYU who was ranked. They played Michigan on the road was number three. They played number 10 Syracuse. They played the LSU on the road, Louisville on the road, number two Miami and at number five Florida the end of the year. So I just I respect people that try to try to challenge themselves schedule wise, but it doesn't work out all the time. Like Georgia last year. Do you ever hear me like I acknowledge that Georgia schedule soft last year, but did you ever give me it? Hear me give him a hard time for it? No, for two reasons. Number one is they normally schedule tough, Georgia's I mean, they've played Notre Dame in recent years. They played Boise back when remember when they played Boise and nobody would play Boise outside the power five, you know, in the power five, because they didn't want to get beat. They scheduled Boise. They played Virginia Tech back when the Virginia Tech was really good program. They played Clemson all the time. They already have to play Georgia Tech. Like I said, they have a Notre Dame. They've got to know how state series I believe coming up soon, but 20, 20, two, three, it wasn't their fault that their schedule ended up being soft because a the SEC East was bad, but the league canceled their Oklahoma game. They were slated to play Oklahoma and the league canceled it because Oklahoma was now going to be joining the SEC. And so I don't give them where is Michigan canceled series with, who was it? Was it UCLA? I think they canceled a game with UCLA so they could have a soft schedule. I don't respect that. Yeah, it's different. You know, I mean, yeah, I guess it worked out for him, but it's kind of like, you know, but do you really feel good about yourself? You know, like doing that? Exactly. Michigan fans will say. They do. Yeah. Michigan fans will say especially with under the current situation going over there. They're cool. They're good. They're unique, they're unique bunch, Vince, a very one bunch super chats, man. Let's let's get down. In the Milton fan, thank you so much for the super chat best one-on-one player matchups for Notre Dame players like a best on best, i.e. Nelson versus X from another team. BK smells like burnt hair and BFD. I don't even know what that means, but I don't know either. And appreciate the super chat, man. Yeah. Best one-on-one player match-ups for Notre Dame players this year. Hmm. Well, I was very much looking forward to seeing Charles Jaggosall go against a bunch of different defensive ends this year, but now that best match-up, that's more concerning match-up. I'll tell you what, I'm really looking forward to seeing Billy Shrath go against Josh Farmer at Florida State. That kid's a good football player. Very good football player. And he's going to be matched up against Billy quite a bit that game because he's more of a three technique. That's going to be a good one. I mean, Louisville Quincy Riley against Chris Mitchell and Bo Collins is going to be one that I'm looking forward to watching. Looking at receivers, Notre Dame's DBs, there's not a Marvin Harrison Benjamin Morrison match-up this year like there was last year, but there's a couple of good ones. I'm curious to see how Louisville's going to use Colin Lacey. Now, are they going to play him at Z where he's going to be matched up against Christian Gray, Jane Mickey? Do they going to play him in the boundary times? They move them all over. So I can't really say who that match-up is going to be against, but I'm curious to see how they're going to match up. But they got a kid named Jekori Brooks who I think is going to play in the boundary more often. Transfer from Alabama against Benjamin Morrison, that's one that I'm looking forward to. Should be a pretty good match-up. But honestly, there's a bunch of safety match-ups against Mitchell Levens. I'm looking forward to Vince because one thing we talked about was, man, there's a lot of really good safeties on the schedule for Notre Dame. Jonas Saker in Virginia, he got Dylan Fineman at Purdue who are two preseason All-American kids. How are they going to use those two All-Americans against Mitchell Levens? I'm very much looking forward to seeing kind of what those match-ups are like. Those are going to be very interesting match-ups. And Notre Dame's D line against Florida State's veteran lineman, they're not great talents. Otherwise, they wouldn't be 60 or seniors in the NFL or in college football, right? Like, let's be honest, if they were first round draft picks, they would be gone. It's like Howard Cross was going to be a first round draft pick. He'd be gone as well. But they're very good CODs football players. I mean, I think Maurice Smith and Darius Washington were both first team All-ACC players. And I believe, I'd have to go look again, but I believe one of the two of the magazines had like Darius Washington is like a second or like a third team All-American type of player. So to see him go against like RJ Oben and guys like that, RJ Oben had a very good game against Florida State last year. And then, of course, inside Riley Mills and Howard Cross, especially Howard Cross, going against the center, Maurice Smith is going to be a really good, real good on good match-up for sure that I'm looking forward to seeing it. And look, there's a little payback in my opinion for the Notre Dame interior guys against Louisville. They did not play well against Louisville last year. And they got a really good guard named Michael Gonzalez, who's a very good football player. Was on my preseason all-apponent team. And I'm very curious to see how like, you know, can they up their game against him