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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 applied. Add to hire, you need Indeed. Jesse, are you ready for rapid fire? Let's do this. Fill in the blank. It's blank that Notre Dame has announced the September 28th game against Louisville as their Irish Wear Green game. To me, it's sweet, sweet revenge because I think there's a bitter taste on their mouth from Louisville last year. That was a big game, obviously underperformed and it had a lot of consequential impacts on the season, if you ask me. And so I think that this shows that it's a game that they're taking seriously. I know it's like they take every game seriously, but I think they want everyone to be a big game. They want to be able to avenge or revenge their loss from last season against Louisville. And so the more that you can add to it, it adds more fan engagement, it adds more height to the game. And so I think that there is, it's more to just wearing green. I think that they really want to, like I said, kind of avenge their loss to Louisville last season. They have a chip on their shoulder and they're just adding more fuel to the fire by making it the green game. I do think it's interesting that the green game, the Louisville game is going to be the game that is not on actual NBC. It's going to stream on Peacock. So there's that. But you know, I saw some people asking, you know, like, does this mean that they're wearing green and all likelihood? It does. I think that that's what, you know, that's how they've done it the last couple of years. And I like the way they've done it. This is what I said a few years ago that they should do. And that's what they've been doing the last couple of times is pick a game. This is going to be the green game and the team is surprised. So yeah, not everyone's speculating, oh, are they going to come out in the green uniform? Just let it be known exactly like the expectations be known. Let everyone know in advance because it's September, the weather's still warmer. Fans can wear their green shirts. You can sell plenty of green t-shirts and all that different kind of stuff and everybody has fun with the greenness. Interesting chief Brodie, man, chief Brodie is like the fun guy at the party. He's tired of videos, to be honest. He wants more playoff appearances and fewer videos. I mean, you know, I guess Brodie is one of these guys that like thinks that Marcus Freeman is never supposed to sleep and you know, he's only supposed to be out there, you know, like coaching and crunching film 24/7, you're not supposed to do anything, you know, people like recruits love the green too. That's it. It's a promotional aspect. There's a lot more to it than real or most of the work on these videos is done by the social media slash fighting Irish media department. They just tell Marcus Freeman where to be and what to say. Yeah, record a couple lines. That's pretty much it, you know, and then they do all the work afterwards. So you know, you're right about the recruits. Like, like we live in a social media world for good or for bad, you got to put it out there on social people like Jersey combinations. Yeah. Yeah. They like Jersey combinations and they like following this stuff on social media and personally, I'd rather see some of this stuff than a lot of other garbage that you see on social media. So I'm good with it. All in good fun. I'm all in good fun. They're chief Brodie. We know. Just cornerback Benjamin Morrison says he's 100% healthy. We got to talk to him today as well. We asked him when he got to 100% and somehow I thought that I had this in there went away. There goes and tell you, I mean, I just think over time, I mean, it's, it's, it's a constant battle game. You're confidence back. But I think like I got much trust in God and I think I'm, I've been, I've been healthy for a while now. Scale of one to 10, Jess, how important is it that Benjamin Morris is Morrison is now 100%? I mean, it's a 10 out of 10. We're talking about an all American corner and his, this wouldn't be as big of a deal had they not opened the season with Texas A&M on the road. You need your best experienced cornerback, you know, in the secondary along with Xavier Watts tonight. You know, I'm not saying that I wouldn't trust Christian Gray or Jayden Mickey. I just have more trust than Benjamin Morrison. He's played in big time games and honestly, when you think about it, he shows up the most in big time games who had interceptions against, you know, against Clemson. I want to say potentially Ohio State, but I might be lying on that one, but it's just he, he steps up in the big moments. And so, you know, when the stage gets brighter, Benjamin Morrison just shines even more. And I think having him, you know, it's going to be also, you know, a confident boost for everyone else on the field, knowing that his side of the field is going to be shut down. So I, it, to me, it's a 10 out of 10. He had an interception against USC, like USC, that's what it was that you were thinking of. And obviously he had, you know, the big game to, I mean, that's still the number one quarterback in the draft. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's exactly right. Him and Xavier Watts both went wild in that game. It's a 10 out of 10 to me. I saw, I think Brody said, a, you know, look, my biggest concern. With the defense, I know a lot of people concerned about the linebackers and, you know, the youth of the linebackers and, and experience and all that stuff. My biggest concern the whole time has been what the depth of the secondary, specifically the corners. And if you don't have your all American cornerback, Benjamin Morrison, then that sets you back even farther in terms of depth, especially when you're going on the road to open the season against a good opponent in a hostile environment. You need it. Like Hobbes and more, we've seen some good stuff from them and some of these practice videos that Notre Dame has put out on social media. By the way, I'm perfectly fine with those videos and I think you should be too Brody and everybody else. But I think that it's a 10 out of 10. You get Benjamin Morrison, you potentially got Christian Gray on the other side. I think you're feeling more than good. You're feeling really good about this defense. If you got him full health, so big time, big time. He did say that, you know, like they, you know, they do still kind of, you know, pull him back a little bit and that, you know, not all the time, full bore contact and all that kind of stuff, which is understandable because he is still just like four months removed from shoulder surgeries, but you know, he'll be, he'll, he'll be a full go when it comes to Texas A&M from everything that he said today. prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 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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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. Find more than 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored 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. To hire, you need Indeed. So CBS Sports's Danny Kanell was on the Ryan Rassillo podcast this week and he had a thought or two about Notre Dame and their chances for a championship this season. Here's what Danny Kanell said. Hi, Leonard. Coming off an injury, going to a new system where they just lost their left tackle after losing Joe All. So like Joe All goes to the Chargers. So now they're bumping in another guy and they have to go to Texas A&M week one. We've got Florida State, essentially it's a two maybe three game schedule. So like I think that's what people are projecting because they should be able to like ten and two looks very doable if not almost guaranteed. But I think they have zero chance of winning the like winning the national championship. They're going to be in. Riley Leonard is and I love he's a really good kid. He had three passing touchdowns last year. Three. Like in the way he's talked about the year before, I think he had 20, but like he is not exactly lit it up. He still needs a lot of development as a passer in a new system. Okay. So there's Danny Kanell on the Ryan Rassillo podcast. Do you buy or sell any of that? You know, there were some different points. One, he thinks 10 and two, they're not a serious national championship contender. And obviously he picked apart Riley Leonard and said that, you know, he has some serious concerns about Leonard and he mentioned the offensive line there as well. So in or out by or sell, what do you think about what Knell's staying? I think 10 and two is the floor of this team. If they go 10 and two this season, I believe that those that would be, you know, a failed season ultimately. So I don't think that I think if they go 10 and two, they are not serious championship contenders. But that's not where I see them. I see them at 11 and 1, 12 and 0 team. And I think what Danny Kanell forgets to mention is that, you know, offense is one side of the ball. They sell a very good defense and the defense that's going to limit a lot of teams. So that helps out your offense in terms of, you know, how much production that they need. And so in comparison to last season, they were just a couple of plays away, right? And you can say that this offense is going to be better than what last year's offense was going to be with Riley Leonard with Mike Dembrok. I mean, yeah, there are definitely questions at the offensive line, but when you lose two starters to the to the NFL, that's a question for any team. So okay, that's a fair criticism at the end of the day. The Riley Leonard stuff, I'm not buying it because he's not, he fails to mention that he was injured last year. Of course, the only had three. That's exactly. Yeah. Exactly. So how can you evaluate Riley Leonard, Riley Leonard season last year cannot be evaluated. He was injured. He was injured. The three touchdowns that he mentioned, the three touchdowns passes that he mentioned came before the injury. He had four touchdown runs before the injury as well. So even though he only threw three touchdown passes, he's a dual threat quarterback who had seven total touchdowns through the first five games, including a season opening win over the ninth ranked team in the country. And on top of that, the three games that they had in between Clemson and Notre Dame were blowout wins, you know, so you've got other guys in there as well. And I think I can't remember if I just mentioned it. He was completing better than 75% of his passes prior to the injury. So like prior to the injury, he's completing better than 75% post injury. His completion percentage went down. He obviously was not able to play in a full game after the injury. I mean, that's, that's the biggest factor right there is the guy still had seven total touchdowns in the five games he was healthy before he was hurt and the team with the exception. You know, the team was undefeated going into the Notre Dame game and they lost a close game to the 11th ranked team in the country Notre Dame in that game. So where did I, I think I just ran into some connection issues. So where did I kind of cut out at? I thought that you would just kind of run your, you