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. The NFL season is finally here, so make sure you're ready with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV. It gives you the most live NFL games all in one place. Exactly what you need to make your Sundays more magical. Sign up today at youtube.com/Sundayticket. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket for Out of Market Games excludes digital only games. [Music] I be nation. Welcome back to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. It is Tuesday of game week and that means it is time to rock and roll. Diving into this breakdown of Notre Dame vs. Texan M. That's Trevor Trowbridge, a new staff writer at Irish Breakdown on Brian Driscoll. And Trevor, we are going to take a deep dive into the Texas A&M Aggies today. And this matchup with Notre Dame from a lot of different points of view. We'll begin the show with the What's at State for Notre Dame. And then you and I on Thursday will go over our keys to victory in the game. And then we'll make our predictions for Notre Dame, Texas A&M. Saturday, you're going to be on the post game Sean Saturday? Sure will. And Sunday, Trevor's life will never be the same because he is going to get married on Sunday. So it's a very, very big week for Trevor. I'm not sure which day is bigger. If you're in case your fiance is listening, Sunday is definitely more important. But Saturday is a very close second. Big, big game for Notre Dame, Trevor. And now we've been waiting all off season. That's one of the nice things about having a big game in the openers. You have something to look forward to all off season. You know, we're not looking forward to Navy or Tennessee State. It's right away. Texas A&M, which means we are going to start to learn a lot about Notre Dame from the get-go. I'm excited about this game. 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. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You can turn ten dollars into a thousand dollars. I'm a Bears fan, so this one gets me really excited. One Caleb Williams passing yard gets you one win on prize picks every week in September. That's right. Only one yard gets you an automatic win every football weekend in September. Four weeks of free W's. Don't miss this deal on prize picks because it's gone when September ends. Think Tyreek Hill get more than 90.5 yards in week one. Aaron Jones runs for more than 66 and a half yards. Cook up hot takes with your friends and win real money this football season. When you and your crew run your game on prize picks. Prize picks also has college picks all ready to go for you as well. Get in before game one hits and you can predict how many passing yards your favorite college quarterback will hit. For me, I think Riley Leonard is going to go above 2,550 and a half yards. So I'm going to take that one and I'm going to combine it with Quinn yours to throw 2,999 and a half yards. Put those together and bang bang boom baby. I'm going to be a winner. You just wait and see. I'm coming up on my one year anniversary of depositing my first $10 and I received an instant $10 bonus. If you have the skills you can play for a shot at turning your $10 into a thousand dollars. Download the prize picks app today and use code IRISH for a first deposit match up to $100. That's code IRISH on prize picks for a deposit match up to $100. Prize picks run your game. You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs takes the crispy and spicy nugs that you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey barbecue, garlic palm, or if you're a real heat seeker, try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's at participating US Wendy's. So am I. I can't echo it enough. I feel like when you're a little kid and you're growing up and it's the week of Christmas, it's like December 22nd. That's where I'm at right now. Big week. Yeah, very excited for the wedding on Sunday. Luckily for me, it didn't turn into a big fight, but I told her last night, I'm more nervous for the game because I know what the outcome of the wedding is going to be. Right. Right. Fingers crossed. Control the controllables, man. Control the controllables. Yep. Yep, absolutely. Well, we're excited for you and going to be a little different. You know, you're a guy, you don't have to change your last name or anything like that. So that'll work out for you. But this game Trevor is a big one for Notre Dame. Reminder tomorrow, I'll do the midweek rundown. Thursday, keys to victory predictions. Friday, I'll have a special show. Saturday, post game show. Trevor will go live with Vince, Ryan and Sean after the game and immediately dive into what they see from that game. And then Monday, we'll have our upon further review show breaking the game. Now, because Sunday, I'll be traveling all day, Sunday, heading home from Texas. And I'm heading down to Texas on Friday. So very, very excited about that. Going to be a very, very, very fun week. And I have a feeling this week is going to fly by. But today, right now, it's Notre Dame versus