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Number three of today's discussion is our season predictions, and this is where we are going to get into our prediction for the win/loss record. We'll go through the schedule. We're going to do some other fun things like that, and then, of course, the post-season prediction and where we think Notre Dame is going to end up. If you're looking for the full bracket prediction nationally, that's going to be tomorrow, and so you're going to have to tune in tomorrow to find out who's going to be around Notre Dame. We thought about just doing that one now, and then we would still do our one-on-site, but it kind of made no sense through the national one, since we're going to be talking about what we're thinking of Notre Dame, if we know. That factored into the conversation as well. This is just a Notre Dame-centered, Notre Dame-specific season prediction part of the show, and again, we'll do the full bracket tomorrow, and what we think is going to happen, and all the conference champions, and all of that, and we'll fill out our bracket, and it'll be kind of a bracketology fun show tomorrow. But so for right now, let's talk about Notre Dame. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app, with over five million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps, on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more, or less, on two to six players' stat projections, and watch the winnings roll in, baby. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. Get in on all the excitement, and win up to a hundred times your cash with the summer games on prize picks. 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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. I don't know who... I don't have a specific team that I have them losing to. Correct. Completely agree. Like if I went 1 through 12, instead I'd say, "We need that team, that team, that team, that team, and that team, I'd have them at 12 and 0." Correct. They should be and will be, in my opinion, favored in every game this season. Well, they won't be favored against A&M, but they should be. That's what I'm saying. They should be. It's ridiculous that they're not, but that's a betting thing. That's a separate... That's not a... I think this team is better than this team. This is, "We need to get bets on both sides so that we don't lose all our shirts." That's what that is. So, here's what factors in schedule wise from events, because this is a tougher schedule than I believe a lot of internet fans have given it credit for. But I'm not also going to sit here and argue that this is a gauntlet of a schedule. But here's what it comes down to for me. Going undefeated is hard. Yes. It's very hard. Like Saban won seven national titles, only two of them were undefeated, I believe, right? And one of them was the COVID year. And then his first title at Alabama, that's it. So I believe he won six titles at Alabama, correct? He won an '09, one of 11, one of 12, one in 15, and one in 17, and one in 19, or one in 20, right? So that's six. Am I counting that correctly at Alabama, six at Alabama? And then he won one at LSU. And as I said, he only had one undefeated season, I mean two undefeated seasons. So his LSU team lost a game that year, his 11 Bama team lost at home to LSU, his 12 Alabama team lost to Texas A&M, his 15 Alabama team lost Ole Miss, his 17 Bama team lost to Auburn. So you know, it's very hard to go undefeated. It just is, and you know, Georgia went undefeated what in their second title, I believe, was an undefeated team? No, no, their second title team, I believe, was undefeated, correct? They went 15 to no, I believe, in 2022, but their first title team was not. They got smacked in the SEC title game by Alabama, who then they beat in a rematch. Now Alabama's 22 title team, you know, as good as it was, it, you know, it wasn't exactly the, because the East has been down, it wasn't like the gauntlet that some people make it out to be, and they didn't, they didn't have to play Alabama that year, because LSU beat Alabama, played in the SEC title. So you go undefeated in the SEC, and you don't have to play Bama, there's a little bit of an asterisk there for me, for your undefeated season, but they beat a really good Oregon team that year, beat Ohio State by a point, beat TCU, you know, beat an LSU team, beat Tennessee, who was really good that year. So you know, but his first team was, his better team was 21, who lost a game? You know, Ohio State in 2014, won a national title, went 14 and won, lost at home to a Virginia Tech team by two touchdowns that went seven and six, Clemson's first championship since 1981, I think it was 1981, right? I think Danny Ford won a national title in 1981, but you know, that team had some great wins that 2016 Clemson team Vince, that won a national title, if you remember, with the Sean Watson in a great defense, that team went out that year and beat number three Louisville on Lamar Jackson, went on the road and beat number 12, Florida State, beat Auburn on the road to start season, beat a ranked Virginia Tech team, beat number three Ohio State in the national title, 31 to nothing and beat Bama in the national championship game, lost at home to pit, eight and five pit in November, got beat by Pat Nardouzi at home, 2017 Clemson who had two losses, one was Alabama, the national title team and the other one was at Syracuse went four and eight, 2019 Georgia, great team, beaten Notre Dame went what 12 and two that year finished top 10 loss at home to a four and eight South Carolina team. Point is stuff happens. You're going to lose games. I mean, urban Meyer had some of those games. So you're just you're playing a schedule that is challenging week after week. It's not a gauntlet. It's not like the 1988 season where you had to play four top 10 teams. It's not that, but there's a lot of teams that can sneak up on you in any given week and knock you off. And as I've said before and I'll stick to it again, I have no undefeated