Irish Breakdown has comments from Irish head coach Marcus Freeman on his team's prep this week for Northern Illinois, an update on the health progress of tight end Mitchell Evans, defensive end Jordan Botelho and more.
Shop for Irish Breakdown gear at our online store: https://ibstore.irishbreakdown.com/
Join the Irish Breakdown premium message board: https://boards.irishbreakdown.com
Stay locked into Irish Breakdown for all the latest news and analysis about Notre Dame: https://www.irishbreakdown.com
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/irish-breakdown/id1485286986
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irishbreakdown
Sign up for the FREE Irish Breakdown daily newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/irish-breakdown-newsletter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What's new from Apple? There's the new iPhone 16 Pro, built for Apple Intelligence. And it comes with the all-new camera control, giving you an easier way to quickly access your camera tools. The new Apple Watch Series X has our biggest display in our thinnest design ever. And this? It's the sound of active noise cancellation, now available on one of two new AirPods 4 models. So quiet. Check out all of the new products and new features at Apple.com. You can even buy yourself something new. See Apple.com for product availability updates, Apple Intelligence coming this fall. How are we doing? I've been Asians Sports Talk, up rolling on a Thursday afternoon, along with Jesse Steyer. So I'm Sean Steyer's driving the ship, getting us a little bit closer to Northern Illinois on Saturday, the home opener for the Fighting Air. It's just, I was saying yesterday to Vince, I can't believe now it's late in week two. Yesterday was the middle of week two of the season. It took forever just to get to week one, and now we're almost to the second game already. This week is just flown by, I think. Maybe not for you since you've been car shopping and doing other crazy things. Yeah, it has been. First of all, I had Monday off, so like that always had a day off. I didn't. Yeah. And so, but after that, I've been dealing with insurance, test driving cars, car dealerships, negotiations, all that good stuff. I would say the only positive out of all of that is I've been in and out of work. So it's like I just, I haven't had to work physically as much this week because they understand that I'm going through, you know, the whole car business. So I can't complain, but I do agree with you back to the root of the question. Game week always comes really quick. Like when Saturday happens, I feel like by the time you get to Tuesday, you've kind of come down the roller coaster of the, of the wind, and you're like, oh, wait, these guys are now preparing for Northern Illinois this week, right? So I like the cycle that we are getting into, especially with the NFL football starting this evening, we just get into a nice cycle of football, football football, and it seems like game week comes quicker and quicker and quicker. I don't doubt that. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's what happens. The season gets rolling and we get on the hamster wheel. Rabbitnell Chihuahua says, built in Cowboys Notre Dame link. He actually went to, he said, we played the school, Tony Romo graduated from, he went to Eastern Illinois, not Northern Illinois. They actually have a big, remember when we went to Eastern Illinois? I did a baseball camp there. They had a Sean Payton went to the same school and on the outside of the basketball arena, two, I guess the football field, they had this, these huge, Romo and Sean Payton jerseys painted up on the, on the wall outside of, of the building there. Browns Cowboys do kick off their seasons on Sunday. And after I take in Notre Dame, Northern Illinois on Sunday, Jesse and I will be there in Cleveland for the Cowboys Browns game. So a busy football weekend for us coming up this weekend. Looking forward to it though. Yeah. And like I was telling you before the show, the, the temperatures are going to be optimal this weekend in Cleveland. It's going to be like 65 degrees, 430 kick. Um, and it sounds like there's a couple of, you know, Browns fans in the chat. If anyone wants to stop by, I'm sure we'll be, you know, kind of downtown hanging out before the game in our Cowboys gear. Yeah. I have no idea. Are we taking the train down there? Is that, is that what we're taking the train home? But down to like kind of like the tailgate area, we'll probably just take an Uber or just maybe have someone drop us, drop us off. We got to talk about the logistics of that too, after the show, there's a lot of logistics going on here. Yeah. I have no idea. Like you're, you're handling all the, you're my UPS. You're handling logistics this weekend, you're just showing up and going along for the red. Pretty much. Pretty much. Unfortunately, it's a 430 kickoff. So it gives us a little bit of time on Sunday to recuperate and whatever else after a busy day of Notre Dame football Saturday at Notre Dame speak stadium speaking of which we're going to get into some, well, we've got some comments from Marcus Freeman from his zoom today. Of course, again, you know, like the zoom is never like streamed live to the public and any of that different kind of stuff. So we've got some comments from Marcus Freeman from the zoom this afternoon, then we've got some we in, we out questions from subscribers and then we've got rapid fire. So we've got a lot of great Notre Dame content coming your way. So hit that like button as you come into the show tonight on YouTube. And of course, if you're listening on your good old podcast platform, just subscribe. That's the best I could tell you subscribe. But just listen to the podcast, subscribe to it and of course, rate us and review us as well. So