this year? That's a little payback time for them as well. So those are some of the match-ups just kind of off top of my head that I'm looking forward to seeing this year. Some of my favorite things that I'd have to ask about Vince is more going to be like coaching match-ups, you know, like, like Freeman against Elko and, you know, Colin Klein against Al Golden in the opener. I really like, you know, one, you know, Lincoln Riley against Al Golden, you know, part three, you know, round three, you know, Lincoln got the advantage in 2022. Coach Golden got the advantage last year. I would say that Coach Golden's win was a lot more impressive than Coach, Link Riley's win, but now it's round three, right? So I'd rather be two in one with less impressive wins than one in two with my one win being really, really good, right? So that's going to be a good one. I'm looking forward to, you know, Marcus Freemius, Mike Norville, two of the young cool coaches in college football, you know, guys that are building their programs, you know, kind of that battle and then just, you know, whenever I'm asked about who has the best coordinator tandem coach football, Notre Dame's always in the conversation, I think Florida State's always in the conversation with, you know, with Alex Atkins and Adam Fuller. So, you know, that battle against the Notre Dame coordinators, like, I'm kind of, you know, me events, I kind of nerd out a little bit when it comes to that kind of stuff, but those are the battle, those are the ones that are that I like, even though you didn't ask that because you asked for players, but that's what I think of when I think of the interesting battles because with a lot of these teams and when they're named, there's a lot of, well, I don't know what this team is going to be here, how they're going to use this guy that's from the portal or whatever the case may be. So, it takes away from some of that. You just don't see as many of the long time, you know, dude, senior versus senior like we used to see back in the day because that kid, you know, well, they had him last year, but now he's playing a Bama or now he's playing a Georgia or whatever the case may be. So, it takes a little bit of it. 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/bs device and content restrictions apply. Local national games on YouTube TV and a false Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital only games. Jewelry isn't a gift you give just once. It's a way to remind your loved one of a beautiful moment every time they see it. Blue Nile can help you find the gift that says how you feel and says it beautifully. With expert guidance and a wide assortment of jewelry of the highest quality at the best price, go to bluenile.com and experience the convenience of shopping Blue Nile, the original online jeweler since 1999. That's bluenile.com to find the perfect jewelry gift for any occasion, bluenile.com. Another super chat from Iden Binami. Thank you so much for the super chat. Most important thing, Marcus Freeman's own coaching can improve on. Own coaching. For like him, being a little bit more, there's some in-game decisions that I think looking back, he'd probably be like if I could do it over again, I would probably done a little bit different. Would he have gone fourth and ten plus against Louisville down 24/10 or was it something like that, right? Maybe not. Being more alert at the end of the Ohio State game to make sure you had twelve guys in the field or eleven guys in the field, I'd rather have twelve than eleven. Eleven guys in the field, for two plays in a row, some stuff like that. We're just being more in the moment, being present of like, okay, what's the operation for this? Things like that. I would probably say he can improve on, and then the other thing is just evolving as a head coach in regard to how do you prepare your team from week to week? That's the big thing is just this is a team that's been a little, like what we talked about yesterday, man. It's like one thing about Brian Kelly, this team was always here. It was always here. Now, the problem is here, you beat a lot of the teams that you're supposed to beat, not always as impressive as you should, but it also guaranteed you're going to lose to the best teams in the schedule. Right, exactly. We're Notre Dame's had a lot more up here, but they've also had a lot more down here than Brian Kelly did in his tenure. So you've got to eliminate this and stay more up here. So yes, you like the steadiness that you bring to the table, but you want your level of steadiness to be much better than Brian Kelly's level of steadiness because you want to be able to win some of those big games. That's going to be the key for me. And that's a balancing act, right? And we've seen improvement from year one to two on that, and then just need to continue to see that improvement from him from year two to three and beyond. John A1, in terms of pure ability and talent, has Mike Dembrock had a more diverse group to include potential of past units than what he has with Notre Dame in 2024. I like the use of the word diverse because if you're just going to say, has he had more talented rosters? I'd say, yeah, he had one last year. I mean, the three guys he had the top of his lineup last year were elite with Jay Daniels, Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas. But when you use the word diverse, well, all their talent was really in three spots. It was receiver quarterback and left tackle. Like that was where their dominance really was. And they maybe, you know, they'd have the running backs and things like that