teams in the power four level and I do consider Notre Dame a powerful level. Like that, that's, that's just, that's where I'm at. I think everybody loses a game this season and I think Notre Dame is no different. Now, if you're going to tell me who that's going to be, I can't tell you who that's going to be because I, if I go through each game individually, they should win every game. Like that, you know what I mean? So like that's the challenge of picking the schedule, Vince is, is, is that right there? So that's why it was, it was, you know, and I've, and I've had some years where I picked them to go undefeated because I predicted what they should do. And if I'm going to predict what they should do based on their Ross versus everybody else's, then yeah, 12 and O is, is where they should be. I'm, I'm trying to be a little bit more, okay, I'm trying to predict what I think they will do, which I don't normally do. And it couldn't end up biting me in the butt because no, in my luck, this will be the one year they actually do go undefeated. You know what I mean? And I predict it, but that's kind of where I'm at, Vince, when you look at their schedule overall, the reason that, that I have it the way that I have it is because I just don't know who they're going to be. So right, that's why we're not doing the schedule by schedule thing this year. Good. I will say I didn't have an answer for that either. And I have them at 11 and one. Yeah. So let's go into it. That's our, that's your prediction. So just regular season, that, that's where we're at. We're both at 11 and that's, that's what I wrote down. We were going to lose too. And that's what my record is. I put 11 and one and then I put a question mark because I, it's a, and I put who do they lose to? Question mark. I don't know. And that's just being honest. I mean, the, the college football season is just, it's wild, right? I mean, even in the NFL, no one defeated team wins a Super Bowl. That hasn't happened since 1972 with the dolphins, right? And you know, I, it can happen in college, could Notre Dame do it? Sure. It's a possibility. They have the talent to do it, but it's just not going to be shocked if they do it. No, I'll say that. Like I won't be surprised if they go 12 and 0. And if they lose a game, I'm going to be upset because it's a game that they should have won. Like that, that's absolutely how I feel right now. You know, but I just, I'm not comfortable with, there's a bunch of new faces. Obviously, you know, we got some new coaches that there, there's just a lot of unknowns right now that I'm not comfortable saying 12 and 0. And I don't want it also to sound like super homerish either. Like, oh, they're going to win every game and it's not even going to be cool. Like that, that's, this sounds crazy to me. So while I do think this is crazy, I, I think it's totally fair if somebody, like, I don't like this year more than other years, picking 12 and 0 does not take as much projection as needed. Like, I think, I think I picked another name to go, like we were talking, remember recently on a podcast, we were asked, what was the season you got most right and season you got most wrong? Sure. And I talked about how 0 and 9, I was really wrong. I thought that team was going to be really good. I think I picked that team to go 12 and 0. And again, it was because I projected what they should do. But in order to get there, I had to make a lot of but, but, but, but, but if, if, if, if the only if I have for this team to finish undefeated is if they, if they're as good as they're supposed to be, that's it. They're not a lot of buts. If they just don't hurt themselves because website wise, I believe this team, what did I say? Did I say website because it just texted me. Sorry. That was an accident. Yeah, roster. I said website, could you just text me something and it said website roster wise. I think they have a better roster than everybody that they play. Having said that, it's not enormous. Do I think they have a better roster than text and M? Yes, I do. Right. I think it's enormously better. No, I don't. I think they have a better roster than, than, than Florida State. Is it by a big margin? No, it isn't. Am I going to argue with you for 20 minutes? If you say otherwise, no, I'm not sure anything with USC. Same thing with Louisville. Yeah. You know, and then there's other teams that are good enough to where if you have an off game, which everybody has off days, that's what we're talking about. The whole, it's hard to go undefeated. It's hard to show up mentally and technically and deeper as, at your best every single day, 100% every single week. I mean, like I said, Al, Nick Saban, greatest coach of our generation, like this, and I don't think that's arguable. You know, like for a while there was close, you know, I thought him and urban were kind of neck and neck for a while, you know, Saban won a title first, then urban one, you know, two at Florida, then Saban tied him in '09, passed him with 11 and 12, then urban one again and 14 and you're like, okay, it's like it's back and forth. After 2014, it was, it, Saban just pulled ahead and urban never, never got the most out and then he was out. But if you look at how great Nick Saban was and all the great teams that he had in his career, again, he had two seasons where his team went undefeated. That's it. That's it. I mean, from 2001 to 2023 with the five and six seasons out because in the NFL, Nick Saban won a minimum of 10 games in all but three seasons, 2002 at LSU, 2004 at LSU, where they went nine and nine and three probably would have gone 10 and three if you didn't leave before the bowl game. And then the first year at Bama, they went seven and six. Since then they won 12, 14, 10, 12, 13, 11, 12, 14, 14, 13, 14, 11, 13, 13, 11 and 12 games. And two undefeated seasons in that time. That's it. He had more two lost seasons at Bama than he had one loss than zero lost seasons at Alabama. So, but do I think this team can go undefeated? Yes, I do. Yeah, I do