the opponent this weekend is Northern Illinois and there is I said in my press conference on Monday, listen, they are going to be a confident group that has history of being really competitive and beating power for schools. And so we're looking forward to a team to come in here and be confident, be ready to roll. They offensively, they do so many different things that are going to present a great challenge to our defense in terms of personnel and motions and all the different things that they've done offensively. It's really been a challenge for our defense to prepare for and defensively, they have been last year, I think it was number one, past defense and maybe the group of five and top five or six and all FBS defenses and so they do some really good things. Third down, they are exotic on their defense and so our team understands the challenge and is really putting the work in terms of the physical preparation. We have to continue to now make sure our bodies get healed up and we don't stop them with the mental preparation of what this opponent really, the challenges it will bring. So looking forward to it, a great opportunity versus a really good football team and our first chance to be in Notre Dame stadium with a great, great atmosphere. I think the defense is what intrigues me. I guess the most, he talked about they have a history against power, you know, now power four schools previously, power five. They've got 18 wins over current power four teams, Boston College to open up last year. Of course, Boston College has a new head coach. I guess what intrigues me the most is what he was talking about with the past defense. They were number six in the nation allowed a little over 170 passing yards per game. Not great against the rush though. They ranked number 62 and that's kind of like it seems, especially with these directional schools like this, a Mac level school, Jesse, you know, I don't know. Number six nationally is nothing to sneeze at, but obviously the bulk of what they did last year was against teams of the same level of competition. What do you think? Yeah. I'm going to take that with a grain of salt because they're not playing what I would consider, you know, top-end opponents. But I do appreciate Marcus Freeman's mentality because you don't want, you have to still treat it like they have, you know, that, that sort of career team for that. Yeah. Right. And I like the way he's speaking about it. I like the way he's approaching as a head coach because the last thing that we want is a letdown after, you know, the great performance that we saw against Texas A&M. So what do you do? You get your guys mentally engaged and you kind of pump into them that rhetoric that he just said, you know, when he answered that question and just kind of remind them, like, you know, this team is still very solid, even though they're not a power for school, essentially. I mean, you got to do the Lou Holtz trick, right? You know, like, you got to, you got to, you got to build this opponent up, make them feel like, hey, it says Northern Illinois, but here's what they do really well. They're not going to be a pushover. And he talked about the exotic defense and stuff like that that they play on third down. And it, and I'm sure it will. I just have to think that what they saw last week against Mike Elko is probably prepared on that. And that was going to be, you know, something that stuck out to me was the exotic defense comment. But like we talked about, did a whole whiteboard on last week with that, that 505 alignment, the cold medium and hot pressures, depending on how many guys they want to bring and drop into, you know, zone coverage, essentially. I think you're going to see, you know, similar, if not, less kind of from, I can't imagine that Northern Illinois is bringing quite the heat that Texas A&M was bringing, right? So, and that's a good thing to me because I think you're now battle tested at the end of the day, right? You have the experience against what you would probably consider the best defensive line that you're going to go against this year. At the very least, maybe another good test for the offensive line/pass protection part of what Notre Dame does, you know, that kind of stuff. Still challenging, even though not the same level as Texas A&M, but its own kind of challenge basically. Yeah. And I think too, like another part that plays into this, if your Marcus Freeman is, this is still your home opener, right? Like, and you're coming off of that Texas A&M when your fans and following are now even more hyped up to see you because of what you did last week. And now you get to bring the show, I guess you could say, to your own home turf, right? So I think that is also something that Marcus Freeman is probably emphasizing this week is our fans deserve a good performance, right? You need to continue and build off of what you did last week. 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 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 $10 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 Tyreke 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 parm or if you're a real heat seeker try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. I dare you that's 7 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. I mean look interest is even higher this week than it was going into last week I think that there were probably a faction of fans who are kind of wait and see in terms of what they were going to do against Texas A&M and if they had lost to Texas A&M they weren't going to be nearly as engaged in this program but I mean just like when I look at just a basic metric the kind of interest our shows have had this week on the various platforms there have been a lot more people listening to what we're talking about and watching what we're talking about