Bryan takes a dive into the matchup between Notre Dame and Northern Illinois. The Irish are clearly the better team, but a look at the numbers and film shows that Huskies present a good test for Notre Dame
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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. Hi, B Nation. Welcome back to another edition of the Irish Breakdown Podcast. It is Wednesday already. Can you guys believe it? It's Wednesday already. It's hump day. And that means we got a lot to talk about today. We're going to talk match ups. We're going to talk personnel. We're going to talk game records. And of course, since it's Wednesday, we are going to have our weekly buy so hold segment. Notre Dame gets started this weekend. Obviously gets Northern Annoy on Saturday. The Irish get their home opener against the Huskies. This is a quality football team. I know they're a Mac team, so everyone just kind of assumes that they suck. But this is actually a quality Mac football team. And Notre Dame is going to have to bring their be ready for a competitive game. It is a game that Notre Dame should win handily. But it's one of those games as we've seen in recent years against Marshall in 2022. Toledo in 2021, Ball State in 2018. If you're not locked in as a Notre Dame football team, it could get a little bit interesting and a little dicey for you. So Notre Dame is going to have to obviously be ready to rock and roll in this game on Saturday. And avoid any potential let down after the big win over Texas A&M this weekend. So when you think about what's at stake for Notre Dame, it's not so much winning or losing. I just, I can't really fathom a scenario in which they lose this game. But you need to make sure that it's not a game where you go out there and kind of sleepwalk through it and maybe have to play longer than you should or your starters have to play more snaps than they should. Because this is the kind of game that if they are forced to sort of play a 60-minute game with the starters, you know, when I say starters, I mean just like the normal rotation. You know, it's not a, it's not a given that they're going to beat Purdue convincingly next week. It's not a given that if you struggle with Northern Illinois, I think Miami of Ohio might be even better. It's certainly possible that you go through your first five games and you don't get any games where you get a chance to get your young guy some work. So it is an important from that standpoint of not only getting your young guy some work, but also getting yourself into a situation where, you know, if you just want to be able to minimize the snaps, that's really what it comes down to for me. You want to make sure that you get out of this game where it's a, it's a, it's a get right game. It's a get healthy game. It's a get fresh game before you go on the route road next week to play Purdue. And so that's really what's at stake for Notre Dame this weekend. It's, it's just another step towards building your football team as we talked about last night. This is a game that's more about you than it is about Northern Illinois. If Notre Dame plays a B game or better, this will be a convincing win. If Notre Dame plays an A game, then this will be over by halftime. And we're going to find out which, which version of that is, when is Notre Dame capable of playing an A game? Some teams can't do it early. Some teams, you know, you need more time to build. Can Notre Dame get there this early or is their first kind of A game going to come down the road against somebody else? We'll find out this weekend, but certainly another good test for Notre Dame. It's a unique game because there are some areas where I believe they present some important match ups for Notre Dame and some match ups that Notre Dame needs as they go out to, to try to really build their, their team this year. So I'm looking forward to seeing how this all shakes out. I'm looking forward to seeing, you know, how, how this game, how this game goes for Notre Dame and what are we going to learn about this Notre Dame football team? Those are all things that we're going to learn. 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. 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And so we'll get in each one of those also talk about a little bit of what I want to see from Notre Dame in each of these categories. Going to still use the 23 stats because one game against an FCS team that went 0 and 11 last year doesn't really tell us a whole lot about Northern Illinois. So we'll still look at that. But we'll also mention kind of what they did in the opener and dive into that a little bit as well. After that segment, I will get into game records for Notre Dame. You know, there aren't really any game records in the Notre Dame on the Northern Illinois defense, but there are some on their offense, which we'll talk about. But who are the guys that I want to not so much the guys that need to be game records like we talked about last week, right? I mean, we saw the guys that they needed to step up and be game records, but more so who I want to see step up and be game records because you don't really need any game records in the game like this. I mean, just