where, like, does Notre Dame have a position group as good as LSU's receivers were last year? But the gap between their receivers last year, Notre Dame's receivers this year, I would argue is surpassed by how much of an advantage Notre Dame hasn't running back and tight end. And you know, defense, you know, that he's that he's got to work with. I mean, that matters. What you, what you have defensively matters, what you do impacts, what you do as an offensive coordinator. You know, like, if you have a defense, you can trust, I may not take this chance here on third nine in my own 22, you know, like, or we're going to we're going to try to convert the first down, but I'm not maybe not being as aggressive because we can punt the ball away. Our defense is going to do their job and we're going to live to fight another day where whenever you punt the ball against, you know, last year, you kind of just assumed that the other team was going to get a score. And you had to, you had to call play call accordingly. So is it more diverse? Yeah, I would say it's more diverse. I don't know that it's the best group of skill of talent that he's ever had, but it's certainly more diverse. You know, the closest you actually might come would probably be 2021 Cincinnati because they not only had that really good receiving core, they had a quarterback that was drafted in the second round, but Jerome Ford, the transfer from Alabama running back was a really good player too. And they're pretty loaded at tight end. So that group had a very unique skill set and the type of players they had were different. You know, the drone for was a burner. Their number two running back was kind of a bigger guy. You know, Alec Pierce was a tall athletic guy. You know, their other receivers were a little shorter. You know, they were different types. Their two tight ends were very different from each other. So I'd say 2021 would be the, would, would be the team that I would say would be in conversation for most diverse. Now, not best because that's last year at LSU, but most diverse and, and I would argue that that if we're just talking about the starting lineup, that, that this, this team has a lot to prove to tell, to show me that they're better than the 2015 Notre Dame team talent wise. Because that team had TJ pro side. Because again, we're looking back with hindsight 2020 of now of what we know compared to what we don't know about the current unit. You've got, you know, in 2020, 2015, you had, well, fuller, you had CGA pro size, Chris Brown, Amir Carlisle, Sean Kaiser, and your offensive line of three first round draft picks, a second round draft pick on it. You know, I don't know that this offensive line has any first round draft picks on it. We don't know that yet. You know, but, you know, so, so hindsight wise, he might have even had a better group and Notre Dame starter wise. The difference with this team, Vince, is that team was very thin past starters, you know, where this team has got a lot more depth, a lot more depth and I think a better quarterback. And that's a, it's pretty important, pretty important, very, oh, another super chat from Tyler Evans. Thank you very much. Tyler really appreciate it. Guys, I'll be 32 tomorrow, happy birthday, Tyler. So he's got a birthday question would say Riley, or excuse me, Lincoln Riley was not a coward. He went to LSU and Brian Kelly took the USC job. How would those teams look different? I think USC would have been looked a lot like, I think it would have been it, how it would have looked exactly the same as it looked. Just flip it. Just different jerseys. Just flip it. I mean, look, Lincoln Riley would have been like Brian Kelly had a terrible defense at LSU, still managed to win 10 games. Lincoln Riley has a 10 terrible defense and they go seven and six or an eight and five and a pretty, you know, good at the top league, but not like an elite league like playing in the SEC. It would have looked very similar because Brian Kelly would have been able to say, okay, this is where we're weak. We've got to figure out ways to coach around that. And Lincoln Riley just never did. And Brian Kelly understood how important it was to build an offensive line from what you had. Now he inherited some better players, but you know, Lincoln Riley instead of developing kids that he wanted instead of going to high school route and developing guys, he went the portal route to try to build his offensive line didn't work. Brian Kelly went the, you know, let's work with what we have and build up what we have and keep recruiting high school kids and that worked out a whole lot better than what it did. It worked exactly like it would have looked. Lincoln Riley would have had a one good season at LSU and one not very good season. Like I don't think LSU would have been as good like I think this year LSU would have been really good with Lincoln Riley. They would have looked a lot like they did last year, which is exactly how LSU looked this year. A 10-11 win team that lost to the best teams in the schedule because they couldn't stop anybody, but they outscored a lot of other teams. That's exactly how they would have looked in my opinion the year before. This year, but their 2022 team at USC, I mean, at LSU would have struggled. I don't think he could have got that team as going as quickly as Brian Kelly did to be honest with you because I think Lincoln Riley is a much better offensive mind than Brian Kelly. I don't think he's a better head coach than Brian Kelly and you know, like that that's important because again, Brian Kelly has brought a little consistency and I'll