were talking a little bit about Riley Leonard and that's where I picked up as I was talking about Riley Leonard and everything that he did. You know, again, because of the, the injury is the biggest thing with Riley Leonard. Now the other stuff, I mean, we started off this show talking about the offensive line and what's going to happen there. That's, that's a big concern. It's, I think it became a bigger concern based on what we saw at practice today and the fact that you had a completely different left side of your offensive line out there. That's legit. But like you said, 10 and two would be a disappointing season like that would be the minimal expectation for this. Yeah, with their school you are as tenant and I don't, I think most people their minimal expectation is much above that. I think echoing what you said, you can't, you can't evaluate Riley Leonard at last season. If you want to, let's look at the opening game against Clemson. He won that game against Clemson. He found a way to win. I think what Danny Canel also fails to mention is how some almost 100 yards in that game. Right. You know, that's a big part of Leonard's game, obviously. Well, and second, I think you have to, if you're Danny Canel you, it's a disservice to not mention, you know, Mike Dembrock pairing with Riley Leonard as well because of what he was able to do with Jane and Daniels and how Riley Leonard fits kind of that similar profile of Jane and Daniels. And so again, I think it's a little bit lazy because I think it's easy to kind of jump on and just kind of look at things from a more macro level and say, Oh, they lost some offensive lineman. Oh, Riley Leonard still has some question marks. Okay, Danny Canel, but how about going into last season? Riley Leonard was on a lot of a lot of NFL scouts, big board to go in the first round. Those things don't just come out of nowhere, like his arm is going to develop. And now that you have an offensive coordinator that's legit, like Mike Dembrock, I think it's fair to say that his passing is going to get better. And I think an even, you know, a big brain type of comment would be to say if Riley Leonard can develop as a passer under Mike Dembrock, then this offense could have the ability to go all the way. And I think that's where all of us as fans are saying is Riley Leonard, if they can develop the passing game better than what they did last season with Sam Hartman, they will overcome some of those shortcomings in big moments and win the games that they were supposed to win last year and beyond the cusp of a 12 and 0 and 11 in one season. A lot of great points and I'm not going to disagree with any of them. You know, again, like the offensive line, that's a legitimate thing, but the Riley Leonard stuff, I don't necessarily agree with that. So Canel also has some doubts about Notre Dame's receiving core. Go back to Jordan Faison today. Here's what he said about the depth of the Notre Dame receivers. I mean, we have everything. We have the big guys, the fast guys, the quick guys. I mean, we could hit you from every angle. We could attack zone, attack man, and I think it just, it's a testimony to what we've developed over the years. And you know, to the guys pre from last year that I've still kind of started that and to now carrying on those same things, and yeah, we just got guys that just ball. So here's my question. You know, again, Canel doubting Notre Dame's receivers. Obviously a Notre Dame receiver is going to have good things to say about his group. My question is, are we the royal we right here? Are we, are we over valuing Notre Dame's wide receivers? Or are they being undervalued nationally, which is, which is more true? I think it's, I think it's a combination of both. But the issue that you run into is they don't have a proven wide receiver. And so at the national level, they can't point to someone and say, this guy is definitely going to be a stud and produce. And us as fans, we see, we see it more day in and day out. And I think we see the potential of this wide receiver core of, okay, we see Jayden Gray House can play in the slot and can play out at the outside wide receiver position. We see that Jordan Faison can also get on the field and, okay, how about, you know, a wide receiver set that pairs Faison, Great House and Chris Mitchell, right? And so I really liked his comment there because he said, we have an answer for everything. We have fast guys. We have big guys. We have zone beaters. We have man beaters. But until everything comes together and we see them play a game and we see how Mike Denbrock moves the pieces around on the offense, I think it's fair to say that we are, you know, we are overvaluing and the, you know, the national people are undervalued because again, what proof do they have? Notre Dame doesn't have, you know, the hard stats of this guy's a thousand yard receiver and a 60 reception type guy and a 10 touchdown type guy. There's just not production there yet. But when we see, okay, this is Mike Denbrock's offense. You know that this is what he wants to do. Okay. We see that there's a really talented group of wide receivers. That's fast. That's strong. That's physical. Now they just need to go out there and do it. And I think that's the important part to me. I think I agree with what you're saying. I think it's probably a little bit of both. I think it's more, you know, like as we get, but, but we have what we saw last year to base our opinion on and obviously nationally, that's what most people are going on. So obviously, you know, like they're, they're not taking as deep a look and they're in like in