Texas A&M preview. Let's get after it. So part one of today's show, Trevor, we're going to look at what's at stake for this game. Because the match up is important and we'll spend plenty of time on the match up. But this is a magnitude game for me. And not so much from the standpoint of I think this Texas A&M team is on the same level as Georgia or Ohio State. And I don't mean any disrespect by saying that they're not. Just like Notre Dame is not on the level of those teams either. Because you have to prove that and get those wins with some consistency. You know, A&M has a win over Alabama recently. Just like Notre Dame's got a couple wins over Clemson. They've played those other teams top. They're not on that level. They're not on that level. So this isn't a beat A&M and now everyone's going to fear you. Like Georgia's going to fear you and Bama's going to fear you. But it doesn't mean that there's not some big statements to be made regardless. And you just look at the Notre Dame fan base and how many Notre Dame fans think they're going to lose this game. Think that this is the kind of game that Notre Dame has struggled with in the past. Which I think is very debatable if this constitutes the same as the Clemson's and the Ohio State's and the Georgia's. But that's a different conversation for a different day. But the reality is as you look nationally, I'm watching national shows and I'm seeing very few people pick Notre Dame. I'm seeing Notre Dame fans that think this is going to be some hard game. And there's a lot of different reasons for it. A&M's and SEC team their southern team Notre Dame's you know has often not played well in big games. All these different type of things. This is an opportunity for to some degree for Notre Dame to earn a statement when and say hey look what you think we were we are no longer. And this doesn't end all that conversation but it's certainly quiet some of it to a degree. At least outside of SEC country. It takes Notre Dame a step in the right direction. So I definitely agree with what you're saying to me this is a big perception game and it changes what the national media might think about Notre Dame. I think a lot of times people will look at a program for who they've had and iconic players that they've had in the past. I'm sure I along with a lot of other people in the chat across the country. You hear Texas A&M, you think of Johnny Manziel, you hear Texas A&M, might think of Jim Bowfisher. And you have these marquee guys that come in and try to change the trajectory of a program. Compound that with them being in the SEC. And you compound that with you know they're playing Alabama year in and year out. They're down south playing that kind of ball. And whatever the narrative has been against Notre Dame over the last couple of years of Notre Dame doesn't win those big games. I think that the name Texas A&M is carrying more weight than the actual strength of the opponent. Again, no disrespect to Texas A&M. I love Mike Elko, love what he did at Duke. I think he's going to do the same things with Texas A&M and turn them around, which I know we'll dive into later. But to me, this is a changing of the perception of Notre Dame football. Yes, I think the part that you hit on and again this is going to come across like we're downplaying A&M, but it's really not. It's about putting into proper context what this game means. And this is a big game for Notre Dame. But it also is more of a perception win than it is a win that's a giant needle mover. And you said it, this is a step in the right direction. This is not the same as beating Bama and beating Georgia. That still has to come. But I do think this kind of game can put a dent into the perception that you have or it can solidify the negative perception that people have of you if you don't win. Because you can't be talking about Georgia and Bama in Ohio State if you can't beat Texas A&M. Right. It's like you got to do this. Like I've said in the past, you want to be considered the top program in the country. You've got to be at least the top program in your region. And right now they're not. They were second. Now they're third. They were second behind Ohio State. Now they're third because Michigan passed them up last year when they won a national championship. And so that's the, that's where Notre Dame is. That's the opportunity is it's going to go, it's going to sting one direction or another. Notre Dame doesn't have a whole lot of momentum on the recruiting trail. That's a part of it, which we'll get into in a little bit. But this is big picture is an opportunity for Notre Dame to send a statement. And you know, winning is the most important thing, right? And I don't care Trevor, if they win 10 to nine, get that W and then go on a roll against a schedule that's far more manageable. The second part of it is like, okay, if you can win and look good doing so, even in a competitive game, like there's a way to win ugly. And then there's a way to win well, even if it's a competitive game, because it's two really good football teams going