too. Because they don't play the SEC West like Saban did all those years. That's also part of it. But that's kind of where I'm at Vincent is it's just it's hard to it is hard to go undefeated, but I do think this team is capable of it. I'm just not going to predict it, but I won't be shocked if it happens. I will say that. And one other thing too, Pete Carroll is great in dominance. He was at USC had one undefeated season. That's it. Yeah. One the first time year they won a title. They lost a game. Right. And then that great 05 team obviously lost the Texas. That was a little different because at least that was in the postseason. But when I point out Saban's title teams, the reason that those have more impact is because you if you won the title, you didn't lose the postseason. You know what I mean? Yep. Oh, that's kind of how I looked at it. But Notre Dame has had three undefeated regular seasons in the last 15 years. So it's certainly possible. Right. It's just if I'm predicting it, I can't go there. I'm 11 and one, but I also could not tell you they're in lose too. I do think there's there's the if you're saying who are the teams are most likely lose to just an order of the schedule. I would say Texas A&M, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Florida State and USC. Those are the five I think that have the best shot in order of of knocking Notre Dame off. Interesting. I will be shocked if it's a Purdue, if it's a Virginia, if it's a Stanford, that'll shock me. Sure. But if they have this big emotional win over, over, you know, a good floor state and maybe USC's got three, four losses and they, they're, you know, that's their Super Bowl and, you know, they're not playing for, you know, there's a lot of those things that could factor into it. And that's why I have more I have postseason. Here's where the rubber meets the road, right? And what Notre Dame does in the postseason is going to frankly decide whether this season was a success or not. And it's also going to decide, in my opinion, whether they, whether this program has taken a step or not. And, and there's two different kinds of steps that they can take, in my opinion. There's the Marcus Freeman step as in, you know, okay, they did better than last year. The arrow is still pointing up. It's kind of like what we talked about in part one, right? It's the, the bare minimum to keep the arrow pointing in a positive direction. Still the guy, you know, that kind of stuff to, you know, it's taking a step as a program and winning more than they've won in the postseason since 1993, right? And we all know that they haven't won a New Year six games since 1993. So they got that monkey hanging over there, you know, on their back. But again, there are no more New Year six games. And so, you know, well, they're far, but they're, but they're part of the postseason, right? And so that not only so, so the New Year six games are still important, right? And it's still a step, I mean, a whole lot more now. That's my exact point. So it, the pressure has ratcheted up in those bowl games than they would have in the past. Like I, I will feel a heck of a lot different going to the Fiesta Bowl next year than I did when they were playing in the Fiesta Bowl a couple of years ago. Correct. You know what I mean? It's a big point from it. Like this is a big game standpoint, like New Year six games almost felt like, and after which is, which is sad, it's hugely stipend of, of, of media and college football leadership at large, but it's also the reality, right? I can think it's bull crap and I can think it's unnecessary and completely avoidable, but still say, but it's also the truth. Yeah. You know, and I don't like it, but that that is the, because it, we're talking perception here. Yeah. And, and that's absolutely correct, Vince. So, so the question is then, what is your prediction for the postseason when it comes to the, what the results are? And I'm going to do this, Vince, and, and people are going to get mad. I think I'm going to love it. Okay. I'm going to leave, I'm going to leave a little bit of a teaser for the postseason success in today's prediction show because I want to save it for tomorrow's overall football. But I will say this, part of my prediction is a, is a, is 11 and one minimum regular season. Okay. And I do believe they win at least one game in the playoff. Okay. Because 11 and one, they're aims a lot to make the playoff. And I think they're pretty much a lock to, to get a first round to host, home, home game. Yeah. I don't see any scenario where there are 11 and one, they're a nine-seater, lower. I agree. Completely agree with that statement. Yes. I'm going 11 and one and, and they get a win at home in the playoff. Okay. Beyond that, I want to save that for tomorrow's show because we're going to predict the entire play. We're going to have our brackets and everything. It's going to be a lot of fun tomorrow. So, but I am predicting 11 and one plus one win. So I will do the same thing just to keep people on their toes. And I'm not saying I'm predicting more than one win, but I am saying I will predict at least one win. Okay. I will predict one win because I also agree with you. If they're 11 and one, they're hosting, I like Notre Dame's chances hosting anybody. I don't care who it is. They're not a top four. They're hosting somebody. So that means they're nine through 12. I feel very good about Notre Dame's chances if they're hosting in the postseason. And so I will also predict a win, but I will save the rest of it for tomorrow. But 11 and one absolutely gets them a hosting gig. There's no doubt about it. And they will win that first round. And they will win that first round. Absolutely. Who it is. They won't win that first round. I don't care either. So let me ask you this Vince, what is the thing that you are most confident about when you look at this football team that leads you to believe confidently like like my prediction of an 11, a minimum 11 and one plus one, I'm actually pretty confident in that