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Northern Illinois, as I do some other opponents, so we can get to the buy-so-holds. But I did want to dive into just some aspects of this matchup and what I want to see from Notre Dame. And when we do the game record segment, it's going to be a little different every week. Some weeks, it's going to be about in big games who needs to step up. Some weeks, it's more about who I want to step up. And for this one, I want to get into the guys that we need to see step up, that I want to see step up, I should say, that's more so about building for the season. And so we'll do a few on offense and then we'll do a few on defense of guys that I really think, A, like offense will be more so about who I want to see step up. Defense is actually going to be more about who needs to step up for Notre Dame to really thrive in this football game and have some success in this game. So when you start with the offense, it really comes down to, first and foremost, guys that I think will be game records. I have to talk about the running backs. I believe that these guys are going to come out and continue to just be really dynamic and be really good football players. So I expect the running backs to be game records in this game. I think one thing I'm curious if we'll see in this game, and this is what I wanted to get into is that we didn't see them used quite as much in the past game last week. We saw them, you know, catch some, you know, we obviously had the swing screen to Jeremiah Love early in the game. And then you saw the slip screen to the Gidarian price in the game, but there wasn't a ton of things in the past game, which makes sense when you consider just Notre Dame was not doing a whole lot, throw the ball down the field. You did have Jeremiah Love line up in the slot in the red zone and they threw a slot fade to him that was, I think it was very good ball. And so I think we'll see more of that in this game, or at least I hope we see more of that in this game, but I think these two kids are going to continue to be just just records of opposing defense this week after week after week. And I expect them to be part of that as well. The next two guys that are more, I want to see step up are our past game guys and guys that I want to see shine. 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 $10 into a thousand dollars. 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For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's at participating U.S. Wendy's. So Notre Dame goes out in a portal and they get Chris Mitchell out of the portal. The guy that had 60 for catches, 1,100 over 1,100 yards, six touchdowns last year. One on the road, it's Arkansas last year, six catches, 157 yards. And he comes out in the first game against Notre Dame and he catches one ball for 10 yards. And I know there's a few people that were kind of like, you know, where's the sky at? Well, let me just remind you guys of one thing. Last year in the first game of the season, Chris Mitchell had one catch for two yards. So he's actually ahead of schedule and he should have had two more catches if not for the quarterback missing. So I do think that Chris Mitchell obviously is going to be fine. But here's, here's, there's, they do need to get him going. And I think this is a perfect game to do that, to get Chris Mitchell going. You obviously know Jordan FaZe on this week. So I fully expect Chris Mitchell to start at Z. Maybe we see Jane Thomas at Z. If we see Jane Thomas at Z, that's going to be a little bit concerning for me. Cause it's going to tell me that they're going to come out. Just want to pound the football, which again, I it'll work. But I don't think that makes you a better football team necessarily. I want to see them say, Hey, look, you're going to, you guys, you're going to need the past game to be a lot better than it was on Saturday. You just are. And maybe you don't need it to go 12 and O, but when you get to the pope, maybe you don't need it to beat the 12 seed in the college football playoff. Maybe you don't even need it to beat a big 12 or an ACC team in the second round, the quarters. But when you get to the semis, you get to the championship level, you're going to have to throw the football a whole lot better than you did against Texas A&M. Cause yes, it was good enough to be Texas A&M, but guess what, folks, they're not Georgia. They're not Ohio state. They're not Texas. They're not Alabama. You're going to need to score more than 23 points to beat those teams. It was good enough to beat Texas A&M in the opener, but you're going to have to be better and building the past game is going to be very important. So Chris Mitchell being a game record in this game does two things for me. Number one, obviously it's, it gets a guy that you need to be a good football player for you going. You, you got both Collins rolling last week. Now you need to get Chris Mitchell going and get those two guys involved in the offense. And it also, he's, he's going to be your vertical guy. He's going to be your stretch the field guy. And so if you come out in this game and there are opportunities to throw the ball down the field, Chris Mitchell is able to make some plays down the field, then that's going to tell me that they're not