(upbeat music) - I'll be nation, welcome back to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. And y'all, it is Monday, August 26th in its game week. It's game week, it is finally here. This was such a weird summer. You know, it's kind of like the summer just took forever to go by initially. We had all types of stuff going on. And then we get into this last week, this last couple of weeks and it just flew by. And now we are here, it is game week. We are now five days away, really. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, five days away from Notre Dame, taking on Texas A&M and a season opener with a lot on the line. Gonna lay out this week's schedule for you guys. We're gonna go, we're gonna do a Monday mail bag this week. During the season, my expectation is, is that as we kind of get into normal game weeks beyond this, that we are going to do mail bags on Friday. But with my travel schedule this week, heading down to Texas, you know, flying down to cover the game, it's gonna be hard to do a full mail bag. I would have to cut it short. So I'm gonna do a different type of what to expect and what to look for type of show on Friday. So we're gonna move the mail bag to Monday. Tomorrow, Tuesday, we will do our Texas A&M preview. I'll be joined by Trevor Trobridge. We're gonna dive into Texas A&M and tell you guys everything you need to know about the Aggies and what's at stake in this game and, you know, what Notre Dame has to prove and all that good stuff about this game. Match ups to watch for. We'll do our stats breakdown, all that kind of fun stuff. Wednesday, I'm gonna do a midweek rundown. That's gonna be our normal Tuesday. We'll be the breakdown of the opponent. Wednesday will be sort of a midweek rundown with a bicell hold at the end of it. Thursday, we'll do predictions. So we're gonna do our keys to victory for Notre Dame and then also do predictions for the show, for the Notre Dame game. And then I will be joined every Tuesday, every Thursday by Bill Bender at Sporting News to go over sort of the big games of the weekend. And obviously this weekend, we'll talk Clemson, Georgia. We'll talk LSU, USC and some other games that are gonna get played this weekend. So we're gonna have some fun with that as well. Gonna be a really fun week. Obviously Friday, I'll do the sort of what to expect, what to look for type of show. Saturday, we'll have a post-game show. We'll go live about five to 10 minutes after the game is over. We'll go live, Vince will go live with the team. And then Saturday, Sunday night, we are not gonna do the upon further review this Sunday because of travel. I'm gonna be, we'll be doing, we're just gonna move it to Monday night. So Vince and I'll go live Monday night as we had mentioned last week. So I'm excited about it. Matt Lee asked a question. I'll kinda, it's an early mailbag answer 'cause we're not gonna get into that just yet, but this will be my first visit to college station. It'll be my first visit to Kyle Field. So I'm very much looking forward to that. I have never been. It's one of those places I've always wanted to go. And now I'm gonna get a chance to do that. So I'm very, very much looking forward to that. Gonna be a fun experience, fun environment. I am sure very much looking forward to seeing what this season, what this team is going to be all about. And I know you guys are too. We're gonna begin with just an overview of the depth chart and then I will dive into the Monday mailbag. You guys can ask whatever you guys want related to the Notre Dame, Texas A&M game, in their name team, recruiting questions, college football questions, anything college football related you guys want. This doesn't have to just be Notre Dame questions. I know there's a super chat in there about the Georgia Tech Florida State game. We can talk about that as well. Whatever you guys wanna talk about, it's a season kickoff mailbag. So we're gonna have some fun with that and gonna rock and roll. To begin, before we really dive into everything, we're gonna talk about the Notre Dame depth chart that was released today. And I'm going to give you guys my annual warning. Some of you will listen to me, some of you won't. The depth charts are informative, there's no doubt, there's value to be taken from them, but these are not gospels according to Notre Dame, okay? There's always things that are listed in the depth chart that ended up not being how things play out in games. Whether that be who starts or doesn't start, there's all types of things that go into it. They may list the current starting lineup at receiver, for example, as what it is, but what if Mike then Brock decides he wants to start off in the 12 personnel package, right? 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So those are different things that we're gonna, that we're gonna dive into here a little bit but I did think it was fascinating and honestly like to be straight with you guys, it was actually a little bit more forthcoming than I anticipated. So props to Notre Dame for that one. But when I went into the breakdown of this particular game, I was honestly anticipating them maybe playing a little bit of mind games with Texas A&M and putting veterans in starting spots that we think a younger guy might play. I thought that maybe they would still list Pat Coogan as the number one left guard and not give Texas A&M the satisfaction of knowing that you're gonna start a true freshman and a red shirt freshman on the left side of the line. I mean, teams do that stuff all the time but Notre Dame put their starting offensive line in there and I would imagine that a big part of the reason that they did that is because he knew he was gonna get asked a bunch of questions about it and you can't really, you don't wanna spend