say this about Brian Kelly like, you know, I don't care much for Brian Kelly, but I don't think the Notre Dame getting softer schedules was because Brian Kelly went in there and said, Hey man, we don't want to play anybody good. And as I said before, one of the softest schedules he's ever had was not intended to be a soft schedule. Getting going to a season where you got to start off against Florida State and played Wisconsin on a neutral field and say this is a soft schedule, right? Let's schedule soft. Let's play Florida State and Tallahassee. Now that was given to them by the ACC, right? But like they knew that was on the schedule and still schedule Wisconsin and Cincinnati. So I don't know that Brian, I'd ever say Brian Kelly backed out of a fight. You know, he tried to sometimes, but he wasn't going to just take anything to leave Notre Dame. He tried to get out of Notre Dame, but I don't think it's because he did because he was afraid of a fight. I think it just was more about he just wanted to kind of do what he's doing to go shoot, which is I want to go play golf and you know, have my life be a little bit easier than it is. Everything that I need to do is within X amount of miles. It's not right. I don't want to do it. I mean, just I don't want to deal with class and all that kind of stuff. But so I mean back out of that, but I don't know that Brian Kelly's ever backed out of, you know, hey, I don't want to play good teams because like here's thing. If Brian Kelly was afraid of competition, the way that I think Lincoln Riley is, there's no way in heck he leaves your name to go to LSU. You wouldn't go to the SEC. But you have to play Alabama, I mean, maybe go to the East, but you have to play Alabama every year. You have to play Texas A&M every year. You know, like, nah, that's not exactly like someone who's afraid of a fight. I think he was looking for an easier path to success, but like on field, he was never, he was not afraid of a fight and I never felt that about Brian. There's a lot of things that could criticize Brian Kelly for. That's not one of them. And so that's, you know, we're Lincoln Riley's looking to basically schedule his way into success. It's like for people like that. So, you know, good one, Vince. I appreciate Super Chat also. Coleman Smith, what do you see the roles of the freshmen running backs being? Well, Coleman, man, you're a member of the message board. I wrote an article about this last week. I think the roles right now are to be determined. I think right now, Notre Dame is looking for a number three back who that's going to be. I don't believe it's been determined yet. I think there's two scenarios that you could see, Vince. Well, really three. One is the freshmen aren't ready and they put Devin Ford as number three back. Right. That's number one. I don't think this coaching staff has any issues putting young running backs in the field. I mean, we saw that with Dila McCullough last year. And I mean, his two top backs last year were a freshman in sophomore. His two leading rushes in 2022 were two sophomores who were younger than Chris Tyree, and he put them ahead of Chris Tyree. He'll play the best guy. So if Devin Ford's that guy, it's because they don't think those other two guys are ready for the roles that they would need, knowing the assignments, past blocking, things like that. I could see a scenario where, you know, Kydron develops a bit of a ball carrier role, short yardage goal line, the number three runner. And Ennius develops a little bit of a pass game role where he's got a pass block and catch the ball. Now, I could see Ennius or Kydron being that guy too, but like those are the potential roles that I think they both could serve this season. Now, I think Kydron has the best chance at kind of emerging as just a pure number three. I can do everything that those guys aren't, you don't want them to do. But I think missing the springs probably going to give him a little bit of a disadvantage there. But I think he's going to have a role of being a really good back in Notre Dame at some point time. And I think he's going to be hard to keep off the field for an entire season. I really do. I mean, Vince, you aren't practicing the other day. You've now been at what two practices, right? And I know you were standing right there with Watson running backs. You don't see a lot of six foot 230 pound kids that move like exactly. Yeah. I don't do that. Look, there's a lot of talent at the top with one and two, obviously. And I'm curious to see what that differentiation is in carries and snaps and stuff like that with those two specifically, because last year it was heavily, you know, weighted toward Audrey for obvious reasons, right? It was one. And then there was a two, you know, and this is, it's different this year. It's more of a one A, one B. So what is that going to look like? Does that eat up some snaps from number three, whoever that happens to be? So I think a lot of the freshmen run back this question Coleman, which is a great question, is kind of TBA right now as to how number one, how those two guys play, what their plan is for the other, for the older two guys. And then also who wins that third spot and what they're asking of that third spot, right? So it's going to be an interesting scenario in the backfield because there is so much talent there. And in other years, these two freshmen will be playing a lot, a ton, a lot, you know, and that there's just so much talent there that it's just not going to be the case. They're both very talented kids. They really are. I'm going to pull up this comment from