kind of play your game and everybody does their job. You're going to win convincingly. You know, but who are the guys that I want to see step up and really, really, you know, play at a high level and then we'll kind of get into to to kind of where this is for Notre Dame. So let's get into that today. Folks, before we get started, do me a favor, hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, hit the notification bell, share this podcast, give us a five star review. No arguing in the chat today, let's all get along. Notre Dame's want to know they just will get went on the road, beat a ranked team by 10. Well, let's just all enjoy that and get ready for Notre Dame to go out this weekend and hopefully play another good game and get to two and oh so. And if you haven't done so, sign up for the message board at boards@arshbreakdown.com. I've had a lot of action on that breakdown that I did of the of the run game and I'm hoping to get a couple more out this week. But check that out. You can sign up for that at boards.Irishbreakdown.com. So let's get after it. All right, so we're going to dive into the first part of today's show and discuss sort of the matchup between Northern Illinois and Notre Dame and in Northern Illinois is a very interesting team because, you know, we talked yesterday. This is a team coming off of a seven and six season, but a team that finished seven and six and did so kind of with a very strong finish, you know, their season last year got off to a great start. They went on the road and beat Boston College at home at excuse me on the road and beat Boston College on their home field obviously. And it means you think why it's a great way to start your season the next week they went out lost an FCS opponent then they got beat convincingly by Nebraska then they lost a tall so then they lost a Toledo and your center one and four thinking. This might be a really long year for Northern Illinois, but they rebounded and rebounded very well you know I mean again you lose to an FCS team you lose to a. A Tulsa team that finished four and eight. And then you go on the road against Akron and you know Akron's not very good either but you know they're not a whole lot worse than what Tulsa was last year. And you get a win a block win. And then that kind of got them hot you know they beat Ohio the next week by 10 Ohio was a good football team. Last season the Bobcats went 10 and three. They're only losses were a touchdown loss to San Diego State. A two touchdown loss to Miami of Ohio who won the league and then of course the 10 point lost to Northern Illinois so that was a. A very good football team they beat an Eastern Michigan team that made a bowl game last year. Did drop a really weird loss they lost a central Michigan and ball state which is hilarious by the way. Because there's literally did you guys know that there's actually a Northern Illinois like message board did you guys know that. I had no idea that things like that existed. And I got somebody put it in the message board at Irish Breakdown yesterday the boards on our sprickdown.com and I read that thing and that is a delusional fan base. That is an insanely delusional fan base and I was kind of shocked by some of the stuff that I heard to be honest with you from from that but apparently Notre Dame is not that good because they couldn't score on central Michigan last year. Oh ironically Notre Dame beat central Michigan by 24 and then central Michigan beat Northern Illinois but that's a different conversation then they lost a game to ball state but then they rebounded well. Beat Western Michigan in their next game and then went out and that was a not not a great Western Michigan team obviously went four and eight last year and then beat beat a really bad Kent State team in the last game of the year. Which made them both eligible then they went to a ball game and beat Arkansas State so very strange team. But what I like about that they've done is they've returned a lot of players from last year they have a lot of guys coming back and coming back at very important positions. That'll test Notre Dame. And I think they have like I think not eight or nine starters coming back on defense they've got similar numbers coming back on offense. They lost their quarterback rocky Lombardi but I actually think that they have a chance to be upgraded I know again I talked about this yesterday rocky Lombardi is a big kid a physical specimen just not a real good quarterback very good athlete I think they're gonna have a much better passing game this year with the kid that they have a quarterback. And of course one of the best running backs and that Notre Dame is going to face this season so it's a very interesting team very experienced team. Pretty well coach team. And I love like I said yesterday I love their offensive coordinator higher that they brought in so it's going to be a very interesting test for Notre Dame and it's one of those games where Notre Dame is going to have to play well to dominate the way that they should dominate this what I mean by that is I didn't think Notre Dame played overly well against New Mexico in 2019 but they still won like 66 to 10 because New Mexico was terrible. I didn't