back and forth. So I think getting that statement win is a big first step. And I think the other thing too is this is a, these openers are pivotal moments for a football team, Trevor, because that 2022 Notre Dame football team went into that season with a lot of confidence. And I felt they played Ohio State very hard. They battled Ohio State for four quarters, but they just weren't good enough to beat Ohio State. And so what that, what that then happens is now you're kind of shook. You put all this emphasis all off season on this one game. And then you lose it and it can be hard to recover from that game. And we haven't talked enough about that. That is partly why they lost to Marshall that next week is because of that, that letdown from that moment. And so you've got an opportunity here to, to have that happen again, or to be that giant final confidence boost. And if you look at all the great Notre Dame teams in the past, they had that, that big win that kind of vaulted them into that level of success. I mean, you look at 1988, they had a couple of those wins. Obviously, you beat Michigan in the opener. That was your second win over Michigan in a row. But then that Miami game on October 15th was the game that really vaulted Notre Dame into sort of that echelon of, hey, we know we can beat anybody. So when they went to play USC at the end of the year, that was no problem. I mean, it's like USC shoot. I'm not worried about USC. We beat Miami. And then you, you know, you, you've seen it again in other years too. I mean, 1993, we saw a similar situation where you have that big win that can kind of vault you into a stratosphere that that maybe you thought you could be good. But then that kind of win really makes you believe. And in 1993, Notre Dame goes on the road and, and beats number three, Michigan, you know, that year. Well, Notre Dame had some, some issues with Michigan in the previous years. They tied the year before Michigan beat them by 10, the year before that. And so 1993, you go on the road and, you know, and play them in a place where they beat you by 10, two years before Desmond Howard has this Heisman moment against Notre Dame and all that. You beat them in that game and all of a sudden that Notre Dame team had a ton of confidence. And that's what propelled them to them being able to beat Florida State down the road. 2012 is another example. You go out there and that team, you know, 2012 Notre Dame had some good moments in 2012. But I don't know that they were, they looked like world beaters at the beginning of that season. Obviously, the Navy game was impressive. But then, you know, you barely beat Purdue in week two, you go on the road and beat Michigan State that week three, they ended up not being a very good team. You beat Michigan in week four, they weren't very good. Very ugly win. You had a great win over Miami, a blowout went over Miami. They weren't that good. That Stanford game is what changed that football team. By beating Stanford, you now felt we can beat anybody. Because if you remember, Stanford dominated Notre Dame the three previous years. And you just, you need that kind of win 2018 beating Michigan in the opener. Once they beat that team, that team was just like, we're not losing anybody. Like, this is it. And I feel like this game can have that mentally and emotionally for this learning football team, where you go on the road, you beat that perceived team because you and I could spend all day talking about, well, they're not this or not that. But in the eyes of the Notre Dame players, this is Texas A&M and this is SEC football. We're going to go down there and we're going to show what we are. And if you can get that win, now of a sudden you're like, bring on anybody at this point in time. And that's another big point of what's at stake in this game Trevor. Or you lose the game and now you're, are we really as good as we thought we were? Or are we really that kind of team? That's human nature. And that's another big part of this football game. A lot of times players will evaluate themselves the same ways that we do. So much like us sitting back and talking about how we're ready to watch them play, we're done with the speculation, we're ready. Marcus Freeman said yesterday that he feels like you spend 300 days preparing for 12 guaranteed opportunities going out to a place like Texas A&M down in college station. You almost get the, the affirmative that you need as a player when you know you've been told all off season, all spring, all winter, all summer, leading into fall camp, you guys are good enough to compete with these guys. You guys are good enough to beat these guys, any team in the country. And sometimes for players, I think you need to see it happen. And I think that's where that they're at right now. There's another storyline to this too. And part of the interesting following this game from an, and I'm not even talking nationally, some of the most anti dismissive of Notre Dame's chances I've seen are coming from Notre Dame fans. And part of it from that crowd is how good Mike