prediction. If they're worse than honestly, it's it will be a disappointment. That's why I said like we talked earlier, 10 and two in a postseason win. That's progress. I'm still going to be disappointed. Absolutely. Especially if it's not a non playoff win because I correct, I think 10 and two might still get them in. If one of their two losses is to some team that you don't expect them to lose to because then they're still going to have a lot of really good wins. But 10 and two does make it a little bit question. Well, for example, yeah, they're 10 and two and Georgia's nine and three. And they're the final two teams in consideration for the last at large, Georgia at nine and three will have more losses, but they will also have likely more really good wins because of their schedule. There's a chance that that could be right. See it, Georgia, 10 and two, no brainer. They have more quality wins, well, like based on what we think it's true. So 10 and two could certainly still get them in, but it's just going to be harder and it's not a given that they're going to be at home. Correct. Oh, I don't think they are because I do think there's going to be a lot of chaos this year in college. Well, sure. Because the schedules and things like that, but it's just going to be a lot harder. Here's, here's my blanket statement on 10 and two at 11 and one. You're in your, it's no problem. You're hosting at 10 and two, you need help. And it really depends on what the rest of college football looks like. 10 and two is not a lot to make the playoff. It's just not. You're going to get a lot of Notre Dame detractors because again, the thought process is that the schedule is easy and that that will hurt them, right? But I also, although by the end of the year, we'll know whether that was or wasn't. Agreed. Oh, completely agree with that. I just, I think that there may be a case where 10 and two is a lock for getting in the playoff depending on what happens around there. There's a bunch of three-loss SECs that teams, it's more likely in the SEC than it is the big 10. Sure. The SEC gave a lot of its top teams challenging schedules, right? And a lot of the SEC teams are playing really good out of conference games. I mean, Texas is going to Michigan, Georgia's going to Clemson. I mean, LSU's playing USC, where you're just not seeing as much of that in the big 10. So that's why I think 10 and two, there's a discussion, like, you know, you've got to give me way more data points for me to know if Notre Dame's getting in the playoff. Who they beat? Who they lose to? Absolutely. How good are those teams? Exactly. 11 and 1, they're in. And I also think they're a lock to host at that point. I really do. Now, are they a lock to be the five seed? That's a different conversation. Sure. Five through eight is up in the air, but 10 and two, I think you've given up some of your, you know, control. Yeah. I'll say that. I think you give up some of your control at that point. You're going to need somebody to maybe lose in the conference title game to give her the fourth loss. Absolutely. So I don't like that position for Notre Dame that they need help at that point. So, yeah. So what am I most confident in? What am I most confident in to be perfectly honest with you, Brian? I could go either direction with this and it's kind of a bigger statement, I guess. I am, I hate to say this because it's discounting the other side of the football, but I'm most confident in Notre Dame's offense right now. I really am. When you, when you add in what I think about Riley Leonard, when you add in what I think about this backfield, when you add in what I think about this wide receiver room and how deep it is, when you add in what I think about the tight ends, yes, there's question marks up front right now, but I think those question marks will get answered by the time the end of the season rolls around. Like I don't, I think there's still talent on the offensive line and I don't think it's going to hold them back. Okay. And then the cherry on top and probably the most important piece is the fact that Mike Denbrock is the offensive coordinator. Yeah. I'm very, very confident in this offense. I could make the same argument for the defense because of Al Golden and because of the experience and because of the depth at the defensive line, all of those things. I just love the possibilities of this offense, where they are, what they can do, what I think they're going to do, the fact that they can absorb some injuries, if necessary, at some of the positions. I think that helps them as well. I just, I am very confident what this offense is going to be able to do. And you and I have talked about this at nauseum for years. You can have a defense that can get you to the playoffs. Notre Dame has had that in the past. I think they've got that again. They really do. This is an elite defense. Okay. But you need an offensive can score points if you want to win a championship and if you want to win playoff games, their name has not had that in the past. They have that now in my opinion. That's why I'm confident in what this offense means to this team and their potential success in December and January. I got to go with the defense is the thing I'm most confident in, just because it's been so good, really in recent seasons. It's been the thing that's fueled this team in 2012, it fueled the team in 2017, you know, until they're late collapse, it fueled this team in 2020, it fueled this team last year. I've got to go with the defense. I think that's the thing I can say right now, I'm most confident in my prediction. And I'll tell you this right now, Vince, if you're correct and the offense plays championship football, if I had more confidence that I knew the offense was going to be good, now, I think it's going to be very good. But that's why I'm 11 and one because I think sure the offense is going to be very good. If you were to say, "Hey, Brian, I fast forwarded to the end of the season." I found a time machine, right, the TMV left one of their