Salty Verge Vince. This is hilarious. He says, you know, Irish breakdown, you know, Andy Milton was only asking if you would provide a state of the union for Notre Dame football, you could have just answered yes or no. So I thought about doing that salty, but I thought that had been a really jerky way of starting the show. Like, oh, so we're just going to be that way. We're just going to dive in right into you being, you know, jerk face Brian today. Okay. That's good to know. I know we're getting that version of Brian today. That's, that's wonderful. It was funny because, you know, we had two really good questions, but two in depth questions to lead off the mail bag. And at one point I looked at the clock and we'd been through those two questions and we were half hour in. I was like, we'll be here all day. This would be great. Yeah. They're asking some deep questions today. And so I know you're, you got to think at five o'clock, but you're not going to be able to write. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. No doubt. Let's get speaking of Andy Milton fan. Here we go. All right. Andy Milton fan. How excited are you to see Mike Denmark's offense again at Notre Dame? Very. It's off the charts, man. Larry, it's off the charts. Are you kidding me? I'm breaking down a, there's a film breakdown on the message board today. And what I did was I, I, I've talked about this in the show, but I, I take like the nine power five games they played last year because I don't care what his offensive against army and Georgia state and Gramley. I took the nine power five team. So the eight SEC games plus floor state and I broke them down every play that you've seen the chart. It's like down distance hash, yard line, um, back, back alignment is the offset. Is he off back? Is he in a pistol motion formation play, play direction, plate type, drop type, uh, target result and then other little notes on each play, right? So one of the things I wanted to do, normally the target in the past, I would, I would, you know, when I'm breaking down their name, I'll do the target is the player. Well with the LSU breakdown, I decided to do it because I knew this is where I wanted to see because I know Mike Dembrock's offense. I didn't put the target as in the player. I put the target is in the position X, Z or F. So I went back and broke it all down. I looked at all the past plays in those nine games and I would take out like garbage. If they, if they were up like, you know, 42 to nothing and they were just running a ball. I take that series out, right and looked at how they, how they broke things down and then put the chart there of the targets and it's very similar numbers. But one of the things I decided to do, I was just going to do the numbers and I was like, let me get some clips in there of like top routes that each guy will run. So I took like the top route for each guy run and put a, found a play and put it in there and it's part of the breakdown. And as I'm watching this one particular play, they start off in a two by two and they motion the back outside to the two, to the two receiver, like to the Z and the slot side motion him all the way outside and then they run the Z is now the number two guy in a three by two formation. And he runs a like a go route from that and you're just like that little bit of hesitation by that motion allowed him to kind of get by a guy and go for a big long touchdown and you're just like, that's the kind of stuff that you're missing, that you were missing a lot recently. It's just sort of that, we're going to do everything we can to get match ups we like and get people where we need to be and you're just like, it's going to, it's going to be fun to watch, man. It's going to be really fun to watch. So excited. So yeah, I mean, it was a great breakdown and, but it, and I excess the nose and everything that was awesome. It's fantastic. And I'm excited about all that, but like, I'm just excited to see an offense that takes advantage of the personnel that Notre Dame has, right? And it's not just going to be, hey, we're going to take these guys and fit them into the scheme. It's going to be, hey, these are the guys we have, what kind of scheme can we run? Like, that's how I feel Mike Dembrock's going to be and it's going to be that much more effective and efficient, you know, in the big games, which is what matters. So that's what I'm excited about. Is the band next door there, the friggin xylophones are right out the window here. I was like, really guys, the xylophones, can't you find another spot? Okay. Why don't you go yell at him? Like, hey, go do that somewhere else. We're trying to do a show right now. Yeah, it's very annoying. All right. We got another from Andy Milton Fanny says, I never saw Lou and have only heard of, of, of through you, Brian, can you talk about him a little bit? Well, I mean, I've talked about him before. I mean, it's honestly, it's kind of hard to do justice to Lou and, and a, and a question and a mailbag because I'll just say this professionally, Lou was the ultimate pro. You know, he was someone who I met, I mean, I, I've been reading Lou my whole life. And so, I mean, I got blown, well, illustrated as a kid. And so when I first started covering the team, like that was one, like, Oh my gosh, I'm, I get to meet loose emoji and Tim Priestor. I grew up reading these guys, you know, and, and Tim Priestor loves it when I tell him that I used to read him when I was a kid. And I do that on purpose. I do that all the time on purpose because he's like, yeah, thanks, Brian. You know, like you were a veteran at your