think they played overly well against bowling green meaning like they didn't dominate you know like they just it wasn't it wasn't a real pretty performance they were just way better. And 159 to nothing if you win 50 if you win something like that against no Illinois you played really well. This is a game where you know to me if you just kind of roll the ball out and don't perform well you can win by 14 to 17 to be honest with you. You play only 10 if you play good football like they did against central Michigan last year you'll win by a similar score 24 to 27 somewhere around there and if you play, you know you play really good football then you'll cover the spread and win by more than four touchdowns. And that's really where Notre Dame is at at this point in time so that's it's a it's an interesting matchup and I want to get into the specifics of it here as we get rolling and we're going to start by looking at the Notre Dame offense against the Northern Illinois defense. And so we'll bring up the numbers again this is last year's last year's numbers for Northern Illinois I think it's still it still matters to focus on kind of what they did last season as we compare this football team but you look at their rush last season it was pretty average to you know for that league but it also but you know when you look at them against some of the better teams they played last season they were not they were not a great football team in that regard. Looking at it strictly from a a max standpoint their defense last year ranked number six in their league they were a yard and a half behind the number five team. And they were barely above the number 17 so you know kind of right in the middle of the road of the Mac last season had some very good performances that's the interesting thing about their numbers because the overall numbers are not very good. They were pretty good at limiting 20 plus yard runs as you see there. But like they had they held Southern Illinois 73 yards they held Akron they held Ohio Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan all under 100 yards rushing and they held Western to 24 yards rushing. They held Arkansas State to only 101 yards in a bowl game they held Akron to only 107 yards in the bowl game they held Kent State to only 113 yards in the bowl game. And B.C. only rushed for 46 yards against them with their dynamic quarterback last season so it's it was an interesting when you look at it was it was kind of a fascinating thing to look at because you say all that. But then you also have to look at say well they gave up 224 yards in Nebraska. They give up 261 yards Toledo gave up 186 yards to Ball State and then gave up 331 yards to Central Michigan. The Ball State one was was interesting because I mean Ball State's just not a real good football team but they run OK, the Central Michigan one I thought was really fascinating because central Michigan was not a really good run team. Coming into that game they ran for 236 against New Hampshire. They went for 123 against Michigan State 131 against Notre Dame 125 193 80. This is the three games leading into the Northern Illinois game 81 17 99 they average 3.2 2.3 and 2.8 rush rushing yards allowed. And then against Northern Illinois they went for 331. And so this is it was a really weird central Northern Illinois rush defense last season. And then two weeks later they completely shut down Western Michigan and finishing a strong note so that there are you very weird team to be honest with you when looking at their their run defense last year at the end of the day. You know this is a team that just doesn't in my opinion doesn't have the the size and necessarily town up front to hang with Notre Dame but they're a very experienced group. They've got two juniors starting on the edge one of them Roy Williams did play a lot of football last year they have two seniors at defensive tackle. They have another junior and a senior that are their rotation he tackles to play a lot of football last year so they're top four. You know they're top four details are guys that have played a lot of football. And you know so they bring some some ability there they've got a kid named Roy Williams who's I think a pretty good pretty athletic edge player 66 251. They're the most productive defensive end from last year's not expected to play in this game he was out missed the opener as well Ray Sean Thomas so the linebackers are you know okay Jaden dolphins a solid football player their other linebackers a typical Mac linebacker you know short thick kid not overly athletic smart. But this is a team honestly that Notre Dame should be able to run the ball on. The question that I have about this team is can they come out and Notre Dame can they come out and clean up a lot of the mistakes that they made last week in the run game. And I showed you guys the numbers last night a little sneak peek into into what they what they kind of what Notre Dame did against Texas A&M. And the focus was on big plays right a lot of big plays and I think they should be able to get some big plays against Northern Illinois as you see last year nor Illinois was actually pretty decent about not giving up a lot of big runs because they're a 425 