Oco is. And I agree, like Mike Oco is a heck of a coach. There is a natural assumption that he's a heck of a football coach, where he went 16 and nine the last two years at Duke, which in context, that's a team that went 10 and 25 the three years before he arrived. Marcus Freeman does not get that same benefit of the doubt for going 19 and seven his first two years because the expectation is we're supposed to do it at Notre Dame, where you're not supposed to do it at Duke. So I think there's another aspect to this game as well for Notre Dame. And that is Marcus Freeman. This is a statement game for Marcus Freeman. And let's be honest, there's a contingent of Notre Dame fans that at one point in time wanted Mike Oco to be the next head football coach at Notre Dame when Brian Kelly's 10 years over. Now that was before Marcus Freeman arrived, but there was that. And so it's like, well, you're in year three. He's in year one. He almost beat you last year with Duke players, which I think some people are not giving Duke enough credit for the NFL town they did have last year. Notre Dame's not the only team in that game that had a first round draft pick on that team. Now, Graham Barton did not play against Notre Dame. I'm talking about just the overall town that they had several NFL players in their defense as well. But you don't have Notre Dame's talent. That's a fact. And do you have Texas A&M's talent? No, you don't. So you had that game and you barely beat them last year. So now he's got better players. There's this fear of, okay, now what's he going to do? All fair things. And I'm not even pushing back on that narrative at all because I get it. What I'll say, however, is that then leads to the even greater importance for Notre Dame to win this game for Marcus Freeman. You're in game one of your third year, Mike Oco some game one of his first year. If he shows that his program is already better than yours and day one, that could be a huge perception below to Marcus Freeman's coaching staff as well. So that's another one of those, boy, this is one of those statement opportunities. It's not just Notre Dame as a team, but even more specifically, this is an opportunity to Marcus Freeman to say, hey, listen, Mike Oco is a great coach. And I'll give you guys a little secret. Mike Marcus Freeman has a tremendous amount of respect for Mike Oco and vice versa, tremendous amount of respect for each other. So this isn't a Marcus Freeman is trying to show he's better than Mike Oco. I'm talking about the perception, the reaction to it will be one of those games that finally says, okay, that's the kind of statement when Marcus Freeman needs against another well-known coach that says he's on his way. And I think those are important parts of it as well, Trevor. It's again, we're talking about the perception. There's going to be a perception of Marcus Freeman that is adjusted in this game either positively, because he got that win. He's now two and all against Alco or a negative one where, yeah, once Alco gets kind of the same type of players you have, you can't get it done. Absolutely. This game can change the narrative and the perspective internally and externally, the way that I like to say it. I am as critical of Notre Dame as anybody being an avid fan of the team and I am all for that. One thing that I try to do is remain as unbiased as possible when I'm breaking down a team and looking at the matchups. It's easy for us to kind of brush some Notre Dame players to the side because we're familiar with them. We know them. We hear their name every day. You know, if a lot of people are like me, they know the roster front and back. And what I try to do sometimes is when I'm looking at a matchup, I put myself in the shoes of an and opposing coach and think of, well, who does my team have to go up against? And I think sometimes a lot of Notre Dame fans can get caught up in the, well, I'm familiar with this guy. We know about him, but look at who the other team has. When, if you take a step back and look at everything from a 10,000 foot view, the other opposing coaching staff, I'm sure they had film room Mondays, like a lot of programs out there, they're looking and thinking to themselves, I mean, how do we go against this guy? How do we stop this guy? How do we look at this guy? How do we stop Jeremiah Love? How do we stop Mitchell Evans? How do we pass against Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts? So in that, I think that if Marcus Roon can come out and not only get a win, but have a statement win, that's going to propel a lot of things forward internally and externally. Hey, Irish breakdown listeners, it's Urban Meyer. This fall, the game changes. Join me, Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week. We will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines. Let us guide you through a new era of college football. Watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile unlimited premium wireless. Have it to get 30, 30, 30, 30, but get 20, 20, 20, 20, 50, get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. So