things, you know, like in travel through time or whatever was a TVA, excuse me, TVA, then I'm, here's what I told you, Riley Leonard's healthy all year, the line ends up being pretty good and this offense is consistently one of the best in the country. If you told me and that's the only thing you told me, I'd say, "Well, then they're going to go 12 and 0, they're not going to lose anybody." If their offense is that, they're not losing anybody because their defense has literally given them a chance to win every single game of the Marcus Freeman tenure outside of 1. And that would be USC two years ago. That's it. And even then it was like, okay, but you still had chances in that game to, you know, to go out there and tie it up or take a lead and gain some momentum and you fumble it away or through a pick or whatever. If you told me that, I'd say they're not losing the game, sure, they're not going to lose the game. I'm still in, I need to see, I think they're going to be better on offense, but I still need to see it and I especially need to see it in the big games. I need to see if the offense shows up against A&M, I need to see if the offense shows up against Louisville this year, who's still going to be very good on defense. I need to see if they're going to show up against Florida State and I need to see if they're going to show up against USC. I know the offense can do what they need to do when they play USC at home and the defense spots them 21 points and play with no pressure. How they're going to go out there next year when the defense can't set you up for three touchdowns in that game, right? Cause we saw what happened against Clemson last year that last year's Clemson team wasn't even as good as the year before Clemson team, but the defense and special teams didn't spot them three touchdowns and look what happened. They got beat and so they, they, they weren't good enough on offense to, to overcome the occasional game where the defense wasn't elite. And so I, I'm so confident in that group of you, if you are correct about the offense and then this team is, is, will not lose the game in the regular season. Because as I said, their schedule is more challenging than a lot of learning fans give it credit for. Sure. But it's not the gauntlet of 88, 89, 97, 2017, you know, that type of thing. It's not that, you know, like we need to be able to have a real conversation about the schedule. And I think a lot of learning fans are off base about saying it's not good. This is that I don't agree with that. But if you're to sit there and be like, Oh, no, and talk yourself into, you know, Miami, Ohio, winning 11 games last year's the same as winning 11 games, the big 10. Okay. You lost me. Right. It's still the Mac. Now they're a very good Mac team, but it's still a Mac team, you know what I mean? Uh, no, I'm not going there either. It's, it, the truth to me is in the middle of the perception about the schedule. It's the home or take that, you know, they convince themselves that everyone's good. And then there's the not that the opposite sort of the pessimist take or the, the, the, the people who think they're realistic, but they're a little overly negative, I think. And then there's some that kind of are being honest, they're just evaluations are a little bit off in one way or the other. So there's all types of reasons. I think the truth is kind of in the middle. It's a challenging schedule. It's not a brutal. How do you manage this season? Sure. My, my 11 and one comes down to, because I still don't know that this offense can answer the bell for 12 games. That's really where my 11 and one comes from. I get it. If I knew that the offense is going to, to some degree, answer the bell every week, this team won't lose a game. Cause like, let's be honest, Mike Dembrock's offense answered the bell every week last year. Yep. They played well enough to win every week last year, even Florida state, like the offense played well enough to win that game early. Your defense just kept giving up scores. And, you know, I just, if you, if I knew that to be true, man, there's, there's nobody beats him in the regular season. Nobody beats him in the room. And our conversation tomorrow would be really fun. Like that's still, and that leads into the kind of the final piece of this is what's the biggest stumbling block. It's that right there. It's the offense and primarily the offensive line. Can the offensive line be good enough against Texas A&M and Louisville and Florida state and USC for this team to have the balance it needs to beat the best teams in the schedule. That, that's where I'm at. And so that's, that's the stumbling block for me. If I'm wrong, or not, not if I'm wrong, because I'm not predicting it's going to be bad, it's the biggest question. But if they answer that question effectively, then this is a game. But that's still the thing that's going to be the stumbling block where I could see the defense playing great against A&M and you lose 17 to 14, 17 to 13, something like that. And one of those scores is set up by a turnover on offense. That's still my big fear. Same thing in Florida state. That's still my big fear because, you know, that's the side that's got to show me that it can be that. Got you. What's your, what's your biggest concern? The thing that could keep them from being as good as you think that, that we're predicting that they're going to be. Offensive line is, is absolutely one, one, one, but, but a different one I wanted to kind of bring up and it's a stumbling block because we don't know. And maybe this is going to sound terrible and I don't mean it to sound that way, but it's still something that we don't know. If Notre Dame is going to make a run in the playoff, Marcus Freeman is going to be in a position that he has never been in before as a head coach and how is he going to handle that? What is that going to look like from a head coaching perspective? I don't know the answer to that. I think he'll probably be fine, but to me, that's a bit of a stumbling