defense that tries to kind of funnel everything inside. They don't want you to get outside of them and you know that can somewhat limit some of the big gains and things we'll see how they defend Notre Dame. I think they'll probably have to be a little bit more aggressive get numbers in the box against Notre Dame. But I think there's some opportunities for Notre Dame to continue to have big plays what I want to see from Notre Dame however so I want to see them be a little bit more efficient in this game you're playing a defensive line. That has 200 to 300 pounders in their rotation another guy that's 293 and then a couple 285 pounders up the middle so they're not huge but they're not small either. And as I mentioned they've got a 286 pound defensive end starting form as they're sort of their big end. And then their version of the Viper is a kid who 66 251 pounds. So they're not a small defensive line they're a very experienced defensive line which means if you make mistakes they're going to hurt you they're going to make you pay. So the big thing for me for Notre Dame this weekend is obviously from a from a number standpoint Notre Dame got off to a great start this week this season. You go out and play one of what was last year one of the best run defenses and college football last year. They have even better coaching than they had last year in my opinion and Mike Elko. And you went out there and rushed for 198 yards I pointed this out last night but when you look at Texas A&M last season Notre Dame rushed for more yards against Texas A&M on Saturday night. And Arkansas Alabama and South Carolina had against Notre Dame combined only one team rushed for more than the 198 yards Notre Dame had last season. Last season nobody had only Tennessee had more. Nobody had the 5.8 yards per carry the Notre Dame had the best that they allowed last season was 5.5 from LSU. And a lot of that was Jaden Daniel so you know Notre Dame was able to statistically have really good success but as I mentioned the efficiency was not there. And that's going to be something that that in future games Notre Dame is going to have to be a lot more efficient running the football. A lot less of the 40s and 30s surrounded by twos and ones and minus ones and different things like that so you know I'm going to need to see Notre Dame come out in this game and be a lot more efficient against a run team that's just kind of okay. You know I expect them to be better than they were last year but I don't see them making huge leaps and bounds worth of improvement. And honestly I actually thought Western Illinois was able to run the ball a little bit early they just got behind so quickly that there wasn't a whole lot that they could do so run run game is going to be very important for Notre Dame. In this matchup statistically Notre Dame has a big advantage in this game although West although they did hold Western Illinois to under 100 yards in the game but you know I think and I think Notre Dame certainly has a clear advantage in this one. 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Visit King Super's dot com slash vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply seaside for details. This is the part of the matchup that I'm most interested in seeing because if you look at it, you really can't evaluate last year statistics a whole lot for Notre Dame because of just how many new pieces that are there but I wanted to still bring this up because of you can I think evaluate Northern Illinois's past defense and when you look at obviously how Notre Dame handled the opener, the past game struggled. You know you had the one big play to both Collins and then you had a decent 16 yard game to Cooper Flanagan but everything else that you hit that game was short stuff and there was no even threat of throwing the ball down the field. Not only I mean I had the one plate of both Collins I think there was only I don't know if there was this another attempt over 20 yards I've got a let me look at my sheet I don't think I have more down yeah I have one past attempt of 20 or more yards for Notre Dame and last week's game and so that's something that obviously is going to have to continue to get a lot better and they're going to have to be a little bit more aggressive and they're going to need to the receivers are going to have to play better Riley Leonard's going to have to play better the past protection is going to have to be better. This is not a team that that is in Northern Illinois that that was very good at getting after the quarterback last year. They do have a you know the kid that I mentioned earlier the six six kids a decent athlete off the edge decent pass rusher but they don't really have a lot of guys are going to wreck you is in the past game so this. Could be a game should be a game where the Notre Dame offensive line is able to give Riley Leonard time. You'd like to see Riley Leonard be more willing to sit in the pocket and let's say have a little bit more patience going through his progressions and one of the plays that I'm going to show in the past game breakdown when I get that up is going to be a sort of an invert smash concept I call it a burst corner where both Collins comes open for