give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees extra speeds lower above 40 gigabytes detail. There's obviously another part to this, this true to Trevor, which is there's, there's more micro things at stake here for both teams for noted for Texas A&M. This is the kind of win. If you can get this type of non-conference win, a 10 and two regular season may be enough to vault you into the college football playoff. And when you look at Texas A&M's record, excuse me, when you look at Texas A&M schedule, I think if they can beat Notre Dame, they have a shot to be a 10 and two football team. You look at the rest of their slate, they've got Florida coming up in two weeks. I have to think if they're good enough to beat Notre Dame, they'll beat Florida in two weeks. You have Arkansas on a neutral field. That's a rivalry game. You get Missouri at home. You have your at Mississippi State, you get LSU at home, you're at South Carolina, home against New Mexico State at Auburn, home against Texas. There is, there is absolutely nine, at least nine wins in that slate if you also get a win in the opener against Notre Dame. And 10 and two with a win over Notre Dame might sneak Texas A&M into the back of the college football playoffs, which would be huge for, for Mike Elko in his first season at Texas A&M. And for Notre Dame, the same thing is true. You don't have a lot of marquee win opportunities in this game. If you're Notre Dame, you don't. But what you, but this is one, this is one of those marquee games where you can make a statement win, even if A&M doesn't play quite as well, the perception of what this game means will still be in a lot of people's minds about how this game turns out. Because like, there's a lot of people that, that would say, well, Brian Kelly never won, you know, a game like this. And I'm like, well, he did beat a number three Michigan state team in 2013. Well, no, he didn't. They were unranked. Because the perception is a lot of times built on where a team was when you played. And Michigan State 2013 was unranked when they're in a beat them. Well, that's the only loss they had all year and they finished number three in the polls. They were the number, they were more of the that team than they were an unranked team, because rankings early in the season don't really tell you a whole lot about a football team. But the perception is still there. And that's one of those things where this is, this can be a statement win for Notre Dame as they look to build a resume. Look, if they're 12 and no, they're in and they're a five or six seat at worst. You know, I don't see them fall below a six seat. And we had a question the other day in the mailbag, like, you know, is there a scenario where the loser of the big 10 or SEC, both of them are undefeated and they end up, that could happen. It's highly unlikely this year because of how many of those top teams play each other. It's going to be almost impossible for or there to be two undefeated big 10 teams playing the championship game and two undefeated SEC teams playing the championship game because they all play each other. To some degree, there's just so much, you know, a mixing of the schedule. So you're at worst a six seat if you're undefeated and 11 and one season team season to me still definitely gets Notre Dame in. I don't think there's any doubt that 11 and one name is in. But the seating could be a little bit shaker. You could fall down to an eight and then host to play a seven or eight host a playoff game. And now you've got to play one of the big boys in the quarters, you know, how state or, you know, the big 10 or the SEC champ or even worse, you fall down to nine or below. And now you've got to go on the road in the first playoff game. So, you know, a game like this, a statement win like this is going to boost your profile and it's going to boost your resume when you look into getting into the playoff number one and then seeding into the playoff when that time comes as well. I think that's how a lot of teams are looking at it. With the playoff expansion, when it was just four teams, name of the game was just make it, right? I think now for a lot of teams that are in the same realm that Notre Dame is similar teams that have, you know, a recent history call it over the last five, six years. I'm talking the Notre Dame's of the world, the Penn States of the world. Not only are they fighting for just to make it, they're fighting for home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs based on how the bracket breaks down. There's a coveted spot for that fit seed because things kind of just start to work out in your favor throughout the playoffs, you know. But I do think that with Notre Dame and the level of experience that they have coming back with this game, like I said before, it's a step in the right direction. But I don't think the narrative for them internally as a team is let's just hope we make the top 12 guys. It is we are gunning for five, six, seven at the worst. And this is the first opportunity that we