this week even compared to last week after that big win so hopefully you see some carryover from that going into Notre Dame stadium. What do we think should we make DK a coach out there? So DK says my speech if I was Freeman this is their Super Bowl they're going to give you their best it would be utterly disrespectful not to give them your best on the field if you can't your backup will. I feel like DK might have gone to a little chat GBT to concoct that speech I don't know. I did that recently my the new the new place I'm transferring over to they asked me to do like this bio about me and I always don't like those things because like what's sharing too much what's like what are they looking for and so I Naomi was like you should go to chat GPT and just like type in you know like in a couple things about you yeah and they put something together nice for me and I just hit copy paste and put it in my bio section and called it a day I like it I mean you know it's a bio what more do you need it's not like you're really cheating by doing that right they just you know I gave them my interest and they put it in a nice orderly fashion for me. Like I said he had a co-writer who used AI to write his self-evaluation I like it I mean you're going to get a glowing review there right right all right so I mean it is still you're you are still going from Texas A&M to Northern Illinois so how do you guard against the letdown you it's there's no lack of motivation because all you have to do is watch the game and evaluate the plays and we as a group see the work we have to put in we've got a lot of work to do you know as you look at the outcome of the Texas A&M game that's what you know that's what we want right obviously you want to win the game but when you evaluate you evaluate every play and there's a lot of different areas and plays specifically that we have to make sure we're improving that and that's as a unit on each side of all but that's also as individuals and so we pushed them we had really good Tuesday and Wednesday practice long physical tough you know I think sometimes they're getting back here at four in the morning and you know lack of sleep at times can have a trickle effect but we couldn't let up and we pushed them hard and I told the coaches we can't pull off the gas pedal and so they probably were wondering you know hey we're going to pull back because you know we had a big win they knew right away that we doubled down so it was two really good weeks of I mean two really good days of practice and now we have to fine tune some things before we get to Saturday. What you think about that pushing them hard I thought that was really like an interesting way you know to basically sort of keep them engaged keep them motivated just push them harder in practice I hadn't really thought about that as a motivational tool but like it did make me think back to my high school days of like probably the best coach that I ever had that was kind of his mentality it's like it's the day before the tournament you know like can we can we you know can we can we back off a little bit of the conditioning at the end of practice no we are not backing up the conditioning at the end of practice we are still going just as hard if it was early in the week or or whatever and it definitely keeps you engaged keeps you motivated kind of keeps you grinding a little bit what you think Jess. Yeah I like that because when you demand more out of your players all you have as a response is to answer the call right and so they're demanding more out of them and saying hey you know what we it's not enough to beat Texas A&M and coast we are going to demand more off of you because we need to continue to build and get better because it's not about again like like I was saying I think on Tuesday you have to drop the names and the faces of who you're playing and the goal has to be you know we need to get better every week if we want to end up at our ultimate goal right because you're not helping yourself. Yeah. Yeah you're not helping yourself if you don't get better this week because you know obviously Marcus Freeman isn't going to say it but the end goal is the playoffs right so you want to be at your best top tier top notch by the time the playoffs come and what do you do you have to continue to grow more every single week and so Marcus Freeman wants to to demand more out of them I you know I like that aspect and again when you as a head coach create that culture if we're going to demand more it doesn't allow the mindset to creep into the players mind that this game doesn't mean as much right because that's naturally what happens when you don't demand as much or you say hey oh it's Northern Illinois this week we don't get easy yeah that creates a natural mindset for the players and so I think I think overall what I got out of this is I love the evolution of Marcus Freeman as head coach because I don't think he approached these type of games the same way in year one or maybe year two maybe I'm wrong but I still feel like Marcus Freeman has grown as a head coach as well he's a more confident head coach in year three and I think that's led to his team to trust him more and buy in more and we saw that confidence when he was coming out of the tunnel right against Texas A&M and I think that's why the players responded so well because he is so confident in who he is as a head coach this season I mean he's had great self awareness all the way along and you know like we've said he's learned in the moment from his mistakes and he hasn't just he hasn't just said well it's early if we keep doing this it'll get better as time goes on and you know and just keep doing things the same way he's he's been willing to look in the mirror and look at the way they've done things week in week out and make changes as necessary as it's