an entire show talking about something that you just know or an entire podcast, or podcast. Tire press conference talking about things that you know aren't gonna necessarily be, be true. So I was actually pleased by that but honestly I really was expecting some different things in there. I'm curious to see what happens at safety. They obviously have a Don Shuler listed as the starting boundary safety. Rod Hurd is the backup field safety. Rod Hurd is gonna play both spots. He's been playing boundary safety from what we've seen in the spring. The practices that we've been available to but we also haven't been to a show, I mean a show. We haven't been to a game in their practice in the last two weeks either. So obviously things can change from what we saw at the most recent practices. So there's all types of things. You know, there's other aspects of it that I look at. For example, you've got Carson Hobbs listed as the number two nickel back. My understanding is that if they have the number two nickel back, it won't be Carson Hobbs going in the game. They'll need to be Jay Nozberry. They'll use the Rover. It might be Rod Hurd. Actually, we have a super chat about that from Brandon Plenzner. I just saw that come up. If Hobbs truly the back of nickel, or do you think we'll see Hurd there, but we see Mickey Morrison and Gray on the field at the same time, you think, I don't know about that last part, Brandon. I don't know if we will see all three of those guys in the field together. For some reason, the Notre Dame staff has not felt great about putting Jay and Mickey in the slot. And I have to think there's a reason for it. Doesn't mean they haven't started cross training him the last two weeks. I don't know if they have or haven't. We haven't been at those practices. And honestly, this has been one of the most secretive, like not wanting to talk specifics that I've seen from Notre Dame in a very long time in these last couple of weeks. I will say this. This is a very confident coaching staff and a very confident program. Well, how exactly that shakes out? You know, we'll kind of see how that plays out, but it's a very, very confident group. And there's going to be some things that shake out. And as Coach Freeman said, I was really appreciated that he said this to begin. Told us players just, I think they sum like 39 different players started at times last year. So this depth chart is, may not even last to start the first game, but certainly won't be what we see throughout the season. But just a couple of observations that I saw from just going through the depth chart as I was putting it together. Light it. 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. Cool. All right. First of all, obviously quarterback running back. Pretty much what I expected to see. Thought we might see Cajun young listed in there. Not overly concerned that he's not. Receiver, they have Jordan Faison. Listen is the number one at the field safety position. We'll see if that sticks or not. Chris Mitchell's number two. You got Great House or Harrison at slot. Both calls or Jane Thomas at the other receiver. The reality is it really doesn't matter who starts. They're all going to play. We'll also probably see KK Smith. I'm surprised they didn't go three deep at some of those spots. Because, I mean, they're, again, they're going to play, they're going to play multiple guys at receiver. We're going to see a very deep depth chart there and Marcus Freeman, I think it was Marcus Freeman or it was Mike Denbrock. I forget which coach said it. I think it was coach Freeman that said they wanted to go seven, eight deep at receiver in games. Now, we'll see if they do that in the opener or not. We'll see. Listed three tight ends. They did list Rocco Spindler as the number two left guard. They listed Pat Coogan as the number two center, which I thought was interesting. And which tells me if the depth chart holds true, then you're going to see a situation where if Pendleton falters, it tells me that Rocco Spindler would be the next guy in at left guard and not Pat Coogan. If the depth chart holds up, now that may not practically be how it plays out, but that is kind of how I read that situation and seeing how that's going to play out a little bit. But Solvin Apsher is the backup right guard. Emile Gerbe Lambert is the backup right tackle. Couple notes that I noticed as I was going through the offensive depth chart. You look at, obviously, you got starting offensive line. I'm going to hold off talking about the offensive line 'cause I do know that there are some questions about it and I'll get to those as well. But there's three freshmen in the depth chart on offense. Two that are in the two deep. And that's obviously Anthony Nap starting at left tackle, Gerbe Lambert as the number two right tackle. And then you also have Aneas Williams as the number three running back. So there's three true freshmen. And then there's another, excuse me, two more red shirt freshmen in the two deep. You have, obviously, Sam Pendleton starting at left guard and then Solvin Apsher as the right guard. So you have a very young group of players. In the two deep, you have, say, one, two, three, three, four, five, six guys in the starting lineup listed with sophomore eligibility. Jeremiah Love, Jordan Faison, Jaden Greathouse are all true sophomores at the skill positions. You also have Ashton Craig, Billy Shrout, the Mia Wagner are all considered red shirt sophomores in that situation. Then of course you have a true freshman, Anthony Nap at left guard, your veterans, your seniors in the starting lineup. Obviously, Riley Leonard's out of eligibility, both Collins, Mitchell Evans are out of eligibility. That's it. I mean, you've got a very, very young depth chart. Even in