just coming to run, you know, roll the ball out and just run the ball all day against an inferior opponent and get out of here with a bunch of rushing yards and a, and a blow out win where you actually didn't get better as a football team. And so I want to see them come out and get Chris Mitchell involved in this football game. No doubt about it. I think that's a very, very, very important piece to what Notre Dame is going to try to do this week in, when it comes to their, their offense. I just, I, you know, like my BK PTSD doesn't exist from the standpoint of losing it, winning and losing as much anymore. But in situations like this, I still have a little bit of it where, you know, is, is that really Marcus Freeman's mantra to when you play in games like this, we're just going to come out and run all over you. Are they going to come out, though, to football? Last year they came out through the football in some of these situations, but that was the same Hartman. Are they going to do that with Riley Leonard? And, and with Mike Denbrock, I don't know, we'll find out, but I hope we do. And I hope that Chris Mitchell is one of the beneficiaries of that. Getting him going, establishing that vertical threat is going to be so important when you play Purdue, when you play Louisville, because right now with the way Notre Dame played on Saturday, Purdue and Louisville are going to say, okay, let's stop the run and make them beat us though in the football. You've got to actually establish that against somebody, don't you think? So hopefully this is the game where they get that going. And then the other guy is Jaden Greathouse. He's another guy that I think has a chance to be a game record in the, on Saturday against Northern Illinois. And Jaden was clutch. And we have a bice a hold about this, so I won't get too much into it right now. But, but Jaden, Jaden Greathouse was very clutch against Texas A&M. You had the early first down conversion helped move the chains and get them going on that first drive. He's obviously had the third and five conversion at the end of the game, but he wasn't super productive in the game. You know, he didn't put out, you know, he didn't like the world on fire with numbers because nobody did. He had three catches for 26 yards. I thought he did his job well. I want to see him more involved in the past game this week. I want him to be a guy that no name comes out and says, hey, this is a game record. And, and, you know, we'll see if he's able to get that done. And honestly, it's not about him getting it done. It's about whether or not they have a game plan that allows them to be aggressive, thrown a football. They do. I think Jaden Greathouse is going to be another beneficiary of that. And this could be a little bit of a welcome to 2024 moment for Jaden Greathouse outside of a couple clutch plays, but more of just an overall game plan where it's like, okay, let's get this thing rolling. So I think we'll see that. I hope we'll see that. And I think Jaden Greathouse will be a guy that that'll get that going because no range going to need a more effective over the middle of the field past game. Jaden's got to play better too. One of the things that I was, you know, graded the receivers on minus is on is they didn't do enough. They were, their release moves were not great. A lot of just kind of standing in place and going, nothing to really threaten the leverage of the defensive backs. Jaden Greathouse had that multiple times where he would just kind of chop his feet and then just go outside on the slot fade. You know, like, I want to see you come off and just maybe stick that and sell that slant move and then burst outside just with a quick out in and then release back out just to get that little bit of separation on some of those slot fade concepts. I want to see Jaden compete for the football better than he did on the slot fade it through to him. But those are things that I think we can see from this team in this game and Jaden Greathouse is going to be it hopefully be a beneficiary of that. I'd like to see him get rolling and give Purdue something to think about, you know, give Louisville something to think about where you say, hey, look, you can't just load the box and try to stop our run game because like, look, A&M gave a blueprint to future teams. I promise you when the Louisville advanced scouts are looking at that game saying they did a great job crashing the edge to try to cut off the run game with their three technique of their hard edge and then bringing a guy in to run right at Riley Leonard and then scraping a line back or over to take away any potential if he pulls it, right? I mean, they had a game plan for it and that's why Notre Dame had very few very, very little success on the read zone because not only did Riley Leonard run that a ton, but Mike then Brock ran that a ton last year at LSU. One of the concepts that Notre Dame does that I love is that read zone where they pull it and get outside to the tight end. A&M was all over that, all over that. And so in order to have some success with that stuff, you've got to make teams pay for that. One of the ways to do that is with your throwing game, not just your RPO game, but your drop back game to say, look, if you're going to bring those guys down and