gone along and think you're absolutely right about that and USM 87 says Freeman is more the executive leader I would say he is he's he is definitely an overseer but at the same time interacting with everyone you know just like when when the questions about you know all the emotion and stuff last week come up the players this week have talked about how he's always engaged with them at practice like he comes up and we've watched it as it's happened at the beginning of practice he goes through the stretch lines and he's dapping up and talking to everybody on the entire team as he works his way through every line that's every practice it's not just once in a while and I would say that that is not saying Brian Kelly never talk to anybody but he does he doesn't definitely doesn't talk to people in the same way doesn't engage with them in the same way and like just in that very specific instance he never worked his way through the line and was talking to every single person on the team at the start of every practice. I mean to me Marcus Freeman treats his players like family like they are his sons his brothers you know that sort of situation Brian Kelly treated it like he like these guys are just business associates right like I'm talking to you because I have to talk to you like we're here at practice you know like you you do good for me I'll do good for you type situation right that he didn't actually buy into them as the player it was more transactional yeah right exactly yep exactly that's exactly what it was and there's there's just so much more engagement and buy in with the Marcus Freeman away I like this though from salty you should tell him that if they want to rest post a 30 point lead by half time it's like yeah I mean that you want to rest yeah big and we'll pull you out you know third and fourth quarter and let some of these you know backups get some more playing time yep the starters starters are in the backups the playing time for sure salty wants to know about your new job I mean it's basically the same as the current job it's just in a different place right yeah more money technically getting a you know like a promotion and title as well right now I'm considered a different responsibilities to it yeah senior staff engineer right now but I'll be going on to be a lead project engineer at this new company so I'll do I'm going to start getting into the more management of people kind of overseeing a group of entry level engineers kind of do more high level design work come in kind of when needed and stuff and still have an ultimate you know ultimately report to my project manager but he's kind of leaning on me to take care of more of like the day to day stuff so really looking forward to it coming soon all right on to a couple players are you know a handful a couple players and one of the position groups before we get to we in we out Mitchell Evans little bit of an update on Mitchell Evans 10 snaps he played last week and like what is the plan for Mitchell Evans now and going forward well I think you know I think Mitch played around 10 plays versus A&M and he's increased the practice really the amount of practice plays that he's been able to do and he's not a finished product yet he will continue to increase the volume that we're asking him to be able to do for us on Saturdays I expect to see a greater amount of plays in 10 but also again understanding that he is he's on a progression to truly becoming the best version of Mitch and so I'm really pleased with with where he's at now where he's progressed to but also we have to be smart in terms of what are expectations with a guy that missed a lot of fall camp without being able to do everything he practiced a fall camp but he wasn't able to do everything so I don't know how many plays will play he'll play he'll play a good amount but at the same point of view we have to continue to just be on a process to to increase his level every single week I do have to say Jess I am a little surprised like I don't think any of us were really aware that like we knew Evans wasn't at 100% but I don't think any of us knew coming out of camp that he was sort of this going to be this limited early on even if he is still 10 months removed from having the ACL surgery I mean it just feels like take it easy as possible for for the you know at least for for the short term right now what do you think yeah I like the more cautious approach considering his you know injury background right and I think when you look at their overall plan and what's left like Northern Illinois Purdue Miami of Ohio I like that idea of easing him or you know progressing him into the season that way because then you kind of open up you know into the Louisville Georgia Tech like some of your again tougher opponents right and so I think this is a good period if you are going to transition and find kind of a progression plan this is the three opponents that I'd want him to do it against right and so I think that also had to be taken into consideration is you know let's let's take a step back and see ultimately who we're facing can we get by with a cocktail of you know Mitchell Evans Eli Reardon and Cooper Flynn again rather than saying we need to put you know Mitchell Evans out there for 75 80 percent of the snaps I think they can still get you know they can they can accomplish what they want by having a breakdown or an even split between those three guys and ultimately what that's going to do too is just strengthen the depth of those tight ends for those later games in the season so I think it's a great plan and I don't think it's something overly to be concerned with I think they're just trying to look long term and Mitchell Evans health and like what's going to be best for him right then it just I think we were talking earlier this week we were talking a little