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Brian, we have come to the time where it is the final summer edition of the mailbag. That's why we decided to do a special Tuesday edition of the mailbag, because it's my last afternoon show. I have to go back to school tomorrow. I have one of those fun, exciting, administrative retreats tomorrow, where we all get to sit around and sing kumbaya, and all of that, so really looking forward to that. That starts tomorrow. This is my last afternoon show, and Brian was like, "Well, what do you want to do on the last show?" Like, you really even have to ask, "We're going to do a mailbag." First, we're going to have some fun putting together a bracket, and then we're going to do a mailbag. That's what we're going to do. Just so people know, Vince is still going to be doing his normal nightly shows. Of course. He's not going away. He's just not going to be doing the afternoon shows with me. Then of course, he'll be on all the post-game shows, and for the review, and all the fun stuff that we normally do during the school year, or during, I should say, during football season. So, no, I'm not going anywhere, now I've got alternate plans during the day, so it is what it is. But a lot of take care of my family. I know. They get in the way. They really did. It's kind of getting away. All six of them. Should have stopped after Dylan. We'd be living ghetto fabulous right now. Oh, gosh. It's about that. You're not wrong. You're a little selfish. I have a lot more cool stuff, I can tell you that, but that's a different conversation for a different time. Hey, we're going to do a mailbag. Same rules as always. If you want to get a question and put an MV at the front, put the little mailbox emoji, you know, that kind of stuff. If you want to jump to the top of the line, put it in super chat, you will jump to the front of the line. We'll get your question answered for sure. We'll get through as many as we can in the time allotted, but we're going to spend some time on this. We're going to have some fun with it. So, looking forward to this. Not a lot of questions so far, but we'll get to a few. Yeah. And we'll see if any more new ones come. But we have 15 so far, so let's get rocking and rolling. Here we go. Andrew Gilmore is Iowa, a legitimate contender to make the playoff based on their new offensive coordinator defense and schedule. I don't think so. I mean, look, Iowa doesn't have a, a, a murderous row by any stretch of the imagination, but I think there's at least two losses on their schedule for sure. I look at Adelhaus State, that's a loss. And then the second for sure loss is one of these games. At Michigan State, at UCLA, at Maryland, home against Nebraska, home against Wisconsin, home against Washington, home against Iowa State. I don't see a scenario in which they win all of those games. Right. I don't. I think they're a very good team, but I think they'll lose some of those, at least one of those games, if not two. I do think Iowa is a, is a contender to be in the, you know, in the trying to say, how can I say this? I think that Iowa is a contender to be in the big 10 title game. Okay. As a two loss team, however, it'll be just like they've been in there every other time. They're going to get smacked by either house it or Oregon, and that's their third loss and they're out of the casual playoff, because their schedule is not tough enough. That's kind of where I, I am at on that one bits, but I do think that they're going to be more dangerous, but they still have some talent issues on offense. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. That ultimately are going to keep them from being a, taking that really that next step, because their, their schedule does ramp up a little bit. Look, they know, they got shut out three times last year, right? I mean, you're, you're just bringing in a new offensive coordinator. It's going to solve some of your problems, but it's not going to solve all of your problems overnight. And so they're still going, they're not going to be an offensive juggernaut to go along with that really, really good defense. And so the end of the day, you need to score points and they'll score more points, but I don't think they're going to score enough points. Yeah. And you know, like you said, their schedule is not murderer's row, but it's not super easy either. And so yeah, if, if the, if things shake their way, yeah, they've got a shot at getting into the big 10 championship, but if they do, they're at least going to have two losses and they'll lose, if they lose the big 10 championship. Now they've got three losses and I just don't see a three loss team from the big 10 depending on the way things shake down, making it, if there is, if there is a three loss team that makes the big, that makes the college ball playoff, it's going to be a team with a much tougher schedule than that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like honestly, like USC could be a three loss team that makes it. I mean, if you look at, if you look at USC schedule events, they, they could have enough big wins that they could be a three loss team that gets in. I mean, think about it. Let's say they lose the opener to LSU, they lose on September 21st to Michigan. And then I don't know, let's say they lose to, I don't know, Wisconsin or something like that. They'll go and beat Penn State and beat Washington and beat Nebraska Notre Dame. Maybe they get in, or if Michigan only has two losses, and let's say they split Notre Dame and you see an LSU lose to LSU beat Notre Dame, and then they lose to Michigan. And then they run the table the rest of the way and beat Wisconsin beat Penn State, beat Maryland on the road, Washington on the road, Nebraska, you're showing the road and Notre Dame and they're 10 and two and they lose a barn burner to a house state or Oregon in the conference championship. Yeah. If they lose a team that would have the schedule to get in, Iowa doesn't have that, in my opinion. They won't have that. Right. But at the end of the day, I don't think it's going to really matter. I don't think they're going to be a two loss team at the end of the day. And I don't even know that they're going to be a, you know, a three loss team if they're in the big 10 title game. I think they would make, you know, we'll see, but I just don't have them being there. I think they're going to be a more dangerous team to some of those bigger teams, but I still think that they've got a, it's going to take more than one year. You know what I mean? Yep. Agreed. Yeah. I need to see a year of them being productive offensively before I get to on board with the whole I/O thing. Yeah. I just, right. It's going to take them a year to really rebuild that, completely rebuild that thing. All right. Let's, here's a quick one, Vince. This from Justin. Joshua Nip. Brian, where did you find your hat? I bought it at the Notre Dame bookstore last summer. Dare you. That's a bookstore buy, huh? That's a bookstore buy. Yep. That's a bookstore buy. I don't get you. Do that very often, but that one was really big baller hitting the bookstore up. Yep. That's a press. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in, baby. 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That's a victory. It's just that easy. Download the prize picks app today and use code Irish for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars. That's code Irish on prize picks for a deposit match of up to a hundred dollars. Pick more, pick less, it's that easy. We're driven by the search for better, but when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. Don't search match with Indeed. Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors according to Indeed data and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. Ditch the busy work. Use Indeed for scheduling, screening and messaging so you can connect with candidates faster. Leveraging over 140 million qualifications and preferences every day, Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences so the more you use Indeed, the better it gets. Join more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/bluewire. Just go to indeed.com/bluewire right now and support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com/bluewire, terms and conditions apply. And to hire, you need Indeed. Anthony Solomon confidence level Notre Dame beating A&M with CJ and confidence level without him. I believe he's referring to Charles Jagasol. Okay, I was like CJ Carr, I don't think he's scheduled to play. Okay, Charles, fair enough. I mean, look confidence level that they're going to beat them without him is still like a seven or eight in that neighborhood if we're talking like one to 10 and I'm still there because Notre Dame does have other weapons besides their left tackle like that the season's not over because Jagasol is not in the lineup. It makes it a little bit more difficult sure, but I'm still at a seven or eight in that regard and it may grow the more I see this team before that first game. I just don't know that Charles Jagasol as a red shirt freshman would have had the type of maker break season that can change my ultimate opinion of Notre Dame. That's, you know, I also don't think the, I don't think Tosh Baker's as bad as people make him out to be. I mean, we've seen the kids start a game, we've seen them play. And while he's no, he's no, you know, Joe Alt yet or he's no Joe, you know, I didn't just said yet. He's no Blake Fisher even, but he can, he's serviceable at the very least. Right. I don't think having him all of a sudden changes their, their prospects. I would also say that if Notre Dame had Sam Hartman, a quarterback or Jack Cone, a quarterback two guys that I'm fond of, especially Jack Cone, I think it would have had a bigger impact in my opinion. Correct. And Riley Leonard, who, who's as dynamic as he is, you're in a situation where it just, he can, you can do things to negate that issue on the left side that you could not do with the more pure dropback guys that that's what that's kind of where I'm at on that. Makes sense to me. Connor laws, the, this conference is difficult to predict. This was about, this was during the big 12. Okay. Top three for me, Utah OSU case state. Am I off or thinking Kansas could be a sleeper? No, not at all. It just comes down to Jalen Daniels health. I mean, look, they got one of the better running backs in the big 12. They got one of the best head coaches in the big 12 losing Chris cattle, Nikki is going to hurt in my opinion. He's a really good, but this is still Lance Leopold's team and Lance Leopold's offense, right? They're not going to take that big of step back. It really comes down to not having Jason Bean around anymore to rescue you if Jalen Daniels gets down. And then even with Jason Bean, there was a big drop off when Jalen Daniels was went out that quarterback. It's just, if he's healthy, it's what we said when we did the big 12 preview last week, if you were to tell me that Jalen Daniels is going to be healthy all season, then I absolutely think Texas Kansas has the chance to compete for the big 12 title. He's just never done it. Right. He's literally got hurt each of the last three years. He's missed multiple games. And I, I actually, when we did the big 12, remember Brian, I have Kansas third, like I think they're kind of my sleeper team to be really good in the big 12. And of course, that is assuming that Daniels is going to be healthy the entire time. But if he is, I think they could make some waves and that's why I had them third, actually. So that's one of the things that we disagreed on. Yep. Well, we disagree. Well, only disagreed on it only from the standpoint of I project will hurt, which you didn't take any injuries and consideration, which you shouldn't. Right. In most cases, because you don't know who is or isn't going to get hurt. Right. And then if you go with what you know, I simply kind of changed the rules a little bit for that one prediction and saying like, just because there's a three year history of that. Right. It's your prerogative. Yeah. I'll get in. But if, as I said at the time, if you could tell me he's going to be healthy events, then I could certainly see that. Right. It'll be in that conversation. Coleman Smith, is there any chance that we see a trick play where Buckner throws the pass this season? I doubt it. And number one, I just, I don't know how you get Tyler Buckner on the field where it's not obvious to the other team exactly that he's going to do something. So no, I don't, I don't think so. Now here's where I could see Tyler Buckner if you wanted to talk about where there could be a scenario is, we've seen a little bit of Tyler Buckner as the holder. That could be interesting to see something where Tyler Buckner is, you know, runs some sort of fake field goal, fake P.A.T. But as an offensive player, I just, I don't see like, if Notre Dame, here's the thing I would say, Vince, if Notre Dame, let's say Notre Dame just got ravaged with injuries at running back and just loves down, prices down and one of your freshmen. Sir. All right. What do we do? Yeah. Okay. Let's go back and watch some 2021 film and do that. Or you basically just bring Tyler Buckner in for a series and say, you know, we're just going to let him kind of run it. You know what I mean? That pounding off a Riley Leonard or something like that, you know, or even you could put him in as a running back. I mean, honestly, you could, you could cross train him there. Maybe something like that, but that would require so much to go wrong. Yeah. As much as I love Tyler Buckner athletically, he's not a natural receiver or running back. He's only ever played quarterback, so he's going to have a lot to learn there. And so getting him in the game to do something like that would be very obvious to any team that's worth a half a dart on the defensive side of the ball. You know, like just like, hey, guys, they're former starting quarterbacks on the field. Right. Alert alert. Alert alert. Yeah. Exactly. You know, something like that. So I just, you'd have to be. Yeah. Yeah. And even then I don't see it. Irish Gordy and not at this point in camp, is there a possible path for CJ to earn the backup quarterback spot or does Angeli have solidly have the job? It depends on what you're talking about. You know, it's, it's, um, are you talking about backup for coming off the bench guy? I think if it's a, I've said before, if, if it's simply you need someone to come off the bench and get you out of a game, it's Stephen and jelly. If Riley Leonard goes down for a period of time, then I think it's going to be in a being CJ car or Kenny Menchie, because Kenny Menchie's had a very good fall camp. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. My opinion of winning that job are better now than they were when camp started. So we'll, we'll see kind of how it goes. I mean, and we, not we, the, the, the, the, the, the media asked Gino Gudouli if, you know, CJ and Kenny had closed the gap to Steve and jelly. And he basically gave about a minute long response of just words, like he said nothing within that response, right? Because he's not going to, no, 100% and so my, the point that I'm making is that because of the way he answered that question, my interpretation of that is that yes, they have closed the gap, right? And, or the gap has closed significantly, but at the end of the, but he's not going to say that because he's not going to undermine what Stephen and jelly has been doing because at the end of the day, they're going to make him the back of the back. He's going to be the backup quarterback on the two deep. Yes. That's the point. That's the point of season. Right. Whether or not he's the next quarterback in is going to be determined by the type of injury. I completely agree. That's why the word salad came from Gudouli because he's not going to undermine Steve. He's going to, because he's the backup and he's the guy that can come in, get your protection set, check it down, right, hand the ball off. And if you blow a coverage, you can throw the ball down the field. That's what he's shown so far. Yeah. That's fair. Andrew Gilmore would Arkansas fans be happier in the big 12? Would Arkansas fans be happier? Yes. Cause their team had to be more competitive. Would their school be happier? No, cause they made this move as much money. Yes. I mean, weren't they in the big 12? No, they were never in the big 12 or they were in the Southwest conference. Southwest. They went for, they were one of the reasons the south, one of the reasons the Southwest conference folded. Okay. They left the Southwest conference, they were with like Texas and those teams. Right. Right. Right. Okay. Before the big eight became the big 12. Okay. So yeah, they were one of the original SEC expansion teams. I mean, it was like them in South Carolina were two of the original, is it South Carolina? When Notre Dame won the title of 1988, South Carolina was an independent. And then them and Arkansas in somewhat close period of time, both went to the SEC. And that's when somewhat a lot of that expansion started to happen. Got you. Tom Gypsinski, do we see CJ or Kenny at any point of the season, even if Angeli and Leonard are healthy. I'm talking cleanup time. I would imagine so. It's positive. I think we'll definitely see both of them for sure. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see both of them at some point time, at least one of them in mop up time, but probably both at some point time, I would imagine. John A1, thank you so much for the super chat. John, if you knew Emil Wagner would grade out greater or equal to his spring game grade every game in 2024, where would you play him and how many games would Notre Dame play 13 to 16? Well, the issue with this, John is if I'm going to take the Notre Dame coaching staff at their word that they tried this and this is where they're at, that a meal is just not as comfortable playing left handed than I'd still play him a right tackle. And that's a thing with some players, they just can't play right handed or they can't play left handed. And when you're playing left tackle, you're playing left handed. Everything is kind of, you know, it's just, it's completely opposite technique or your whole stance and everything is completely opposite of where it is a right tackle. Some guys don't handle that well, Vince. I mean, you've seen it and I've seen it. It's not an often, it's kind of rare when a kid just literally just can't do the other. And there's been the occasional situations where physically a guy can't remember Bob Whitfield played offensive left tackle for the Atlanta Falcons. I think he was blind and it's like, I think it was his right eye, but so he couldn't play one, he can only play like one side of the line, which is very interesting. And, you know, but, but if I take them at their word, then I would leave them a right tackle. If I felt that a meal could play left tackle, then I would be more prone to move him to the left side in that particular scenario. So that's my stance on that, John, it just, it just depends on that. And then how many games would Notre Dame play if he, to his other question, how if he plays like him playing to the level that they play in the spring game, honestly, John is one of the things I'm kind of taking into account when I project Notre Dame to be a, at least the semi final team, like, like my faith in my predictions that we did in the previous show is pretty good up until the semi finals. After that, it's kind of written, okay, just depends on my heart, it's taken over my head, you know what I mean? Like, that's just totally good. But getting to the semi finals, I'm quite confident that this team should do that to, if the matchups are what I say they are, if they, if they work out that way. And that's why it's important to know, I'm getting five or a six seed, because you are going to get an ACC or a big 12 team in the second round, most likely. So after that, it's kind of like so, I mean, so that would mean what, they play at least 15 games after, you know, I mean, they're winning that 15th game, but that's kind of where I feel. And then the meal is, is part of the reason I feel that way. Colvin Smith, do you think Florida State can replace Keon and Johnny Wilson this year? Well, I wouldn't have them in the college for all playoff if I didn't think that they could. And, and look, I think this Florida State team is, is very good. Are they going to have anybody on that, on that depth chart that's as good as, as what those two guys were? No, I don't think so. They're going to be very different. The receivers are going to be smaller this year. They're probably going to use more of a rotation this year, just kind of looking at, you know, through some of the magazines and you look at who these people have as, you know, as their starter, you know, some of those guys are going to start early on, but I think there's going to be some talented younger guys to take over. You know, they got, right now they have Kentron Potter, our port TA is a starter. Malik Benson is a transfer