job and I was a child, but I, I love Tim's. I like to do that to bust his chops. But, you know, but Lou and Tim both were very kind to me when I first got on the beat and, and they were the only really the only ones and everybody else was kind of not friendly. There's a couple guys, I guess, but like the, of the main people and Lou, especially was just so helpful to me, just kind of helping show me the ropes and, and so I got to know him a little bit that way. And then when I worked for him, like I knew he was a great guy and all that, but when you work with him, you just realize how caring he is like there's still what it is, at least when I left, there was a BGI, there was still a, a, a landline phone with a cord, Vince, you know, like old school, like you got to do the, you know, and it was the same number that fans had had since the eighties and nineties, he first started doing the show because a lot of the older fans would want to call and talk about the magazine or ask questions and Lou would always answer that phone and talk to them. He had a million other things to do, but he won't always do that because he had, because he had a genuine passion for like his, his thing was like, I wrote my article, I did my job, you do yours, read it and shut up. It was a, it was a, he really looked at it as like, he wanted to make people's experience and fandom as, as good as he possibly could. And sometimes he would have to, you know, deal with some cranky old guy that was mad about, you know, something that was completely outside of Lou's control. And he was always so kind and gracious in those situations and he was always that way with me, you know, Vince, you remember when Brady died and, and Lou sent us this really heartfelt card and, you know, I was talking to him about it and he cried with me and he just, because he genuinely was sad because he also loves animals and, and, and those type of things, but he's just like kind of that kind of guy and, and, you know, just a great professional net regard, but he was also brilliant. I mean, Lou was absolutely brilliant, a lot of people don't know this like Lou had kind of a Rudy story like, like Lou's mom and dad both worked at Notre Dame. They weren't like professor, his mom worked in like the cafeteria and his dad did, I don't know what his dad, I don't say, but it wasn't like he wasn't the dean of the law school, you know what I'm saying? Like they worked, they were workers at Notre Dame. And Lou's first two years, he had to go to Holy Cross and, and then got into Notre Dame. And that's how it kind of went, but he had such a great love for Notre Dame as an institution beyond just the football program. He loved Notre Dame as an institution as much, if not more than he loved the football program. And then of course, as a historian, he was unmatched. I've never seen any like, he made me feel inferior when it came to my ability to recall information events and it was ridiculous, like he could tell you the sixth string quarterback in 1978, you know what I mean, like, what she did that once. I was, I was, we had two new employees. And I was like, I was like, Lou can recall it and they're like, no, we can't. And I said, watch this. And so we walked in the office and sat there for a couple minutes. And I said, Hey, Lou, who was the number three quarterback back in 1968? He literally, he stops, so like we're in the cubicles, or like in desks, I'm on one side of the wall losing the other. We, he and I always have our back to each other. So he spends his chair around and he's like, cause like he loved when I would ask him questions like this. And he said, and I don't even remember who it was. He tells me who it was, starts talking about all he, he went to so-and-so high school. I think it was in Pennsylvania. He was a great athlete in high school. He was like a three sport star. And I'm like, dude, I can't remember who the backup quarterback was two years ago. Like, you know what I mean like, and, and he was just so great. And you know, he did all, hey, Lou, I'm doing this article in Torrey and Folsom. Where does he rank all the time amongst, you know, running backs first through the first two years? Okay. It's behind. He's behind Audrey Denson, Alan Pinkett and Vegas Ferguson and Darius Walker. Something like that. Right? It's like, okay. And what my favorite though was Vince at home games, Notre Dame used to put out this notes package at the end of games that would have like different, you know, first time since such and such. I don't know if they still do that. And I'm sure that it still do something. It's in like the, the, the press packet at the beginning of the year, you know, in like the back. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But, you know, like there would be some, at least four or five times a year, they would put something in there, you know, and the, he'd walk up to it and he'd like, hey, actually and he would do it always so kindly and so graciously and so quietly, because he didn't want anyone else to hear any, like actually the last time they did this was back in 1992 against Purdue. They actually rushed for like 400 blah, blah yards and did that. And then the Notre Dame, many people was like automatically like, okay, and they'd go correct it. They won't even go look it up. They just like lose said it must be true. And so that was always good man. And, but you, you know, so incredibly humble and just the sweetest guy I'll ever meet. He really was, and he had finally, you know, he'd gotten married not too long before he passed away. And he had a wonderful wife and he was part of the