aggressively try to attack the second level and first level of the defense, we've got some answers for you. And if you don't give those teams answers, then they're going to continue to do that and try to make life a lot harder for you when it comes to running a football. And so that's a reason why I need to see Chris Mitchell be more of a part of the game plan. I need to see Jake in Great House be more part of the game plan and to see that Notre Dame football team come out and be more aggressive. I understand why they weren't that way against A&M. I get it, but you have to go show it. And we can't as fans and analysts just assume that because we understand why they did it against Texas A&M, we can't just assume that they're going to just be that way, you know, all season and we can't assume that they're not going to be that way in every big game. We need to see this part, this part of the team improve. 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. At King Super's Pharmacy, Care is making it easy to get vaccinated. Care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID and RSV. Traditional 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 kingsuper's.com/vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply seaside for details. And then that leads me to the final piece of the game records. I want to see a lot better play from the tight ends. Yes, I know that we didn't see Chris Mitchell for Notre Dame on Saturday night. I get that or Mitchell Levens I should say for Notre Dame on Saturday night. I think he played eight or nine plays on third down. That was really it. I was disappointed by the overall play of the tight ends. I didn't think they blocked overly well. They had their moments of good blocking. I thought Cooper Flanagan was very undisciplined as a blocker. He was very undisciplined as an overall as a player. Had had the one hold. He calls another penalty on Jayden Thomas by drifting downfield on that read zone. It's an under route. So essentially what happened on that play. I don't know if we broke it down, but the tight ends running an under route, but he's got to stay at or behind the line of scrimmage. The Corvette reads the inside zone, pulls it and he gets outside and he throws that under route. The receivers are blocking downfield because it's basically a tight end screen. If the tight end drifts downfield and catches the ball, then it's now passed interference on those guys blocking. That's why Jayden Thomas was losing his mind because he assumed that the tight end was going to stay behind the line of scrimmage or at the line of scrimmage. He didn't. And that's why Jayden got Jayden got mad that is a penalty on Jayden Thomas, but the penalty was actually because of Cooper Flanagan. He had a holding penalty and he had another holding penalty that should have been called later in the game on a run by Riley Leonard that he's just he's got to play better than he did. Jayden was was far too passive at times. In my opinion, as a route runner, there's a lot of uncertainty in what he was doing. I was just very underwhelmed by the play, the tight ends and they're going to have to play a lot better in this game. So I want to see them kind of come out. I would hope that they got a little bit of a of a butt chewing in this game because your tight ends can't just have as somebody said, oh, he did have one good block on the TV. Yeah, he did. But that's kind of doing your job. I mean, it was a good block. He did his job. You got to do your job at a much higher rate and run game wise and pass game wise. So I'm hoping that the tight ends come out in this game and they're game records running the ball as blockers, but then also making more plays in the pass game as well. I would like to see them get more involved in that aspect though. So that's really what my game records are for the Notre Dame offense. When you look at the defense, it really just comes down to a lot of it's just going to be in the front seven, because let's be honest, guys, can we just say we just assume that the secondary is going to have game records every week? I mean, at least two, three guys are going to step up every week and be game records in the secondary. When was the last time Notre Dame didn't have that? It's been a couple of years, right? Probably 2022. I just was we knew this secondary was good. We thought it had a chance to be really, really good. I didn't expect it to be really, really good in the opener. I thought it take, I thought it take Christian Gray more than a quarter to get settled in. And that's basically all it took was about a quarter to get him settled in. I thought Adon Schuller would probably need a couple games to get into the flow. He was ready to go right away. Now again, out of control at times, got to wrap up and do all that, but Adon was locked in. Adon played like a veteran. And then of course Xavier Watts and Benjamin Morrison did exactly what you thought they would do as all Americans. They were excellent. So to me, I was very impressed with the secondary. They're going to be very good. I do want to see Jordan Clark play a little bit better. But I want to see, I thought they did just an excellent job. And so now it comes down to where you're at, where you're at next. I want to respond some real quick. Brian New