from Bama. Now, Jakai Douglas has been there for a while, but they also have Kakeem Williams is a sophomore. It was a big time recruit for them last year. I think he's going to play a lot more as we get closer to the season. Destin Hill, you know, tied in, they got a transfer from a belief San Diego State. Oh, no. Kyle Moorlach actually was there. Who, who got this? Oh, no. Louisville got the San Diego State transfer. And then they'll have a deep running back room. So they're just not, to me, Lashley, they were very reliant on three guys. Those three got two guys plus tradements and this year, I think the ball is going to get spread around a lot more than it was last year. And that's why I just don't think they're going to be like, they're going to miss those guys. They're just going to be different. You know, it's just going to be a different team. And honestly, the issue that those two guys had is when they had teams that could kind of take the vertical game away, there was less that Thursday, it was less successful, whereas this year, I think they're going to be able to do a lot more over the middle stuff. Crossers, high lows, meshes, different things where maybe a quicker guy is going to be able to have more success where Lashley, they had a little hard time with that because they're a key on Coleman was their small guy at six, four and a half, you know. And so I think it's just going to be a very different looking team this year, in my opinion. When it comes to towing, seeing is believing. 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I don't need all five guys to be road graders in the run game and just that's not to be great but it's not necessary for them to make a run because they do have talent all around them on the offense. They just have to be solid. They have to be good to solid and they'll be great and the team will be great. That's what they need to do. I think they're going to be a little bit better than that at the end of the day but the basement for them to have the success is they just have to be solid in my opinion. Agree. I think they need to be a little better than solid to make a deep run unless you mean solid is the same as good. So like a top 12 offensive line nationally. Okay. That's where they need to be. In my opinion. And see, I guess the definition of Notre Dame solid and like Ball State solid like those are two different. Those are two completely different definitions. I want to be clear on that. Look, this is Notre Dame. The bar is very high for offensive line and Notre Dame and it should be, right? If they play solid, if these guys in particular play solid to their level, then yeah, they're going to be a top, you know, 10 to 15 offensive line and that's enough for this team to make a run. Yeah. Let's get to some more. We got a super chat down here from Tyler and thank you for the super chat. Really appreciate it. Give me one Notre Dame offense and defensive team record that you would love to see broken this year and could end this title drought. I don't know that they're going to be able to break any team records on defense. Other than maybe like interceptions. I got one. What's that? Games played. There you go. They're going to play the most game record than enough. Maybe sacks. For the defense, it, you know, turnovers force. Those would be the two, like some of those like some of like tackle for lost numbers like back in the day. Like some of those numbers are insane. I mean, just nobody gets those kind of things offensively scoring record. I mean, like it got set last year. It could get broke this year, I think is a big one. And honestly, another one could potentially be passing yards record Brady had the most at 3900. If Riley Leonard breaks out this year, it means Notre Dame played a lot of games, right? I mean, yes, exactly. He won't break it in 12. He won't come close to breaking it in 12, in my opinion. You know, Jayden Daniels didn't even have as many yards as Brady Quinn did last year. You know what I mean? Like they're not 100 yards. A lot of flipping yards. But you know, if he gets past that, it's because Notre Dame played 15, 16 games. So that's another one that could would factor into. I mean, it's cheating the answer a little bit, but it's also not because the point is some of those records they're going to get broken are going to get broken because they played so many games. Not because they necessarily had the same yards per game average, their accumulation type record. You're accumulating stats. Yeah, right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. So that's kind of where I'm at. So it'd be stuff like that. You know, again, turnovers on defense, sacks on defense would certainly be one again, because it comes down to your defense is very disruptive, but also you're playing a lot more games. Those are all things that I look at and say, uh, if their team is as good as I think it's going to be, or if they end up being a championship team, it'll, it'll, it'll represent itself and in those type of numbers. That's, that's words. That's a good question. Tyler. Very good question. Coleman Smith, I'm not wishing this, but just exploring all options. What are the chances they replaced Betelho with Oben and Burnham, with Oben and Burnham just slides to the big end? What are the chances, well, 20% 15% now, I don't think it's likely right now. I've heard George tell us having a good camp, but I think most likely what they're going to do is they would just kind of play the other wipers. I think that the, the end position is a little bit more important in this defense than the Viper. If they've, if they've shown that in the past with the lack of production from the Viper and still being a good defense, well, just because you can also sub that position out and go to a three, three type of look. And then that guy's just not on the field. It's like the end, you've got to be good there. You have to be good there. And, and do you really want to take away from that to get good at somewhere else? It may need to be considered part of it's how well does Bryce young play? Is he ready to take on more of a, of a role there at the big end position with Burnham? So, you know, I don't know how much they would be willing to do that or how willing they would be to do that. I wouldn't be opposed to it. If, if Josh Jordan Patel is not playing well and giving you no production, I'd have, and your two ends are playing really well, I'd have no problem. We talked about this. We did our D line preview events. I'd have no problem moving a guy over there and, and, and playing in there. No problem at all. I'd be totally fine with that, totally fine with that. Well, man Smith, I know we haven't even had a 12 team playoff. However, what are your thoughts on the 14 team proposal? Do you think college football is trying to make it the NFL and do a North South approach like the NFC and AFC? Well, a couple of things, then some, I'm very curious to get your own position. I don't think they're trying to make it like the NFL as much as they're, they're trying to make it to where they can have more games to make a lot more money. Yeah, it's all about money. 