bit about Evans like back to Patrick Mahomes a few years back when he tried that quarterback Sneap and he injured his knee you know like that's like you don't need Mitchell Evans doing the heavy lifting the blocking and stuff like that if that's not 100 percent healthy right now and he's and he's still kind of working his way back through some of the soreness and I'm sure from his perspective you know sort of getting comfortable with with what exactly he can do with that thing and you do have the younger guys out there it is still a talented room and like DK says it's fine because it gives younger guys gives the younger guys the reps and speaking of which I'm really pleased with the tight ends group as a whole coach Denmark has done a great job with really developing some of those other guys as Cooper Flanagan and Eli Radins and they played really well right and what we were asked to do I'm obviously they have some mistakes as everybody does but I was really pleased with how they played on Saturday and pleased with their progression as football players like as in blocking and even in the past game but they're really owning the technique and the part of playing a tight end that includes blocking and I'm excited to see what they do on Saturday they didn't mention yet David Sherwood who's more a pure straight up blocking you know like a tech guy or whatever but you do have another body for that for that purpose if you need the extra blocking body well again I like the idea of stripping these guys down to their fundamentals and giving them the you know the time to kind of mature as a tight end because you know the NFL has spoiled a lot of guys you see Travis Kelsey you see you know Kincaid, Laporta you know mayor all these guys want to split out and be you know detached from from the line and basically be a bigger bodied little bit slower wide receiver out there but I like what Marcus Truman is saying in order in my opinion I think it's 50/50 you have to block as well as you catch the ball as a tight end so I really like the idea and that's what these guys need the most work on Rariden and Flanagan they can't just be guys that are going out there to catch passes especially when you're trying to run these power schemes with you know Riley Leonard you have great running backs like Jeremiah Love and Jadarion Price you need those tight ends to be able to block and also get up to the second level and seal off linebackers in space so I really think this is a good time for them to kind of like he was saying strip down get to the fundamentals of being a good blocking tight end I think that you know like DJ says the tight ends need to block better I think that how we evaluate really everybody across the board because of the drop in the level of competition that they're playing like everything should look better this week whether it's blocking you know off by the tight ends the offensive line the passing game you know all these different things everything should just look a few degrees better than what it looked against bigger and better athletes last week against Texas A&M and if it doesn't then I think we can have start to have a much more critical conversation about some of these things whatever deficiencies might pop pop up out of a game against a team like Northern Illinois agreed another good point by US MA says can you imagine when Louisville comes to down in Evans is a hundred percent because there's limited film of him in Denmark's offense and things get fun at that point yeah I mean hopefully he is a hundred percent at that point because then that just becomes another weapon you can deploy in a lot of different ways if he's healthy by that well I'm just curious because I I've said it and I think it's been confirmed and to some degree their name their names offense was tailored to what they were trying to accomplish at Texas A&M now you have right right you have Miami Purdue or sorry Northern Illinois Purdue and Miami of Ohio right I don't think Mike Dembrock still is going to really open up the playbook right there's still going to be a progression to when they get to the Louisville's the Georgia text the USC's the Florida state to the season I think you're going to see a natural progression into the playbook kind of opening up and then to kind of go back to what USMA was saying by the time we get to you know those kind of bigger power for type games I think that's when you'll truly see you know a playbook that's opened up because what what what use is there to you know put on film what what you're doing against Northern Illinois right I still think there's there's value to kind of keeping some secrets in the bag essentially exactly but Northern Illinois same same deal they beat up on Western Illinois last week so I'm sure that there's there's some things that they're going to try to throw at Notre Dame early on that that Notre Dame didn't get a chance to see last week but yeah you're exactly right like there's there's probably a pretty small percentage that we would expect to see these next three weeks before they play Louisville at the end of the month DJ wants to know how you politely tell the person you're him to shut up because he's listening type of you I think someone already made the comment about the wife headphones do make a nice option though if you got a you know decent pair of headphones that you don't have to worry about any of that kind of stuff there's nothing worse than the guy that constantly wants to or or gal that constantly wants to talk to you in the office when you got the headphones on it's like I have headphones on for a reason please leave me alone yeah that's Brian in the press box basically he puts the headphones on just to avoid some of that a DK wants to know if you're going to use whiteboard in your new work meetings so I've I think the