backups, you got a sophomore, sophomore and then two freshman eligibility. Guys, a quarterback, you have a sophomore eligibility as your or running back. And then your freshman after that, you do have the veterans at receiver that we've talked about. It's a very young offense, very young offense. And it has me thinking kind of what we've talked about this summer, which is we're gonna find out if Marcus Freeman's recruiting and Chad Bowden's recruiting and this staff's recruiting is as good as we think it is and as we hope it is because they're starting a lot of Marcus Freeman guys in this lineup, a lot of Marcus Freeman guys. And what I mean, Marcus Freeman guys, one thing Marcus Freeman is coach Freeman is never done as a coach ever. He never did the whole Brian Kelly, my guys versus, you know, Charlie's guys. It's always been my team, my team, my team. That's not the, I'm not trying to separate the two. I'm simply saying there's a lot of the influence of his recruiting on this depth chart. And if his recruiting is good, then this is gonna be a fun year. If it's not, then they're just gonna be a team with good talent that's very young as opposed to a team that's very young with exceptional talent. So we're gonna find the answers to that. And then on defense as well, you know, I had an interesting bold prediction yesterday that Vince kind of was a little taken a back by. And my bold prediction was that Notre Dame had up to freshman all Americans. Well, then you look at the depth chart and you kind of see, you know, kind of why I think that may happen. You obviously have bright, you have five true freshmen in the, on the depth chart on defense. You have Bryce Young on the defensive line. You've got Kingston, Vilyama, Asa at middle linebacker is backing up Drake Bowen. You've got Carson Hobbs as the nickel. You have Kennedy earlacker is listed as the ore on the, as the backup boundary safety. And of course, you have Leonard Moore as the backup at the boundary corner position behind Benjamin Morrison. And then you have a couple of other sophomore eligibility guys in the starting lineup as well. You have Drake Bowen who's a true sophomore. Jaylin Sneads listed as the starting rover. He is a red shirt sophomore. You have a Don Schuler listed as starter. He's a red shirt freshman. Luke Talich is a true sophomore. He's the number two player at, at boundary safety. And then Christian Gray starting at field corner is a true sophomore. So again, very young football team, had a very talented football team. Saw Jayden Osbury listed up, listed as the backup will and the backup rover. And then as I mentioned, Christian Gray getting the start at the field position. And then finally kind of looking at the special teams. Obviously Mitch Jeter is listed as the place kicker and the kickoff specialist, I thought was interesting. I thought there was a shot that Zach Yocha might get that job back. Jayden Harrison is listed as the starting kick returner, but there's an orb with him and, with him, Jeremiah Love and Jadarion Price. There's an orb listed with Jordan Faison as the starting partner or Jayden Gray House. And they did a long snapper and a short snapper. So there's actually two snappers according to the depth chart this year. We'll see how that goes. The long snappers Andrew Cross and he is a red shirt freshman walk-on player was what considered one of the best snappers in his class in the 2023 class. And then Reno Monteforte is the listed as the starting short snapper. And then Andrew is his backup short snapper and then Reno is the backup long snapper. And then the starting holder is Chris Salerno. And I honestly thought that it was Tyler Buckner as the holder all camp. And I got that completely wrong. So it looks like it was Chris Salerno who also wears number 26. So that's my bad. I really thought that it was Tyler Buckner back there holding on. And we were talking about it as media people. We're talking about like, oh, Tyler Buckner holding. So it looks like I got that one wrong. I apologize. It looks like it's Chris Salerno that is the starting holder for Notre Dame who wears the same number as Tyler Buckner. So I do apologize for getting that wrong. So that's just a quick look at the Notre Dame depth chart. Not a ton of surprises on there. I did have Carson Hobbs listed as the number two nickel when I started writing it. So I'm not surprised he's listed there. But again, just 'cause you're listed as the number two doesn't mean that you're going to be the number two. So that's kind of where we're at. So again, I look at this roster and it just hammers home the idea that we're gonna find out real fast what kind of recruiter Marcus Freeman and Chad Bowdoin this staff are because this lineup in the one big difference between Brian Kelly and Marcus Freeman and this isn't a criticism of either coach. It's just an observation. Is that there's a much heavier brought into the program by Marcus Freeman on his lineup than there was for Brian Kelly and his lineup. Couple reasons why you had a lot of the wise guys that were playing as very young players for coach Kelly when he took over in 2010. A lot of freshmen, redshirt, freshmen, redshirt, sophomores. So a lot of those guys came back in 2012. And then the other reason is Brian Kelly didn't have the portal the way that Marcus Freeman does. And so when you're Brian Kelly, you have to fill spots with guys that are you're recruiting. You can't go out and get a transfer corner back because low wood got hurt in the spring. You've got to move Kavai Russell over there and play him where you look at Marcus Freeman, you've got Riley Leonard as your starting quarterback. If he's not the quarterback, who's the starter? You've got all these phase on great house boke. I mean, excuse me, Mitchell