block for me right now. It's, it's, it's from the head coaching position. I have, I have faith that it will be fine, but it's still a stumbling block. Marcus Freeman has never coached in the playoffs. He has never coached in those kind of big games before. This will be a new avenue for him. If you want to be unfair, but also true, the biggest game he coached in the postseason was the Fiesta Bowl and they blew a 28 and a good and well, I mean, I think that's very unfair to say. I, I think he was doing some other things and I don't think he just got right, but, but that's the only game like that we've seen. That's fair. Right. That's fair. I, if someone was trying to brought that up to me, I'd push back on it hard, but I'm just saying to your point, I'm backing up your point that we haven't seen him in that moment. Right. Since he got to know today, I think, like I said, I have faith that he'll be fine, but it is still a question because he's never had to do it before. He's never had to guide this team through a playoff run. He has never been in the playoffs period. Right. And so we have seen him get this team up for big games and things like that, but this is going to be big game after big game, after big game, after big game. And so can he keep an animal? Yeah. Exactly. Can he keep them where they need to be to make a playoff run to your point? You know, LSU in 20 or Alabama in 2011, that, that's a team that to me was able to kind of, they, Nick Saban doesn't win seven titles in a, in a 12 team playoff. Now he still wins maybe four. Sure. Well, like his 11 team was title to me because that team gets beat by Stanford or Oklahoma State in my opinion that year, but they went 11 and one did not play in the SEC title game because they lost LSU and they got a rematch against LSU in a neutral field. LSU beat you at home where now that team might get exposed in the postseason because you now got to win four games because that family team would have had to win four games to win a title. I think they would have. That was not a great Bama team. Right. Now you could argue that maybe there was another Bama team in other years that maybe in a 12 team could have won. I don't know that I would take that case to be honest with you. Sure. And, and so I look at it is, it is a lot more challenging than now in the 14 playoff era. Absolutely. And now look, in his defense, nobody has taken a team through this entire playoff run. You know, the most you've ever had to do is two or three, if you count like the conference championship game, which you can make a case that that's part of the playoff. It is. Okay. Because if Ohio State doesn't beat, was it Michigan State in 2014, they don't, or no, they beat Wisconsin in 2014. If they don't beat Wisconsin in 2014, they're not even in the playoff. Right. So, so like in the 14 playoff, because I mean, it was winter, go home. Correct. For them. And, and so, you know, it's not always the case, Georgia lost their title game in 2021 and then still won the national title. So there's always exceptions to the rule, but by and large, you lose your title game. You didn't give the play for championship. Right. Now you do get that opportunity. And so the problem with Saban is saving one two titles in years where his team didn't even play for the SEC title and still got into the playoff like that. That's, that's, you know, that's the difference, but, but only had to play two games and one of them was against a, you know, both years, they beat another SEC team in the title game. Right. I still would have liked to seen that 2011 Alabama team against 2011 Stanford with Andrew Luck. And I would have loved have seen that 2011 Bama team try to defend that Brandon Whedon Oklahoma State team that beat Stanford in the fiestible because remember, the only game Oklahoma State lost that year was this they played a Thursday night game after there was that big playing crash that killed a bunch of members of the athletic department. Do you remember that? And they still made them play that game. That's the only game at Iowa State. It's only game Oklahoma State lost all year and, and so, you know, but, but you can't hide. You can't avoid those type of games now that you're in a, a 12 in a 12 team, right? That is one of the advantages of a 12 team playoff is that, and by the way, the leading into that game, they beat Texas Tech 66 to six. The week after that, that devastating loss, their next game was against Oklahoma. They beat them 44 to 10. That was number 10, Oklahoma. They beat them 44 to 10. You know, like they beat number 22, Texas 38 to 26 on the road. They beat number eight, A and M 30 to 29 on the road that year in 2011. So that team was very good, very good. Bama never had to play them. They didn't have to play Andrew Luck and Stanford there. So that was, that was always kind of that thing, Vince, that, that you look at and say, man, that's tough. 20 at 2012, what if that Georgia team that lost to Bama at the very end of that game, they get in the postseason, they're, they're still alive. So there is the opportunity for it, but in a 14 playoff, unless your name was Bama, you lose in your conference title game, you're out. Mm hmm. Oh, how state wouldn't it got the same benefit that Alabama got, right, right? Or Georgia got in 2021. So yeah, it's, it's a fair, it's a fair, it's a very, I didn't think about that, Vince. Like I'm sitting there thinking of all these potential stumbling blocks and I'm thinking about parts of the team. I never even thought about the head coach. That's a really good point because he's got to prove it now as Karen said in the chat too, like there's a first time for everything and that's absolutely all 100%. You know, I mean, and Nick's, when Nick Saban won his title in 2004 at LSU, he had never had a team that was a title contender prior to that. Right. I mean, his, his best team, you could argue prior to that was two years before when he was at LSU, that team finished the season in the top 10. They finished the season ranked seventh. That's