have to do that because to your point, Brian, they have very limited opportunities to do so because we aren't in the big 10 that now has 18 teams in it. You know, we do not have the luxury of playing Ohio State, Oregon, Washington Penn State in the same season. So we have to make deal with the opportunities that we have. The final piece to this is recruiting. This is a huge recruiting opportunity for both teams. When you talk about what's at stake, because what are we talking about? What's at stake in this game for both teams? Huge recruiting opportunity for both teams. I've read that A&M's going to have over 100 recruits on campus at this game. And it's going to be some big boys. Well, guess what Notre Dame's trying to recruit the state of Texas a lot more. And I promise you, a lot of kids and Notre Dame is trying to recruit are going to be on campus this Saturday watching this game get played. This is a huge statement opportunity for both teams on the recruiting trail. A&M to say, Hey guys, we're here already. There's no rebuild. There's no, it's we're here. Look what we just did to Notre Dame and they're going to ride that wave for Notre Dame. It's Hey, Texas boys, look what we just came down and did. This is why you got to be a part of it. And if they're going to win, there's going to be some Texas kids making an impact in this game. When you look at like Jadarion Price and Jaden, Jaden Greathouse and players like that, there's going to be a Texas flavor in this game. You're going to be able to point it at the too deep and say, Hey, look, look, look how many guys from Texas we already have in the too deep and we just kind of really started recruiting that that state. And so those are all parts of it too. I'm actually pulling up Notre Dame's depth chart right now. You have Jaden, you have Jadarion Price, who's from Texas, Kijun Young from Texas, Jaden Greathouse is from Texas. On the offensive side of the ball, you've got Leonard Moore's from Texas on the defensive side of the ball. He's already in the too deep. So you've made an impact in that state in the last couple years. And now they're going to say, Hey, look, this is why look what you can do. Come be a part of what we're trying to do here. And so from a recruiting standpoint, Trevor, this is a huge opportunity for both teams. It really is. And I would say especially for Notre Dame, because for A&M, like, I honestly feel this and I know that A&M fans will not agree with this at all. But this is what I believe. A hard fought four quarter last minute loss to Notre Dame is a moral victory that A&M can use on the recruiting tray. Look, we battled Notre Dame there in year three, their top 10 team. We're just not there yet. That's why we need you. Notre Dame can also use that kind of win. But if note, the real statement, like Notre Dame can only benefit from this in a recruiting standpoint, if they win. A&M just needs a competitive game where they look like they're almost there. Notre Dame needs a win. You lose this game. It's a big, it's a big black guy on the recruiting trail, in my opinion, especially in the state of Texas. You win this game and it could continue to open up the doors that the staff has already opened up. That's another part of this that I think is very important and very important to look at. When you look at it from Notre Dame, really trying to make a splash in recruiting the state of Texas. There's more of a narrative you can spin if you're Texas A&M. If you lose this game to the seventh ranked team in the country, you can say, "Hey, look, this is why we need you. This is where you would fit in. This is what you can come be a part of." Because regardless of the outcome of the game for Texas A&M, you can sit there and say, "Look who's here?" From 9 a.m. to noon. College game day was parked right outside. Night environment sold out crowd. This could be you. And for Notre Dame, the narrative is more of a win is good. I agree, obviously, win is great. But if you eke out that 13 to 10 win, it's going to be a little bit harder to sell against Texas A&M saying, "Hey, you're the person that we need to put us over the top versus Notre Dame saying, "See, we won. Come play for us." I think more of a statement win will come and say, "Hey, listen, I know what the narrative is down south here in SEC country. I understand that this is where all the top recruits want to go to play SEC ball and play down in Texas. We're building something special up north, and you could contribute to the next national championship that we're bringing in." You know? It is kind of funny sometimes when I look at narratives about Notre Dame from Notre Dame fans. It's almost kind of makes me a little sad to be completely honest with you to see sort of the some of the discussion about who Notre Dame is. And the first one, the most recent, I'm kind of laughing at it, somebody said, "One of the odds in the name goes three down in the first series. Y'all know we love to do that." And I'm like, you do realize Notre Dame is scored in their first drive in each of the last three