York, I don't know if you're alone, but I strongly disagree with you on the take on Jayden Thomas. I think Jayden Thomas did come back to the ball, which why it wasn't a pick six. It's a hitch route. You don't take five steps to step to it. He stepped aggressive to the ball, especially when he saw that guy come and got in front of the guy and broke it up. So I disagree with you on that one. I think Jayden Thomas actually did his job on that particular play. Now back to the point that we're making here about the defense. For me, when I look at this team, I'm going to have some defensive lineman coming up, but I'm going to start at linebacker. This is a, this is a Drake Bowen, Kingston, Villianma, Asa game. Those are the two mics. This is a game where the middle linebackers should get a lot of action, a lot of action. This is not a team. They're going to run some toss and they'll get some stuff outside jet sweeps and all that kind of stuff. And they're going to clean that up. They're going to be job of the rovers and the nickels in the corners to funnel that stuff back inside. They're going to have to be smart, flown to the ball and that kind of stuff, but this is going to be a, this is going to be a, you know, put your big boy pants on game type of battle for your Mike linebackers. They're going to run at you. They've got a good size offensive line. It's a very experienced offensive line. It's an offensive line that's played a lot together. They're going to, they're going to, to come at you and aggressively run downhill. They've got a running back that is short and stout and thick and elusive and he can make you look really dumb. If you don't come, if you go out of control, he's a guy that can make you look bad. If you're too high, he'll get up under your chest and run you over. And so he's a guy that can make you look really bad, but he's also, this is the type of offense to where if you play well, you should put up a lot of numbers in this game. So Drake Bowen obviously is the starter is a guy that, that did some really good things last week also has some things to clean up on, but, but played physical football for the most part. There's a couple of times that Drake was a little uncertain of what he was doing and in which gap to hit, but for the most part, he played pretty aggressively Kingston played very aggressively, you know, coming off the bench in the different roles that he played. So I, I was very impressed with what I saw from the mics for the first game. Now it's about get better and better and better. And so when I see, when I see this system that they use, it's going to put a lot of stress on the mics. There's going to be a lot of this stuff for them. And the whole point is to kind of mess up, you know, where they're looking, what their keys are, get them focused over here as you're running over there. So they're going to have to be smart and disciplined and have a good grasp of the plan. But if they have a good grasp of the plan, they're going to be in the action a lot, a lot. And so if Drake Bonn and Kingston play well, that's going to go a very long way towards shutting down the Northern Illinois pass game. I also think some of the things that they do pass game wise, they're going to put them in stress, stressful situations where they're going to have to get up underneath certain things. And if they're not doing a good job of looking up those overs and looking up the crossers and things like that, then, you know, you're going to you're going to be in a situation where you're going to give up some pass plays. And so there's going to be some opportunities there that they can also then make some big plays in those situations. So you know, those are those are areas where I think the Mike linebacker's are going to be in situations to make a lot of plays. And if they play well, Northern Illinois won't have much of a chance to really get their round game going. Another guy that I that I is going to be important in this game is going to be Riley Mills and then Donovan Heynish, the two, three techniques. That's an important position for Notre Dame in this game. I thought Riley was solid in the game. He got double teamed a lot by Texas A&M. A&M was very concerned about Riley Mills. You could see it the way that they blocked it when you go back and break it down. Riley played OK. Didn't play bad. Didn't play great. Just played OK. Donovan Heynish battled but just didn't it was not a great Donovan Heynish game. This week, Northern Illinois is bigger, but they're not as athletic as the kids. Let me rephrase they're bigger than him. They're not bigger than Texas A&M, but they're not as athletic either as the kids from Texas A&M. And so this is a game where I think his athleticism should do a good job of helping him out. So that's something that I that I want to see from him from him in this game is using his athleticism and leverage and moving his feet. He'd stop his feet. He'd get knocked off the ball. So you really didn't get a ton from your three technique last game. They weren't terrible, but they weren't great either. And I want to see a lot more from them. And this is a game where they're going to have a chance to be effective against some guards that are tough kids, but not super athletic kids. This is a game where your three