the team that lost three games in a regular season. They lost a Tennessee by eight. They lost it home to Alabama to Florida by 29 unless lost and home to Ole Miss by 11. You know, and so like, I get it. That was the best team you ever had in the year before his first title. Remember, they got their brains beat in by Utah in the sugar bowl by Gus by Brian Johnson was the quarterback. Remember that? It was Kyle Wittingham's tenure at Utah and, and Andy Ludwig was their offensive coordinator on that team. I mean, they smacked the Bama that year. Next year, Bama goes out and runs table. So until you do it, of course, and that's a thing, you don't know it and that's thing. We're not saying he doesn't have the ability, but he's, I think he would tell you coach Freeman would tell you, yeah, I got to prove it. I, I think we're doing some good things, but now we've got to go out and show that what we're trying to do is correct. It's an unknown. It's an unknown. And that's why it's a, we did have a super chat then said I wanted to get to in this, this speaks to what we were just talking about. This is a super chat from PK, what to do would love to hear on top of your general predictions, some predictions with certain conditions. For example, record prediction, if I tell you that the O line is the Joe Moore winner finalist. Now, I, I don't know what other ones you'd like to hear about. I'm going to go with the one that you gave us because it's very relevant to the conversation we just had agreed to his point. If you were to tell me, again, you get that time machine or it's not a time machine. You can just, you know, the T was, it allows you to dump different universes or whatever, you know, let's say you use the time machine that that they built in, in Avengers, right? And Avengers end game. Avengers end game. Okay. So I can go back in time and I go forward in time as well. And you're to tell me, Hey Brian, I went ahead and I fast forwarded to the end of the year. And I was only there for 10 seconds. The only thing I learned while I was there is that no Notre Dame won the Joe Moore award this year. 12 and 0 12 and 0 and they're at least in the semifinals at the first year. Yep. But if you're looking at this job as a Joe Moore award winning offensive line, I think this team can play with and beat anyone. Correct. Yep. Like there's not like if you could tell me I can take the 15 0 line, the 17 0 line or the 20 0 line and put them on this team. I don't think anyone beats Notre Dame in the regular season. And I think the number of teams that might be able to beat them in the postseason, you can count on one hand because they'd have an elite defense in elite quarterback, very talented skill players everywhere. And what's the thing that you're concerned about right now, Oh, line. If you were to tell me that this old line wins a Joe Moore award at the end of the year, it's because Notre Dame's undefeated and and honestly didn't play in a whole lot of close games. To be honest with you, like if Notre Dame's old line plays like Joe Moore award winners against Texan. And that game will be close. Right. The only thing a and M really has over Notre Dame is that they can neutralize that offense with their defensive line. You take that away and all of a sudden, there's not a lot of good matchups that favor a Texan M. You know, that same thing, it's for state. If the old line plays like Joe Moore winners against Louisville, that game's not close, Vince. Right. If they play like Joe Moore award winners against Florida State, that game will be closer, but it won't be overly competitive, in my opinion. I just I don't that's a big jump. I don't see that happening. But if I knew that to be true, I don't think anybody beats his football team. I agree. And somebody else said, if Riley Andrew Gilmore said this, if Riley Leonard is a Heisman candidate, we are legit title contenders agree, because I don't think Riley Leonard can be a legit Heisman contender if the old line doesn't play well. Correct. It all circles back to that for me. Yep. Yep. Yep. And so I think all those things are absolutely true. But if Notre Dame if Notre Dame's team wins the Joe Moore award or is a Joe Moore award finalist, I don't know that anybody beats his football team. Great. I think it's going to happen unless something else just goes like, what the heck? Like, I don't I don't know like how that happened. So yeah, I that's where I would go. That's a really good point. We had a couple of other super chats events on Anthony Solomon. Thanks for the show today. Anthony. Thank you for the super chat. I very, very much avoided it. K Grant says I'll have to watch later, watch this later, but wanted to drop in go Irish can't wait to watch this. I hope you enjoy it. K Grant, I did want to say this. This is this is really it that sums up our rankings. There was a comment from Christopher Lefaro, Lefaro confident about the season yet nervous about A&M make it make sense, boys. And I'll tell you exactly this is where we just were talking about Christopher. It's the on there's still those unknowns, we love the talent of this team. I don't know anyone that doesn't think this team has a lot of talent, but there's just a lot of unknowns, whether it's not, you know, what Marcus can Marcus Freeman really go on the road and win a top 20 game. Okay. Well, we got to see that against the team that's going to have better talent than Dukad. Let's be honest. Top to bottom A&M is going to have more talent top to bottom to Duke. If not, Mike Elko is probably still at Duke, you know what I mean, if we're being honest. It's the unknowns there and it's the opener. If this game was played in week five and we're now three weeks away from the A&M game, we've seen them play a couple games and we're probably feeling a certain way in your, you know, whatever. So that's what it comes down to, Christopher. It's easy. It's it's still the unknowns. This is that time of the year where you get really excited, but there's still those things in the back of your