openers. They scored in two of them were touchdowns. They scored a touchdown against Navy last year. Field goal against Ohio State two years ago. Touchdown against Duke, Florida State in 2021. They did not score against Duke in 2020, and that was pre Mike Oco by the way. But I'm pretty sure, and then I'm pretty sure in 2019, they also scored a touchdown on their opening drive. If I remember correctly, I thought Jafar Armstrong actually rushed it in. Jameer Smith rushed it in. So Notre Dame also scored a touchdown on their opening drive in 2019. They scored a touchdown on their opening drive in 2018. They scored a touchdown on their opening drive in 2017, and they scored a touchdown on their opening drive in 2016. I mean, so guys, no, that's not what normally Notre Dame does, right? But we've created that narrative of negativity that it's just guys. Come on, right? Come on. But again, that's the perception because if I could tell how many times I've seen from Notre Dame fans in this chat, this very chat about how Notre Dame doesn't win games like this, I want to pull my hair out. I'm like, you know, me, you know, me 10 win seasons Texas A&M has had in the last 20 years, do you know, it's a little trivia question for you know how many they've had in the last 20 years, how many 10 win seasons Texas A&M has had in the last 20 years? Six, one, one with Johnny Manziel. I was surprised by that to Trevor. I would have guessed like five or six as well, one. But yet this is the type of team that Notre Dame doesn't normally beat. Yes, this is exactly the type of team Notre Dame normally doesn't beat. But the reason they're considered different from a team like North Carolina, who was a nine-win team two years ago playing the ACC title game, an NC State team that won nine games last year and was ranked in the top 25 half the season. And I believe it's ranked almost right where A&M is going into this season. It's simple. ACC, SEC. That's it. That's it. But that's part of the narrative. I mean, and that's a factual narrative. Even Notre Dame fans are falling for that. So if you lose this game, it feeds that narrative big time. It feeds it. See, they can't play with that league. But if you win this game, at least put somewhat of a knock into that narrative, which I don't think is like, if you look at Notre Dame's record against the SEC and you take out Georgia and Bama, they've pretty much kind of whooped the SEC in the last 10, 15 years. I mean, they beat LSU twice. Like they beat Vanderbilt. Okay. Whoopdy do. They haven't played, they beat South Carolina in a bowl game two years ago. Like they've actually done pretty well against the SEC outside of those top two. Well, guess who else is struggling with famine Georgia? Everyone, except Clemson, right? I mean, that's like the only team that's done that. But again, that feeds the narrative. And if you want to end the narrative, start winning games that people perceive. It's a perception thing. I believe A&M is on the same level as NC State, North Carolina. Now that's going to be gone soon. It's not going to take my coco very long at all to pass teams like that. It's not. But the perception is that they're above those teams. And so when you go on the road and beat NC State by 21, it's like, yeah, okay. Of course you did. It's NC State. You do that to Texas A&M, who I think is a comp or program, completely different narrative. And that just adds to what's at stake here. And in it's both ways. If you win, it sends them a message. If you lose, it's here we go again. Same old, same old Notre Dame. And so when you talk about what's at stake, there's, there's as much perception that I would, I'll say this, Trevor, you tell me if you disagree. And by the way, you're allowed to disagree with me. I think there's even more at stake perception wise for Notre Dame than there is practically speaking from a resume standpoint. Here's what I mean by that. If Notre Dame loses this game and runs the table, they're in the control playoff. Their resume is going to be fine. But they will not recover from the perception hit because there's nobody else left on the schedule and including Florida State, who their name is beat what three times in a row, just lost to Georgia Tech, that perception is out the window. You beat USC at the end of the year. So what? They will have had a couple losses. You've beaten USC X amount of times. This is the only win on the schedule, in my opinion, or the only game on the schedule that changes the narrative about Notre Dame. Even more so than what it could do for your resume will be fine if you run the table. Resume will be fine. The perception hit will not recover until you have to get in the, you're gonna have to win some postseason games against teams from this league or the big boys in the Big Ten, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, Penn State, for you to be able to recover from the perception hit. I think that, I think that, that is absolutely on the table for Notre Dame, because I mean, you tell me what's the game that Notre Dame could win the rest