Romanian church was a Romanian, Hungarian. Hungarian. Funny story. The one time I thought Lou was having a stroke because I didn't hear his phone ring and all of a sudden Lou starts talking and he's saying words. I don't know what he's saying. Like it's not French and he's saying words and I don't, I'm like, is he having a stroke like it's, or is he speaking in tongues? Like what's going on right now with Lou over there? He was speaking Hungarian. So I didn't know this, but he actually grew up in his home, like his family immigrated from here. I guess there was a war in his native country and all that stuff and I don't know if it was before he was born or maybe when he was a baby, but his parents still spoke that language at home. And the church he went to was like mostly people from that country and they spoke that language. And that's where he met his wife was kind of through that and stuff. So she was as sweet as can be and just, but it was just, I'm like, man, you learn something new about Lou every day, man. Like this cat, I'm sitting there thinking Lou's stroking out over there because he's just saying words that don't make any sense to me. And I look over and he's on his phone and then he walks out like, because that's how Lou was like he would answer the phone, but then he immediately would get up and walk out because he didn't want to be on the phone in the office and things like that. Because again, that's the kind of guy that Lou is respectful, you know, you're not gonna see Lou on his speaker phone at the grocery store, like you see all the fricking time like, hey, we don't all want to hear your conversation. You know what I mean? Like, but you know, it is what it is, but it's just just such a kind guy and very talented, knew how to tell a story as good as anybody out there as well when it came to writing. And he was also, he knew what he was good at and what he wasn't good at. And I asked him one time, I said, why don't you give more football opinions? He goes, you know what, Brian? He goes, I went to a coaching clinic X number of years ago and I'm sitting there listening to the coaches and I'm thinking, I have no clue what they're talking about. How am I going to criticize these people for football decisions when I don't have a clue what they're talking about? He goes, he's so, so he would, he would stick to his criticism will be based on no more bigger picture things, but he would never argue a play call. He would never because he's just like, I don't, I never played football. I don't know that. I don't think I realized he realized in that moment, like, I don't know this game well enough to be able to criticize them for things like that. So he stayed in this lane. And that's why I thought he and I were a great team, you know, because I talk a lot and he doesn't talk enough. You know what I mean? But his words are measured though, right? Well, and you did, Barry, he could say, you know, he only needed two sentences to say thumbs up something that I would take five paragraphs to explain, like, let's just be honest about that, right? But what people don't realize is I used to get a lot of crap for you don't let Lou talk enough. And I'm like, I understand all that, but what you guys don't know is I had to drag out of Lou a lot of times, you know, I'd be able to like, you know, and he would do these pauses and you think he's done. I have a bad habit of interrupting people anyway, because I look at these shows as like conversational and when you're talking ball with somebody, you know, there's a back and forth, you know, I was waiting for them, calling away from the talk and I could have definitely done a better job of that. It's my first time ever doing that kind of thing. And you know, but, but I thought we were a great team because he knew what he was good at. And, you know, I'd lob him up and set him up for those things he would then set, you know, kick it back to me. And I thought we did some great shows, man. And, and, you know, I was, I'm so thankful that during that time of me leaving BGI that you got a chance to work side by side with Lou because you got a chance to experience that firsthand. And it's, it's something else, man, just because of just the, the decency with which he goes about this, everything he does, and it's, it's generally just who he is, you know, and that's why I was, I won't say it was easy for him because I know there's plenty of times Lou would get pissed off and you'd see he'd want to go off, but he'd be like, you know, he'd calm down. So Lou, Lou, Lou had, Lou would get mad. It's just, you had to push him really hard to get mad and, and I was joking about this with who was it? Stiers or, or Tim Priest, I forget who it was lately, but I said, you know, there's one thing you could always say, if you were, if you had a beef with Lou, you were the problem. Not Lou. You're the problem. Because if there's an issue between you and Lou, it ain't him. It's you. You're the problem. I can promise you that because, yes, and so that's just kind of who Lou was. So I wish I could, I, I, makes me sad you didn't get to experience Lou and what he did. Andy Milton fan, but he was a treasure man. He truly was a Notre Dame treasure. There's no doubt about it. Just as a person, but then also professionally with the quality of the work you did, we don't, we don't have anyone like him on the beat with all due respect and me and anybody. And you know who else will tell you that? Anyone else in the beat that worked with Lou, like, you know, just he was, he was one of a kind. He truly was one of a kind. All right, when it comes to