100% agree with that. 100% agree. And a 14 team playoff allows them to make the big 10 in the SEC happy without necessarily taking away from the other leagues, correct? Add more two teams. Those two spots are going to get filled by the big 10 in the SEC. Well, and the other thing is, I mean, you know, you're adding two spots. So you're, I mean, I guess in theory, you're adding the 13th and 14th, or I guess you should say the 12th and 13th best team. You know, what is the reality that those teams have an opportunity to win the college football playoff? I think it's low. But it's, is it any different than the basketball championship, you know, the basketball bracket going from 64 to 68. I mean, does anybody think, you know, 65 to 68 of the teams that are going to make it, you know, to the championship? No, of course not. But it's about more games. If they can start that tournament earlier, they have another venue that, you know, you can sell more TV rights, you know, all of that. It's all about money. It's not about, you know, increasing the field to win the championship. It's about more games and more money, period. So I guess I like more games because I get there's more games to watch. And in theory, you're looking at all top 15 teams. And so that could be a lot of fun to watch. Those are going to be good football games in theory, right? But at the end of the day, 12 isn't that much different than 14 for me. It's about appeasing the big conferences and it's about making more money, yep. And Drew Gilmore, the NFL does open practices during training camp. In fact, the Bears have nine open to the press and public. Should Notre Dame do the same thing? No. Do I think Notre Dame should do more events throughout the year with fan interaction and players and coaches? Sure. Do I do? Am I a little pissed that Notre Dame is just kind of nixed the whole coaches clinic thing? Yeah. Yeah. Because number one, it's less of a chance for coaches to get on campus. And then also, I mean, let's be honest, some coaches just came because they were fans in their name. They got to watch a practice. I think there was nothing wrong with that. I think that's a big miss by Notre Dame, but the reason they're okay with it is because they just don't need that money anymore. I would most likely, you know? But I don't think the answer is opening up half of your fall practices. Look, as a media person, of course, I would like more access. I would like first five periods of every practice. And I would like three or four full practices. I absolutely as a media person think that's what we should get. Sure. If I was on the other side of this equation and I was still coaching and I was at Notre Dame, I wouldn't give a whole lot of access. Right. It's not because I'm necessarily afraid of what's going to get out there. Although that is a concern because you have irresponsible people in the media that don't follow rules. Now, I think Notre Dame has a much easier fix to that than they do. My whole thing is here's the rules. If people break them, take away their credential. Exactly. That's all. Instead of punching everybody. However, if I was a coach, it's more about this is a time where we are building as a team. We are building as a team. We are coming together as a team and folks on that way now where I would, my suggestion in Notre Dame would be not to open things up per say a lot, but I would have a couple of open practices and here's why there are there are things that there are players who change a bit when there's an audience. Some for the better, some for the worse. I'm reminded of this with a tweet I saw from Matt Rule the other day where they had a bunch of people to practice and they started making mistakes and he went off. He's like, this is why we lose because there's people here and you don't, you go away from this and you go away from that and go and how do you know that that's where how your team is until you get them in front of an audience? Fair enough. You know, so that's kind of what I would say is to do something like that. Now, you have to be somewhat careful that you open it up and all of a sudden you're going to some Connor Stallion's type of thing where you've got a coach that's going to come over there and watch this and take that and do this and do that, whatever. But at the end of the day, I think there's some advantages of that. So maybe it's a parent thing. You let all the parents in and then you tell parents, hey, parents don't call people in the media when guys injured and tell them what happened like we saw this past week. You know, like, look, we're asking you guys not to do that. Don't give that information to people that you that you know, we're going to broadcast it. But parents reach out to me and tell me what they saw from practice, you know, why they do that, Vince? Because they know I'm not going to go broadcast. Hey, I talked to someone so dad and this was what he told me at practice, you know. Our last availability, there was a bunch of parents there actually, and they got to stay obviously longer than we did. But I also think I feel like this is just me talking, right? I also feel like Notre Dame knows and they got a pretty good idea anyway of which parents may have loose lips when it comes to certain things and, you know, maybe it's a blanket invite to anybody that's in the area, you know, come on, watch practice, you know, that kind of a thing from a parent standpoint. And maybe there's a couple of talks with some other parents like, hey, come on, like, you know, help us out here, you know what I mean? But yeah, they had it open to the parents the other day and which I think is cool. I think that's cool that the parents get an opportunity because look, not first of all, not every parent is going to have an opportunity to watch their kid because, you know, Notre Dame, you know, they recruit from across the country. It's not easy for parents just to come to watch a practice, you know what I mean? But I believe if I'm not mistaken, like move in dates are coming up and some of there might have been some kid people in town. I don't know what the scenario was, but they had some parents there and it was clearly not all the parents. That's for sure. Right. Yeah, I would do some things like that, but I'm also like from a media standpoint, but I'm also as a coaching staff, I would, I would limit some of that. Like, yeah, if I, you know, if I was Notre Dame, I would give us less of the everyday five period things and like three full practice. That's it. That's all I need. Like, all right, you give me one deal. Give me the first day of camp. Give me one on August, you know, ninth, tenth and then give me one right before you start giving us the last weekend scrimmage and then give me one middle week practice before the final scrimmage. Right. We'll call it a day. Yeah. And then just let us interview players and coaches after practice every day. Right. The problem is that, you know, as with