of the table that changes the perception that they don't win games like this? None outside of this one. I am, and I know I'm at the Liberty to disagree with you. I won't on this topic, because I'm pretty, I'm pretty aligned with you here, man. And the reason why I say that, there will be some maybe perception internal, like, you know, we play Louisville, you know, it'll be nice to beat them. But national media is not going to look at that and say, hey, guys, it's Notre Dame programs legit. They just beat Jeff Brom and Louisville. With you with Florida State, the perception of them, unfortunately, has already changed. After week one, you and I have talked about before, despite the fact that we think that Georgia Tech is going to be a pretty darn good football team this year, when you're unranked, and you beat the number 10 team in the country, unfortunately, for Florida State, you're just going to get looked at under a different light for the rest of the year, regardless of what you do. Even if, and I don't think that this will happen, even if they come into South Bend and beat Notre Dame on November 9th, the thing that's going to be lingering over their head is, yeah, but you remember what happened in Ireland in week zero. So I do agree with you. I look at this game the same way that I look at the same way that I look at the LSU Texas game from 2019. It's kind of a deep cut, and no, I'm not comparing this Notre Dame team to that Joe Burrow LSU team. But if you remember, early in the season, LSU played Texas at Texas, and it was a top 10 matchup. I think Texas was ranked 9th. I think LSU was ranked 6th, and that was the game that they were like, okay, LSU's who to play. They are legitimate. They might win it all this year because they look great doing it, and they ended the year Texas did going 8-5. They were 5-4 in their conference in the big 12. So to your point, I think that this game will do significantly more for Notre Dame from a perceptual standpoint than it will applicably because if Notre Dame runs the table and wins 11 straight, including a probable ranked win over Florida State, assuming that they can keep their head above water up until November 9th and beat in USC and beat Louisville. Who knows what's going to happen with Georgia Tech down the road? I think that it would damage Notre Dame's perception more if they lost this game opposed to how it would happen applicably. I want to answer a question that's being raised in the chat here real quick, Trevor, but this mantra about Notre Dame always going three and out to start games again is just very easy to disprove. Notre Dame scored first on I believe eight games last year scored in their opening drive. They went three and out twice. One of them was a three and out fumble. It wasn't even a punt. They went three and out punt once last year once. I had some turnovers, you know, but but this again, this is the narrative that gets created amongst again Notre Dame. This isn't even a Texas A&M fan jumping into the chat. This is a Notre Dame fan that's jumping into it and in making an emotional argument that has zero basis. In fact, why? Because it's the perception of Notre Dame. And that's why games like this are so important, Trevor, is you've got to change the narrative. You want to change the narrative, go down there and win this football game. I don't care if they go three and out in the first series or not is win the football game. That's all I care about. And that's what's at stake. It's at stake perception wise, recruiting wise, then of course resume wise. That's what that's what Notre Dame has at stake for this game. And and we'll get into part two here in a second. We're going to talk a little bit about recruiting because again, it's a perception thing that I think is very interesting Trevor that sometimes I can even fall for some of those things and some of those narratives. But when you study the rosters, it tells you a little bit of a different story. So we'll dive into that next. But before we do folks hit that like button, hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, share this podcast, give us a five-star review. If you've not done so, sign up for the message board at boards@arshbaketown.com. You're definitely going to want to check that out. We're going to have some some fun stuff coming up here over the next couple weeks as we get into some breakdowns and some different aspects of it. So check that out boards@arshbaketown.com. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] At King Super's pharmacy, care is making it easy to get vaccinated. Care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID, and RSV. Seasonal vaccines are available seven days a week with evening hours. Care is giving you a shot at staying healthy this season. Walk in whenever is best and get multiple vaccines in one visit at your local King Super's pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King Super's, a world of care, is in store. Visit kingsoopers.com/vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply I see site for details.