mind and deepen your soul that you're just like, yeah, I can't wait to see this team. But I'm really nervous about this or absolutely reason, right? I mean, we haven't seen this group of Notre Dame football players play together. I mean, there's there's reason to be nervous. You can, you can have the best game plan possible. You can have everything and look, we're not at every practice. So we don't get to see a lot of these guys interacting with each other from a football standpoint, you know, we get to see and go through some drills and some different things and we can extrapolate from that and we can, we can hope and we can use our knowledge as coaches and we can do all of those things. But at the end of the day, we're all nervous about it because it's a big game on the road to open things up. It's the first time these guys have all played together. It's the first time that all of these coaches have coached together. It's a lot of firsts, right? And there's reasons to be nervous. Now, I'm also confident. And so that kind of displaces some of the nervousness. But if you just go in thinking you're just going to whoop a, you know, just open up a can on these guys and it's not going to be any kind of drama. Then it's a home or take that could be proven true. It could. Right. Like it definitely could. But it's a home or take now. Right. You know what I mean? Not one I'm willing to make at the right, right. Right. Exactly. And that's kind of where I'm at. That's, that's, that's where I'm at. We'll see. We'll see kind of where they're at there. We also had a super sticker from Nate and the Milton fan. Appreciate that very much, man. Appreciate you very much. But that's what it comes down to. Vince, I, this is, this is probably the most confident I've been in the team going into a season. It's fair. But I still, I still deep down just have that. I just got to see it. Absolutely. It's, it's, and it's not even BK PTSD. It's post Lou PTSD, right? Cause we've been there for 30 years. There's been teams that we thought, man, like, man, this Oh nine offense. We got Jimmy Klossen and Amondo Allen and Robert Hughes and Michael Floyd and Colton Tate and Kyle Rudolph and Zach Martin. And then team just went out there and just laid an egg in big moments. This is probably, I'll say this, my, the biggest level of optimism I have now is this is the first year that I've gone into the season where I really felt could predict that both sides of the ball are going to be really good. To your point earlier, whereas in 15, it was like, man, I love this offense, but I'm nervous about the defense. In 17, it's like, you know, same thing. I love the so line, but how's wind bush going to be? Is the defense going to get much better? You know, 2018, you felt, felt really good about certain parts of it, but you're not, are they going to be okay here? Are they going to be okay there? There were question marks in the secondary going into 2018. Fortunately, some of those questions got answered a little, you get them and stepped up and played great, you know, but, but, you know, who's going to step up a receiver in 2018? You weren't very good on the ball in 17 and you lost your best receiver. Now, an equanimity, St. Brown, Miles Boykin steps up, like, like going into 2018, like we look back now and thinking about how good Miles and Chase were, but who, who really thought Miles Boykin was going to be that? He had like 18 career catches going into 2028, 2018. And so then there's other years where it's just like you thought that once I was going to be good, the other side, you're not sure about, I am most confident in both sides of the ball this season. It's just when you talk about competing for a title, I still need to see the offense do it. I think they're capable of it. It's the most confident I've been in a long time. I just need to see it. Yep. And that's going to be, uh, that's going to be the big question mark. So that's where we're at. All right, Brian, that's going to do it for our Notre Dame specific prediction show. Remember when I said that it wasn't going to be as long as I didn't, and you just laughed at me. I was like, dang it. You're right. Believe you. That's a famous last words. Yes. But, but, uh, but anyway, thanks for joining us for our Notre Dame prediction show. Make sure you hop on with us tomorrow, tomorrow is going to be the, the bigger picture prediction show. We're going to predict the entire college football playoff bracket. We are going to predict the conference champions, which may be different than what our conference outlooks were when we, because we've been doing them for like a month. And so maybe things have changed. I don't know. A little bit for me. A little bit for me has. Yeah. Okay. So there you go. So you're going to have to tune in tomorrow. You're going to have to hit that notification bell. So it'll remind you to tune in for tomorrow. And we're going to have some fun with it. It's going to be a lot of fun and may even throw a mail bag in at the end. But we'll see how we're feeling by the time that show gets over. If it's a short show, then of course we'll throw in the mail bag, but you know, it will be shorter. So I'm confident we'll have a mail bag. Because I asked Vince, I said, what would you like to do as part of your last show? And he was like, you know me. I always love a good mail bag. I was like, okay. We're going to do a mail bag. So we're going to have some fun with that tomorrow. So make sure you tune in. Of course, in the meantime, make sure you like, subscribe, hit that notification bell, share with your family and friends. And of course, jump on the boards, boards.hoursbreakdown.com. If you are a premium member, then you get all the info and you get it quick. And that's where you want to be. So make sure you hit boards.hoursbreakdown.com. In the meantime, that's Brian. I'm Vince. Thanks for hanging out with us. And we'll talk to you next time. That would be tomorrow on the Irish Breakdown podcast. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]