linebackers at Notre Dame, the discussion that I've noticed trends towards blitzing abilities, what are your expectations and past coverage and ability to disguise coverage? When it comes to linebackers and they're in discussion, I'm not sure how you felt about this. But I do think at times last year, they telegrap their blitzes a little bit more than they probably should have. They were terrible at it in Golden's first year. They got better at it the second year, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. I'll say that. Yeah. So, like when I, when I look at events, I think that's an area where I don't know that they're going to get better at that this year because they're young. Like I don't know if, if you're, you're one of Drake Bowen is the year, you get better at disguising coverage. I think the thing is just you got to see if they can land, get home, you know, when you're asking to do that, get home. I don't know if you're going to do too. I mean, you, look, there's some disguising you'll do naturally. You know, you line up tight, you drop, you'd come, you bring blitzes from depth. There's a little bit of disguising naturally, but I don't know that we're going to see the linebackers disguised coverages in the same way that we thought that we did see from like this, like that, or that we will see from the secondary this year, which is going to be a much more experienced group. That would be kind of my, that would be kind of my, my, my thoughts so far on that group. Muhammad Abdi, this is a very interesting one says, Brian, do you prefer losing at Texas A&M and winning out or winning 11 straight and losing at USC and how will recency bias effect seating with the latter scenario like 1989? Well, I mean, in 1989, I kind of felt like, I mean, that was kind of a, let me, let me pull up Notre Dame's 1989 schedule. I mean, I mean, ranking, so they were ranked number one, going into that last game against Miami and they had one, was it, they were 10 and one at that time, 11 and one at that time. They had one 23 straight games and they lost to Miami and Miami beat them convincingly. And so Miami jumps up from number seven to number one, I believe that year. So, or no, Miami jumped up from number seven to number two that year. Colorado jumped up from number two to number one. So I think that was fair. I think it was fair for Miami to jump ahead of them at that time. And I'm not quite sure who was number three for that team. I think maybe Florida state might have been number three that year. Let me look at that. They know they were number five. They went from six to five trying to see who was the number three team that year when they lost. Give me a second. I'm going to try to find that real quick. Was it, wasn't Tennessee, was it? You see here, who would that have been? Let me see, it was not, no, so wasn't Florida state. It was not Tennessee. They were eight. I don't know who the number three team was at that point in time. Colorado jumped from two to one. Was it Michigan? Did Michigan lose a game late that year? Yeah, it was Michigan. Okay. So Michigan was number three. So Michigan was already number three. Then they beat Ohio state was number 20. So they stayed three. So I think no, no rain going from one to four, you know, I was kind of okay with now. I think the argument could have been that Notre Dame should have been, you know, the should have been, could Notre Dame have been number three instead of Michigan? Sure. They had an identical record and Notre Dame beat them in a head to head at Michigan. But at the same time, you could also say that it didn't matter because back then it wasn't a playoff seating. It was, it was, you know, it might have been a little bit different, but Colorado should have gone up the number one. They were undefeated and Miami should have gone from seven to two in my opinion because they just beat the number one team by 17 points at their place. So I was comfortable with that. Now to your question, man, I'd prefer not to lose either of those games, but in that scenario, I would rather lose the opener and win the run the table. And it's not even so much about seating. It's about momentum and it's about beating your rival. So, you know, I think that the way that committees work usually is the, if your same exact record, they're going to view your, your, your most recent loss is probably going to impact you more than them looking back at the beginning of the year and you lost a game. The other part of the conversation, Muhammad, is you have to look and say, well, what's their, what's the record of the teams that they played, you know, is A&M better than USC or vice versa? I mean, if USC's 11 and, you know, oh, or 10 and one and A&M's eight and four, you know, either games of three-point loss, well, you wouldn't lose to the better team, but in my personal opinion, I don't ever want to lose to USC and I would much rather be hot going into the playoff and coming off and trying to bounce back from a loss. That's kind of how I look. Oh, look at it. It's in the seating part will take care of itself, but yeah, I would, I think, and I do think you would, like, those are things I know, what I don't know, but think and guess is that I guess and would assume that you'd have a better shot at being the five seed if you were had one 11 games in the month of November had beaten USC on the road and Florida State. That would be my guess on that. So, but yeah, we'll see, we'll see. So, yeah, we'll see. So, yeah, we'll see, yeah, we'll see, yeah, we'll see. So, yeah, we'll see. So, yeah, we'll see. So, yeah, we'll see. (upbeat music)