Harrison and Collins, a receiver that are that are portal guys that they weren't able to get. RJ opens a portal guy, obviously. So you have a lot of these Jordan Clark, Rod Heard. So that's going to naturally result in more of a funneling out of some of the players that you inherited that maybe don't fit what you're trying to do or don't have the talent that you're trying to do. And so again, this isn't a criticism of Brian Kelly. It's not a praise of Marcus Freeman. It's just an observation of how much times have changed because Brian Kelly could only rebuild that team through high school recruiting. Marcus Freeman has high school recruiting and the portal, which is going to lead to a, which has led. I don't know if it has to, but it has led to a little bit of a faster overhaul of the roster than what coach Kelly was able to experience without having the ability to go to the portal the way that they're able to now. So it's very fascinating to kind of look through that and evaluate that and see how it goes. So again, just going through, actually before we get started, I'm just going to go ahead and bring up the depth chart here real quick. So you guys can just, so those of you who haven't seen it can kind of get a glimpse of it here real quick. And we'll just, and then we'll go ahead and get started with our mailbag. So I'm just going to pull this up here real quick. This is over at irisbreakdown.com. So you're going to be able to see that, but you guys can see the depth chart. And it's going to be very interesting to see exactly who gets on the field. So there's the defensive depth chart, very veteran group there, six years, two six year seniors, two fifth year seniors in the starting lineup. And I find it very interesting. The dichotomy between, I've talked before this summer about the dichotomy between the really older players and then the really younger players. And I don't know that that's any more evident on the defensive line, where you have a six year senior at big end. You have a six year senior at nose. You have a fifth year senior at D tackle. You have a fifth year senior at Viper. And then the primary backups are a red shirt sophomore, a true freshman, a red shirt sophomore, a red shirt junior, a red shirt freshman, a red shirt freshman, excuse me, actually junior to Amaka should be listed as a red shirt sophomore. So it's a very young group. Same thing, a linebacker. You know, you have a sixth year senior and Jack Kaiser. And then your starters next to him are a true sophomore and a red shirt sophomore and your backups are a true freshman and a red shirt freshman. So it is very interesting to see kind of that dichotomy in old and young on this football team. A little bit more of a balance in the secondary because you have a couple juniors that are playing a lot and Morrison and Mickey. But you do see a very unique breakdown there between veteran players at Notre Dame and younger players. And that's why I get to that point about there's going, there's a lot of youth on this football team, but also a lot of experience. And I'm very curious to see how that blend of those two things goes together. So that's a little bit of a rundown of the depth chart. Next, we're going to dive into the mailbag. So get those questions ready. I've got 36 of them start so far. Go ahead and throw some more in there. You just put a mailbag emoji or MB on there. Either one, I'll try and see those. Obviously if you have super chats, I'll do my best to bring those to the top of the list and dive into those first, but we're going to get into mailbag 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. And as always, sign up for the message board at boards.org/spreckdown.com. I'm going to announce on there today a little bit about some of the things that we're going to have coming once we get the first game going. And it's also going to explain why we're not going to have a Monday show every week and why the Monday shows are going to be less prominent this year for the big show. We'll still have IBM Nation Sports Talk. They're going to go live Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. And then Friday night, we're going to post the countdown to kick off now, Friday night as opposed to Saturday morning. So that'll be published there. And then I'm going to have a couple of other things that I'll record and put out there in a week. Monday will be one of the days that we do something like that. And then I'll go live for sure every week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at one o'clock every week. So I'm going to have a lot going on, but there's some things that I'm going to be doing on the message board that are going to be detailed and require a lot of time to break these things down. And so we're going to move the Monday show, be more intermittent from now on. And so that's kind of where we're at with that. So I'll break it all down on the message board at boards@rspekdown.com for 99 a month or 40, 99, 49, 99 for a year. And somebody signed up for the blue club during the show. So I will get him or her. I haven't looked at who it is yet. A email saying, hey, you're in the blue club. So you get free I-B club mug. Just got to let me know where to send it. If you join the gold club, you get an I-B club mug and an I-B gold club t-shirt. It looks a lot like this, but it says gold club underneath it, which is pretty cool. So in only gold club members and only booster club members get that merch. I don't have it. Vince doesn't have it. Nobody has it except for you all that are part of that club. So you're going to want to definitely check that out. So yeah, that's what we got going on. So we'll dive into the mailbag next here at I-B us breakdown.com. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