Canell's case, the fact that you never even heard him bring up Mike Denbrock and what he was talking about and like when he was picking apart Riley Leonard, like the addition of Mike Denbrock here and the fact that Notre Dame is going to have a completely different offense than what they had before and it's going to play more to, to, to Leonard's skills. But also now the fact that like you can see it, you can see that there is the depth that you were just talking about and the fact that they've got these different body types to do all these different things, but there's speed there as well. What were we talking about with Chris Mitchell a little bit ago? The fact that he can take the top off the defense, take a safety with him and now that leaves the rest of the field that Leonard can potentially pick apart with these different kind of receivers that he has. So I think it's more that they are being nationally undervalued, but you know, we probably do overvalue them a little bit. But again, it goes back to the body of work that we saw last year compared to what this group looks like this year. It's just so different that I think that really anyone nationally isn't going to be able to truly appreciate it until they get their eyes on it. And we've at least we've at least, you know, been able to see some glimpses of it in the practices that we've been to. I think the first few games is really going to change the narrative nationally, because like the most important thing is this is just going to be a completely different looking offense. I think everyone has an idea of, you know, what Notre Dame has looked like the last five or six years at the offense and wide receiver position. Like they've been a more dominant, you know, tight and heavy, you know, kind of big sets type stuff. But like we talked about this, offense is going to be motioning around. You're going to find ways to get a lot of different wide receivers on the field depending on what they're trying to accomplish. So I mean, as a fan, I think the most important thing is like just have fun with how different this offense is going to look. And I think it's going to change a lot of people's perspectives. So we're going to finish up with some we in and we out questions, the final we in and we out questions that we weren't able to get to the other day, because we were on a time crunch. Are you in or out on closing the current college football record books and letting them stand for the rest of history and starting new record books moving forward due to college football playoff expansion, interact on that? I'm going to say out. I think that the record books are always kind of continuing. Like the NFL didn't end theirs when Cooper Cup, I think broke the record a few seasons ago. But he had at least an extra game compared to some of these other teams. So if you really want to look at it, you can break down the numbers more on a per game basis, right? I think there's ways to always analyze the numbers. But I don't know, I think that the game is always evolving and so they would have to be kind of always like 20 year periods if that's the way you're going to look at because are we going to say that, you know, record books shouldn't count for running backs back in the day because there were more run heavy offenses compared to now where there's more spread out kind of passing offenses? You know, I just don't want to kind of get into that, you know, constant cycle of finding ways to kind of justify records and stuff like that. I just think it's one continuous linear point. You just kind of keep going essentially. Yeah, exactly. The difference in college sports and professional sports is professional sports keeps a regular season record and then, you know, anything that comes in the postseason is factored completely separately. Those stats don't count. But you know, like even you've seen expansion, obviously, in all the professional sports, you've seen both expansion of the teams, which can, you know, water down the talent pool to an extent and that helps or hurts different guys. But at the same time, you've also seen an expansion in the number of games that they play, just like the NFL has expanded to 17 games and, you know, you know, like you saw all of these records obviously shattered that for not shattered, but you saw a lot of these single season records fall right away in that first season because you added a game and they're not going to put any asterisks next to them. It's just, it's part of the way it is. And there's already some imbalance anyway because of the fact that these conferences like teams like Alabama that are in the SEC Championship game consistently, Ohio State, they're all getting an extra game and those all count for their regular seasons as well. So I agree with what you're saying. I don't think you alter the record book or put an asterisk or anything like that. You just, games get added and, you know, because not everyone's going to make it to the playoffs either. So, yeah, it's going to look like, you know, and like we're already in an era where all these, we're coming out players right now like these 60 year guys like Jack Kaiser and Howard Cross, they're the last of the guys who got the extra COVID year of eligibility. This is the final season, like if you were a freshman during that COVID season, this is the final year for that extra season of COVID eligibility. So like even for that, a lot of records have been altered and they're, you know, they're not going back and putting asterisks on any of that either. In route on Notre Dame hosting a college football playoff game this season. I think