techniques need to feast. And if they do, then you're going to have a lot of problems with the Northern Illinois offense. You're going to have a lot of problems getting your quarterback into rhythm. You're going to have a lot of problems getting your run game going. If Riley and Donovan are playing well, especially Riley, some of those jet suites are going to get blown up and kind of have to bow back. And that's when you shut them down, it's going to throw off the timing of the run game. And of course, a chance to get right up the middle. I fully expect Howard Cross to play well in this game. I honestly would not play Howard Cross a whole lot in this game, to be completely honest with you. I would, you know, I'd play him, but I'd, you know, I'd try to limit him to 20 snaps or so and let him get healthy and kind of have, because I think he played 50 snaps the last game. So I'd like to see them limit his snaps a little bit. Maybe this be like a Jason Onier, Armel Mukam game at nose tackle a little bit more as long as you come out and handle your business. But I need to see more from the three techniques, but I think this is a game where they're both primed to come out and have big games for Notre Dame. And then the last one for me from the, when I look at the Notre Dame defense is this is a game where I think the edge, the young edge rushers are going to have some success and I'm looking at Josh Burnham. I'm thinking about Buba Cartreori and I'm looking at Bryce Young. I think all three of those guys are going to get opportunities. If the Notre Dame offense does their job early and puts pressure on Notre Dame or on the Northern on the Northern on the offense to match them, they're going to have to throw a lot more. And if they have to throw a lot more, then that's going to give your, your edge players a chance to, you know, to go out and have a ton of pressures off the edge. I think that they should be able to really feast a little bit in this game. Now this is a team that was good at not allowing sacks last year and good at not allowing a lot of pressures last year. But this is a game where they think, where they, they're going to have a chance to really get after in the past game. And so if Notre Dame does jump out to a lead, I think these are the kind of kids that could really put this game away with some good edge rushers. So I'm looking at Josh Burnham, Buba Cartreori and Bryce Young as potential game records for Notre Dame in this game, either one or all or some combination of them. But that group is going to be, to be very impactful in that game. And then special teams wise, you know, it's really about just kind of coming out and doing your job. But it would be kind of nice to see Notre Dame get a chance a little bit this season, you know, to maybe have a little bit of success, you know, breaking off a big run at some point time this season. So this is a Northern Illinois team that was pretty good last season on special teams. I mean, you, you kind of know your football coaches is, is, is sort of about that life when he comes out and says the first thing he does is look at a team special teams and that's going to tell you how well coach they are. And I was like, dude, that's brilliant. That's what Thomas Hammack said in his, his press conference for this Notre Dame game. And he started praising, you know, they, they ranked 15th and 27th last year in returns. So I'd like to see Notre Dame maybe be a little bit more aggressive to try to create a play or two in the special teams realm because if you can do some special teams, have some special teams success against this team, then you got a chance to do some. But I really thought that was a tremendously astute comment from Thomas Hammack. It's the first thing I do when I watch a football team is watch their special teams. And then you can see, I mean, you, you just watch it and you watch them playing, you look at their numbers and you're like, yeah, they're pretty good on special teams, really good in coverage and really good operation and all that type of stuff. So I'd like to see maybe see if Marty Biachi can, maybe can design something to put some pressure on their kicking game in this game and see if the, if the, you can force them to have to protect a little bit more. And if they have to protect a little bit more, maybe that's where you can get Jayden Great House, you know, maybe going on a punt return or maybe you can try it somehow spring, Jayden Harrison on a, on a kick return. They, he talked about how they were close on one Saturday and he's right. They were close on one. But, you know, get a little bit better in that regard and maybe maybe you can do something block kick, big return, something like that on special teams and wreck the game a little bit that way. So that's going to do it for this section of the show. And we're going to get onto our bice a hole next. And we do have a couple super chats before we get started on that that I'll get to. But before we get to that, do me a favor folks, hit that like button, hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, share this podcast, give us a five star view. And as always, if you have not done so already, sign up for the message board at boards. irishbreakdown.com [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]