a lot of situations, one bad apple spoils the bunch. Sure. Boot that person. Take their credentials. Exactly. But they don't do that. They punish you. Right. Well, that's the, that's the, that's the end game though, right though? Yeah. You know what I mean? It's, it, for me, it's unique because I look at this from two completely different stand points. Sure. Personally, for me now, I, I care more about the business owner that needs access to, to, to more practices because that's where I, that's my sweet spot. I can talk about those things. And I've had to alter how I report on practices over the years as a sort of a, a solid to Notre Dame, you know, we're in the past, I would be like, okay, they ran this concept and this was the read and, you know, like, and that was great for fans, but that's not great for Notre Dame. Right. Okay, my number one responsibility is to Irish breakdown subscribers and listeners and watchers. That's not Notre Dame, but at the same time, it's kind of like, but yeah, but you need to make sure that that relationship to something like this is being respected. And now there's other things like, look, I'm reporting on this, whether you like it or not. I'm going to be critical of this, whether you like it or not. I don't answer to you, but when it comes to things like access and things like that, look, I'll do you a solid by not getting into too much detail. If you do us a solid and still let us come to some practices. There is a little bit, because they don't, they don't have to let us at any practices. I mean, at the end of the day, Vince, we don't like do they need to provide us with access to the team? Yes, I do believe that's at that's true, meaning more press conferences, talking to the players, coaches, getting information, things like that. Do I think that they owe us practice availability? No. Right. Do I think it's smart to do that? So that way you're, you're, you're, because like you owe it to the fans, not us to have more availability of your team in my view. But how much is the right balance? I think that's where the line can be. I know what I want and I know what I would do, but Notre Dame has never and will never ask my opinion on that, which I honestly think is kind of not smart because like, I'm the only person in this whole thing that's been on both sides of this conversation, to be honest with you, I've been on the coaching side. I've been on the media side as just a writer. I'm now on the media as a business owner. And I could say, look, here's, here's, here's what I think is kind of the best of both worlds. Some of it involves more access for us. Some of it is you guys putting out more stuff on your own, you know, and, and so those are all things that like, because like not every bit of content that's good for fans has to come from us. Some of it should come from Notre Dame, you know, things like that. But like I said, they don't care about my opinion. So I'll give it to y'all, but Notre Dame doesn't care. Well, I'll, I'll chop up this clip and I'll sign it over. Most things I don't think they should care about. I do think this is something where they should ask our opinions a little bit more. Like, hey, here are some different ideas we're banding around. Which would you guys, which do you guys think is best helps us keep a good relationship together to where we're trying to accomplish the things we want to accomplish, but also not completely crapping on you guys? Yeah. Because if you crap on us, you're crapping on the fans. It's ultimately because we're the conduit to the fans, right? You know, and I don't know that they always see it that way. No, I don't think they do. Andrew Gilmore since the year 2000, who would be on your Mount Rushmore of college? Holy moly, quarterbacks. That is a not a easy question. So since 2000 college football only, man, oh man, who was my Mount Rushmore? I got to start looking up some names, man. So here's one thing for me, okay? One thing that I will absolutely 100% declare is I will have no quarterback on my list who is only great for one year, no matter how great they were for one year. So Vince Young's not on my list. Cam Newton's not on my list. Those were one year guys. You could, you know, Johnny Manziel had two really good years, but one of those years was statistically good, not necessarily impactfully good. I, for me, it's about dominance and it's about winning and it's about production. One guy. There's two guys just off top of my head that just jump in like, okay, no, no brainers. And that's Tim Tebow and Lamar Jackson. Just right off top of my head. I agree. You know, Tim Tebow, two-time national champion, once it's a starter, once it's not one a Heisman produced as a passer was the SEC's all-time leading touchdown producer as a rusher broke Kershaw Walker's record for rushing touchdowns by an SEC player and just an ultimate winner. You know, I mean, he just, he was a, he was a winner. Lamar Jackson took Louisville to heights that they haven't had before after really in recent history and was a dominant player for multiple years and won a Heisman Trophy. He didn't win championships, but he also wasn't on a team that was really that type of team. You know, I've said this before. You put Lamar Jackson's last year in college was 2017. If you had trades in college football and Notre Dame was able to trade for Lamar Jackson and you put Lamar Jackson on that in 2017 team and that's the only change you make. Notre Dame loses to no one that season, no one. They almost beat Georgia with who they had on that team. Yeah. And you put Lamar Jackson on that team and they lose to no one, no one in 2017. So yeah, he's on there, Vince. Just some other guys that just kind of pop in my head. Matt Liner pops in my head as a potential candidate. You know, goodness gracious, just trying to think through, let me, actually, let me pull up like kind of, I need to go through teams and just kind of refresh my memory. Marcus Mariota's at least in the conversation. I don't know that I would necessarily have him there. Just kind of going through, you know, is Deshawn Watson or Trevor Lawrence on there? I don't know if either one was quite to that level. You know, James Winston had the one great year. He was, he has too many other issues that kind of negate the whole championship, Heisman production for me, if I'm being honest, Ken Dorsey was the product of a great team. He was a winner, but not, you know, he wasn't a great quarterback. Andrew Luck was great, but I don't know that I'd have him there, Vince. You know, he's a tough one. Andrew Luck's a tough one because I think he was a great quarterback, but I don't know if I don't have him as like one of the, because it's, I mean, it's really the top four, right? I mean, that's, that's not Rushmore's four, only four, right? So, you know, Andrew Luck's in the conversation. I just don't know if, because the thing about him, he was a winner. I mean, just won a lot of games there. You know, I'm not having Sam Bradford on there. He was a system guy, never won a championship. Just