that's a two. That's a double question. And to me, it's like, are they going to go undefeated? I think they're neither an undefeated or an 11 to one team this season. So I don't think 11 and one gets them that five seed. I think that, you know, someone else will get the benefit of the doubt, especially because in our games, not in the conference, but you don't have to be a five seed to host. You just have to be five, six, seven, eight. So if you're one of those four seeds, you would get to host. So with a record of 12 and O or an 11 and one, I do think that gets you a top, you know, eight seed in the country. So I'm going to say we end on this one because I do think that's what they're all the ultimately the record is going to be. I just don't see them losing two games this season. Now that could all change. I've been putting after the first game, but that's I mean, a little more nervous about this offensive line now that I that I was even a couple of days ago. But yeah, that could have that could obviously our whole opinion on that could change pretty quickly him. We might all be drinking a few cocktails, but I'm in on him hosting a game because I like you. I think they're either zero loss or one loss. And that's going to get them most likely at the very worst in eight spot. I would think if they are a one loss Notre Dame team, I would think that the worst that they're going to do is be the eight seed and they would get to host in that case. True point, Salty. They haven't consistently been recently Ohio State. He called me out on the big 10 championship game because they couldn't beat Michigan. Of course, but they played in, they played in a lot of big 10 championship games anyway, they're out on Alabama missing the playoffs this year. I'm going to say I do believe that they have a pretty favorable schedule for, you know, a first year head coach and Alabama is still Alabama. There's a ton of talent on that roster. They're still recruiting at a high level. I mean, they're seasoned to me boils down to three games, Georgia, LSU and Oklahoma. I think they'll beat out Oklahoma. I do think that they'll be LSU and I think they're, again, an 11 and 1 10 and 2 team. And I think that an 11 and 1 10 and 2 Alabama and the SEC is definitely in the playoffs. So I'm going to say, I'm going to say out on Alabama missing the playoffs. I think I'm going to go in on a missing the playoffs actually and Vincent and I were trying to do a prediction yesterday that kind of blew up on, you know, who's going to make the playoff this year. I had Alabama out, you know, I'm like, I think Caitlin DeBore is a good coach, but I do think that because of Nick Saban kind of holding that together last year, I think that Alabama, you know, like the, the, the, the whole was better than the sum of the parts. I'm not saying it was a horrible team because it's obviously they're still recruiting. But like, I'm not completely sold that Caitlin DeBore can get out of Jalen Milro, what, what Saban was able to get out of him last year. And I think that there are enough questions with, you know, what they have this year. And you mentioned some of the big games that they have that they're always going to have to play in the SEC. So I think Alabama, I think Alabama misses. I think that they are at least two losses, if not maybe even three losses this season. Interout on Nebraska having more wins than LSU this season. I just have to say out, I know that LSU is going to probably play a tougher schedule. I like what I'm seeing out on Nebraska and rule. I just don't think that you can get that thing flipped around kind of that quickly in your why I think Brian Kelly is a better coach. I think they have more talent. It's just a matter of LSU can just be competent on defense this season. If they can just be halfway competent, I think they're a double digit win team as well. I'm out as well. Nebraska to me is like the new Texas, you know, everyone wants to say, oh, it's Nebraska back now this year. They were a five and seven team last year. It's only one win better than they were the year before that. And I know it's a bunch of close losses, but you can go back. It's like four years in a row now they've had all these close losses regardless of who the coach is, you know, so I'm just out on them until they actually prove they deserve for someone to think that they are actually back. So I'm going to stick with LSU. I think that they're probably like a nine in three team at worst this season. And I don't see Nebraska getting close to that number just based on the track record that we have on them right now. So I've got to be out on that. I think that's going to do it for tonight, Jess. We've breezed through this one. We did smoke that show a lot of good stuff. Again, we're supposed to talk to Marcus Freeman, Mike Dambrock, Al Golden on Saturday. So maybe we have, you know, some answers on what this situation is going on with the Notre Dame offensive line right now. Maybe we find that out a little bit on Saturday. So we will find out then. Appreciate you being here, Jess, appreciate you as always. DK has a question for you. Have you declared? Have you committed one way or another? I can't be, you know, who knows who's out there listening? When it's time, it'll be time. All right. We will wrap it up with that hit the like button. If you would, of course, subscribe, rate, and review. Again, appreciate you being here and we will talk to you later on Ivy Nation Sports Talk. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. 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. Need to hire? You need Indeed. (upbeat music)