biggest thing that I want to do since I'm going to be like kind of like I said stepping into that mentoring managing role is no fine ways to be relatable before we get into like the nitty gritty of like you know this is what we need to do in terms of work and so maybe a fun idea is you know take everyone to the conference room and say hey you're a football fan let me see you draw up who see you drop a little play here on the board for me and see what you got yeah a little challenge a little daily challenge DJ says he has earbuds in them oh man you need to get the the AirPods I think because they have like the noise cancellation you got to get the sign that says like on air do not disturb yeah at that point you might just need to always at a restaurant you might just need to you know like put on a cone of silence around your head or something like 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 podcast Spotify or wherever you get podcasts a king supers 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 supers pharmacy so come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you king supers a world of care is in store visit king supers dot com slash vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply seaside for details one final thought from Marcus Freeman on the continued development of Viper defensive and Jordan Batello good guy given ability has a lot of national talent what I've seen him be able to do in my four years here is turn talent into actual skill set and that that is because of preparation and the work he's put into it and I think obviously you're being in year three of coach golden system and understand exactly what is expected out of him and what's expected out of him in each defense that we call really it shows into the game and so yes Tyler he has great talent man he he is a talented football player but he talented skill or two different things and that's what you've seen you want to be able to do is develop his talent into true skill that is now becoming production for this defense I mean skill versus talent I still need to see it on a consistent basis we've seen it for one game albeit against a good opponent you think that he's actually caught all the way up to the skill or do you need to see more as well no I need to see more I'm a man of consistency not a lot of variability I don't want to see you detract from the mean right in terms of having good games but I agree that I think we're seeing a more focused and committed Jordan Botello someone who is you know committed to developing his skill his overall kind of tool set it's not it's not just raw talent anymore in a body that's kind of slightly out of shape like he is taking it seriously he is in like Marcus Freeman said year three of a defense that is you know sophisticated to a degree so I think all those things are boating well from and I think you know he had good examples in front of him throughout those three years of what it takes to be good right and so I think kind of finally maybe getting humbled a little bit once he got in the opportunity and realizing you know this is what I need to do to refine my skill and not just you know talent refining talent into skill has done him wonders but these are the type of games that are really going to show it because it's easy to get up for Texas A&M but right can you do the same and be locked in against the opponents like Northern Illinois Miami, Ohio etcetera yeah and I mean this kind of piggybacks get to DJ's question first like what percentage do you think he's improved I mean if I'm just going to last year again it's one game you know 10 15% if I'm going to this guy I think it's hard to put really an exact number on it if I'm going off two years ago I'd probably say 30 40% but again we're basing it on one game need to see some consistency to you know to really I think get the answer to that question and thanks for the super chat by the way I still like I'm just going to say relic or relic is that what it is yeah so thanks for the super chat he says I'm curious what's one aspect of the team slash program or a player you to disagree on to me this weekend is really important to see what they look like against lesser talent I definitely agree with that and that's kind of what we've been saying I think I mean I don't know what we necessarily disagree on I mean we haven't gone down the list and checked off the boxes like this is my take on this and you know do you agree you know I don't know like what started out what do you think about what he said yeah I to start I have to kind of echo what you're saying how they play against lesser talent is huge and it's been something that has you know slowed down or hindered Marcus Freeman early on in his coaching career but if he's you know overall matured as a player or sorry as a coach you would hope that in year three we no longer see those sort of issues right I had kind of like blended I think what when I've thought about it blended the first two years together in terms of how you know they did against teams of lesser competition but when you look back the struggles were really year one because then I went back and when you look at how the games played out last year I mean they pretty much dominated every team that they were supposed to dominate and then they lost to Louisville and Clemson you know and obviously they lost to Ohio State as well and so you know I think that skewed things a bit but they did take care and you know not just beat but beat handily all the other teams that they were supposed to beat last year so now you have to make sure that continues you can't just say well that's taken care of but again like the way they approach practice this week by turning up the heat and going intense on Tuesday and Wednesday and then kind of giving them Thursday and Friday to recover a little