trying to go through. I mean, Michael Vick was only in the 2000s for a year and he was not a great college quarterback. He was a dynamic college quarterback, but not a great college quarterback. He didn't, and his best year was, I think, 99, I believe. So, you know, Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma State, you know, Brandon Whedon had a great year at Oklahoma State, but he's not in that conversation. Boy, this is a tough one. I wouldn't know, Michigan know Ohio, did Ohio State have anybody been there? Well, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I have to put Joe Burrow on there, because Joe Burrow had two good years of college. One was all-time elite, like his one year was just crazy good. I'd have to put Joe Burrow on there. I'm definitely not putting Jason White on there, heck, no. So, I got Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Tim Tebow, trying to go through Vince and find my fourth guy. And I'm honestly kind of having a tough time figuring out who that is, to be honest with you. I mean, if, I mean, if we're going to go back to Homer takes, I mean, I'm putting Brady Quinn on there, but that's a Homer take. Let's see here, no titles, no one from Missouri, none of the Oklahoma quarterbacks, to be honest with you. I mean, and if there was going to be an Oklahoma quarterback, it'd be Baker Mayfield, not Jason White. Let's see here, I mean, and Jason White didn't even win the title of Oklahoma, because the Oklahoma won the title in 2000. They won that first title of the millennium, and it was, and it was Josh Heipel was their quarterback. Jason White never won a title. I'm going through here, Texas, I mean, Colt McCoy had some really good success. Tennessee, Ole Miss, Oklahoma, I mean, Vince, I kind of, I kind of might have to lean towards DeShawn Watson as my fourth. I mean, he'd completely change that, completely change that, I mean, Taj Boyd took him to a level, and then DeShawn just kind of kicked it down, let him to a title game one year, let him to the championship the next year, tons of great production. I might have to put them on there. I might have to go to Sean Watson again, to people like Vince Young, I'm not putting a guy that was great for one year on my list. Trevor Lawrence is on your list? No, because Trevor was, Trevor was a great quarterback, but they never needed Trevor to be what they needed DeShawn to be. Okay. Like if I'm starting a team, I take Trevor, but Trevor benefited from the fact that he was on some teams that were just really special, where he didn't have to carry those teams the way that DeShawn had to carry that 2016 team, does that make sense? So yeah, I'm going to have, yeah, I'm going to have to go. So I'm going to go Tim Tebow, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, and for now with an asterisk, I'm going to go with DeShawn Watson, because I do have to go back and look through some quarterbacks and really study more, because I know there's guys that I'm missing. We just mentioned Pat White. That would be one to consider. I'm not going there. You know, Baker Mayfield was a very productive quarterback. I'm not going there either, because I think that was more system driven, you know, but if I was going to take an Oklahoma quarterback, it would be Baker, not Sam Bradford, you know, so I'd have to go back and think through this. I'd have to go back and think through this to really have a, somebody said Pat Mahomes had an underrated career. Pat Mahomes had a great college career. He just never won, because he didn't play on very good teams. Like, to be the Mount Rushmore, you have to kind of win something. You still got to win. Like, we don't have George Washington on the Mount Rushmore if we lost that war against the War for Independence, right? Like he's considered great because they won, you know what I mean? So, yeah, I'd have to think through that one. So I feel good about those three. I got to think through who my fourth would be. And there's like Matt Leiner, and like, I'd put Matt Leiner in there over Trevor Lawrence because like, I think Matt, I mean, that's a, again, that's a tough one because Trevor was a great talent, but Matt was part of that, that USC team that was just so dominant. You know, and, and, and they didn't lose to, they didn't lose to Texas because of Matt Leiner. You know what I'm saying? So I'd have to think through this one, man, I'd have to, somebody, somebody had a super chat, Irish says, I'll take Tim Tebow, Lamar Jackson, we're on the same page there. The Sean Watson and Eric Crouch, Eric Crouch last year, Nebraska, it was 2001, so I'd add him. The problem with adding Eric Crouch is it's kind of hard to really evaluate him. And as good as Eric Crouch was, I, I don't know that I would say he was a truly, truly dominant player, but he had some, some really good years. I mean, his last year, his last two years in Nebraska were in the 2000s. So 2000 and 2021 in 2020, he rushed for 2000, he rushed for 971 yards and had 20 rushing touchdowns, passed for 1100 yards and 11 touchdowns and seven picks. And in '01, the year he won the Heisman, he passed for 1500 and 10 yards, rushed for 1115 yards, but he ran for 18 touchdowns, only passed for seven and through for 10 or something on 25 touchdowns. You know, like if, if I'm going to go there, I'm going to go Jaden Daniels, who was every bit as dynamic and productive as a runner as Eric Crouch, but it was a way better passer. You know, so, but again, I also kind of like guys that won, you know, like so, so that's kind of where I, you know, so Matt Leonard, I, I think so in my, in my conversation with the Sean Watson, you know, Michael Vick in 2000 and 2000 was Michael Vick's last year. And again, Michael Vick was not a dominant college player statistically and, and his last year in college was not as good as his 1999 season. So Michael Vick was only a two-year starter in college and his last year at Virginia Tech, he threw eight, he threw for eight touchdowns and six picks and only ran for eight touchdowns. He only had 16 touchdowns, like, no, he's not in that list. He was the, he might have the, him and Lamar Jackson might have the two best highlight films, but no, he's not on that conversation. You know, Robert Griffin III, he had that one last great year for me, and, but his injuries kind of, you know, that injury suffered kind of maybe kept them from getting to that conversation. But again, I like guys that are champions too, man. Yeah. And, and Johnny football is not on my list because I despise everything that he stands for. Yeah. That's tough for me too. I mean, I just not. I despise everything that he stands for. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, Johnny football is not one for me. Sure. Yeah. No. Duane Haskins had one good year, like literally only started one year and left. So yeah, the fourth one's a tougher one for me, Vince. I get it. But I'm going to lean towards somebody that won a title. Yeah. And that's why for right now I'm leaning towards Deshawn Watson because he had great production in college. Sure. You know what I mean? Deshawn, I mean, look, somebody just talked about Eric Crouch, right? And Eric Crouch was a very good player. Don't get me wrong. But he was a very good player. And part of it, the difficulty is, okay, why are we comparing his stats in 2000 to Deshawn Watson's in 2016? Very fair point. Different offense, different air and all that kind of stuff. But that's what we're debating when this era and Deshawn Watson in 2015 rushed for 1,105 yards and rushed for 12 touchdowns off of passing for 4,104 yards and 35 touchdowns. You know? So, I mean, the numbers just dwarf anything that Eric Crouch did. And Iris says, "I just love watching Crouch play. Appreciate it." No, agree. Oh, here. Crouch. He was a technician. Great quarterback. Yeah. Great option quarterback. Yeah. It's like one of my favorite quarterbacks as a kid was Jamil Holloway. Like he was a wizard with the option. He was not a great quarterback. But he was so much fun to watch because he was just a wizard running the option. Yeah. He was so much fun to watch. It wasn't an all-time great of his generation. So I'm with you on that. That's kind of what you're saying about Eric Crouch. Like Joe Hamilton and Woody Dancer were two guys in the late '90s and early 2000s that I thought were super fun to watch. And they were a lot like Eric Crouch, you know, passers, runners. They were much better passers than Eric Crouch was. But they were fun to watch. They're not on my Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks. They were just really the watch players. Right. And you can appreciate the talent and you can appreciate, you know, how good they are. It doesn't mean they're the best of all time. Right. So yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. I love watching Justin Fisher run the option at Mission Walker. But he's not even playing that. Pat White's another one. He's a great option quarterback. But he's not in my Mount Rushmore. Yeah. There's a lot of guys who are fun to watch. Very fun to watch. Who was the Navy quarterback that was so good? Which one? Talking about Ricky Dobbs or the kid recently that they had those. I'm going to go with Dobbs. It was when they were beating Notre Dame at times. Yes. That was Ricky Dobbs. Yeah. He beat him twice. He beat him at 0-9 and 10. Yeah. He was special. And I realize Notre Dame had their issues. But he was still on the watch. He was so good at running that option. Yeah. He was. He was very fun to watch. Lately, recently they had Malcolm Perry, who was for 2,000 yards. Right. But Ricky Dobbs is the guy that got that team going. In 0-9, he ran for $1,192 yards and had 27 rushing touchdowns, Vince. And he passed for 1,031 yards. Yeah. And six touchdowns. He was literally a dual threat. He got an excellent throw of the ball. Right. Yeah. And he did it against good teams. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, you go back to 0-9, he ran for 83 yards and two touchdowns and passed for 156 yards and two touchdowns in a game where they almost upset Jim Trussle's Ohio State team. You remember that? Yep. Jim down to the wire, you know, he was a really good quarterback that performed well in big games. I mean, he just ripped Notre Dame up, I mean, just ripped Notre Dame up twice, you know, and he was fun to watch. Yeah. Very fun to watch. Keenan Reynolds was also something that Chad mentioned. Yeah. Tina Reynolds was a very entertaining guy to watch as well. He's a very good option quarterback. I'm just not putting those guys there. And Vince Young did not have two good years. Vince Young in his second year as a starter, at the end of the year, was playing really well, had a great bowl performance against Michigan in the Rose Bowl. But he ended that year. He ended up with 12 touchdowns passing and 11 rushing to 11 interceptions. So on the year, he wasn't great. He was great at the end of the year. And that, you know, kind of was a foreshadowing of what was to come the next year. But he was a very, very inconsistent quarterback in '04. Had some really brilliant moments and some not very good moments. And then '05, he put it all together and was just brilliant from start to finish. But no, he was more of a, he was great for one year. Sure. And that's again why I can't have one there. But his one year was good enough where you at least have to consider it. Well, and you have to do something to narrow it down to. But Deshawn Watson won a title also. But Deshawn was way better for multiple years than Vince was, right? That's, you know, that's kind of, and, and Vince had them on the precipice of a title once. Deshawn had them there twice. Sure. Lost the title game one year, one into another year. So I mean, there's been a lot of great quarterbacks, man. But just the Mount Rushmore, like the best of the best, that's a tougher one. Like I'm even now like I'm like, how do I not have Matt Liner on there? You know, a guy won two titles, should have almost won a third, if not for Vince Young being Superman in the fourth quarter. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, it's a tough one. It's a tough one. You know, to, to it was a great quarterback, don't get me wrong, but to it never won. I mean, to it, the only, the only championship to a one, he literally came off the bench at halftime. He didn't, he wasn't even a starter on that team. And then next two years, they lost, or the next year they lost, they lost a, they lost to Ellis. No, yeah, they lost to LSU in 19, or no, 18, lost a, no, two, yeah, no, two was the starter for them. Hold on a second. Yeah. Two was the starter for them in 19 and they lost to LSU in the regular season and didn't make the coach for a playoff. And then in 18, he was a starter and it got smashed by Trevor Lawrence. If I'm going to, if it comes down to two as an option for me, then I'm taking Trevor Lawrence over him. Right. Yeah. Because they literally played against each other and Trevor, Trevor's team beat him and, and, and Trevor played for more championships than two, it did in the 2000s. So, um, yeah, those are, those are where I'm going. So those are my thoughts. I said, no, Tommy Reese Henry. Why you got to do that? That's your boy. The same last name, minus one word different, you, you, you, you, Reese has got to stick together, Henry. You got to stick together, man. Come on now. Oh. Oh my goodness. That was a fun one, man. That was really, that was really good. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. Hey, business owners, need a fast, reliable way to secure funding without the hassle? Capital infusion business funding is here for you. Whether it's for expansion, inventory, or cash flow, our streamlined process gets you the funds you need in as fast as 24 hours. If you've been in business for at least six months and have been generating at least $10,000 a month in revenue, you may qualify for funding. Ready to grow your business? Call us now at 8-5-5-6-1-1, loan to speak to a live American. That's 8-5-5-6-1-1, loan capital infusion fueling your business success.