bit going into game weekend but the way they approach those things you know let's stay competitive we you know we've got to hit this hard for a couple days to make sure that we still have your attention and you're going to be focused on this opponent I think that that is a you know a really good thing to hear that that's the approach that they took this week yeah and to just kind of go to the first part of the question I don't really see player wise like when you look at the depth chart I don't look at it and say ah this guy should be you know maybe playing instead of this guy I think they've done a good job offensively and defensively of constructing that roster of you know guys who ultimately should be playing and I think the only position that you potentially question is the offensive line but to me that's out the window because they performed well against the Texas A&M team right and so in terms of the offensive line you just want to see continuous growth you know against against Northern Illinois I thought it was great that they ended up not giving it up any sacks I know it helps when you have Riley Leonard as your quarterback but still no sacks were given up there was no freebies no you know quick shots and it's not like Texas A&M wasn't bringing heat right like they're they were dialing up a lot of different blitzes so you know again I think that the I think that we get a lot more answers about this group this week if that's the case you know because of the unique game plan that they talked about if you're if you're approaching it where you're going to take some some shots downfield what it you know what does the pass protection look like when you're essentially act to ask to block twice as long as you were last week against Texas A&M like how does Anthony Knapp look out there and I you know and again like you got to remember Anthony Knapp to an extent that was a decision but it was also a decision that was forced on them because of the injury to jagasau so it's not like they went out of their way to start Anthony Knapp they were they were put in that position because the guy who was going to start was injured a weekend to camp yeah and I would I would say to I'd like some of the run run blocking to be cleaned up there was a couple times where it felt like you know some like Texas A&M guys were in the backfield and they were definitely you know some runs for loss at some point in the game right like the running backs had kind of nowhere to go we naturally that stuff's gonna be you know cleaned up but didn't you think that there were also times when the the running back could have hit a hole a little bit quicker and not move laterally in the backfield you know like they let some of that Texas A&M get to them because they were a little indecisive on where they were going to go just getting out of the backfield and through a hole I do it I do agree I think sometimes you just got to hit the hole hard and and not you know be so much worried about there being the perfect hole right like we saw that these guys can hit creases and that's really all that they need and I'll even kind of go a little bit further I thought there were a couple times when their name set up some really good screens on the perimeter and rather than kind of trusting the blocking and cutting inside they chose to kind of go towards the sideline and that's that's just never a no no because you're gonna run out of room at some point and again I think there were multiple screens where had they just kind of waited that split second and got inside rather than getting kind of you know horizontally and going to the sideline that it was a better decision yeah I don't know exactly what the conversation is some people someone claim that Texas A&M ended up with a sack and and someone else is saying no sack and then you know I don't know which one it is but I thought I thought there was no sacks given up I know there were definitely on the yeah I'm I'm still looking I just went and looked at the season stats because the game stats said that there were no sacks I'm looking at the season stats that Notre Dame has posted on its website and the only sack in the game was the sack that was credited to Howard Cross Texas A&M not credited with a sack according to Notre Dame's official season stats up on the website but I don't remember where there ever would have been like the only thing close was like Riley Leonard was like Leonard was tackled for a one yard loss but the one that I remember he was he was running for you know like he was close to the line of scrimmage you know obviously he was within a yard of the line of scrimmage because he lost only a yard but it was a run play I believe it was credited as a tackle for loss and not a sack but here's what it was. Thank you Paolo 27 I said the white word was so good he had to watch it twice from the other day much appreciated. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] This is an ad by BetterHelp. What are your self-care non-negotiables the things you know make you feel better even when it's impossible to make time for them like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids activities work and everything else you have going on and before you know it it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar but it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever those are the things that keep you strong healthy motivated and prepared to take on everything life demands of you so why not make therapy one of them better help online therapy makes it easy to get started with affordable phone video or live chat sessions you can do from anywhere and the option to message your therapist between sessions if anything comes up never skip therapy day with better help visit betterhelp.com today to get 10% off your first month that's BetterHelpHELP.com