what should have been a touchdown and Riley had just looked away from them and then Mrs Chris Mitchell who was open on on a dig cut. So that's certainly an area where Riley's going to have to get a lot better and the receivers going to have to play better everybody's going to have to step up and play better and I'll talk more about the individual players when I get to the game record section but when you look at this northern Illinois pass off pass defense that they were good last year. They were legitimately a very good group of five pass defense last season. And when you look at where they ranked in their in their league in 2023 they had the number one pass defense in the league by over eight yards last season they ranked number two and yards allowed per attempt only Toledo was better at point one and they were also number two and quarterback rating last year only Toledo's better and Toledo had a corner back that I believe when in the first round last season. Ryan you're in the chat the kid from Toledo last year he went in the first round correct the corner back to Toledo had last year that was a really really good player Mitchell. So I believe he was the first round pick this year maybe second round I know he's projected to be a first round pick last season. Queen on Mitchell right but where did he go was he was the first round pick yeah so he was so that I mean you're on the only team ahead of you in the past game last year was a team that had a first who's a great team by the way with with Jason candle but a team that had a first round draft pick a corner back. Now what's interesting is when you break down North Northern Illinois past defense. They're not really good at getting after quarterback. They do a good job of keeping everything in front of them. And they're a team that is very smart, very sound. They'll they'll a good tackling team in my opinion. And they're a team that that is just not going to get beat deep a whole lot and which is interesting when you consider they weren't very good at getting after the quarterback last season and not just from a sack standpoint but you know looking at their numbers they weren't a team that that like racked up a lot of pressures even though they you know because you can be actually a pretty decent pass rushing team and actually not get a lot of sacks. It's usually you'll get at least a decent amount of sex you won't rank 92nd in the country in sacks but you could be a team that maybe doesn't get a lot of sacks but still does a good job of pressuring the defense and they they weren't even that last year they only had 179 pressures all season. And as I mentioned the guy that that had the most pressures on their defense last year race on Thomas, he's out for the game. They're their next two best actually pass rushing last season and James Esther and George Gums are also gone. I believe James Esther ran out of eligibility and George Gums transferred to Florida. So you know that's that's he's he started he's playing for Florida right now so you know those are things that I look at and say that they weren't good at rushing the quarterback last year. And they lost all their top pass rusher so either they're going to have to try to heat Notre Dame up or they're just going to say hey we're going to play Ben but don't break prevent the deep ball play our two high defense and, and not letting the game you know get the ball down the field so you know this is going to be a test for Notre Dame and and I actually this is one thing I really like about this matchup for Notre Dame is because I mean look, I know what a lot of you want to see a lot of you this because this is true for every time they play a bad team just come out and run the ball down their throat and do this and run for a bunch of yards and that all sounds good and it helps into the season stats but I don't know how if that that game a better football team I say what again what I said last night. You have this has got to be a game where you have to be able to enhance your pass game it doesn't mean that I need to see them throw for 300 yards somebody earlier said I got to see them throw for 300 yards. I mean if Notre Dame throws for 275 yards and rushes for 225 yards it's a pretty darn good day of work right but it just needs to be good. You know because there's also a scenario where Notre Dame doesn't throw for over 300 because they don't throw the ball much in the fourth quarter because they have a big win. I want to see an offense that is aggressive throwing the football that's efficient throwing the football receivers gaining separation the quarterback making good decisions in the quarterback being accurate on the football because if you can have success against Northern Illinois. It doesn't mean your pass game has arrived because it's Northern Illinois but as I said this is still a solid past the past defense for their level they're very good at their level. For overall they're just they're solid this is going to be a solid it's going to be one of the six or seven best pass defenses and I'm going to face all years schematically. And then personnel wise they're very long. They've got I think all their starters at the at the outside and back end or six feet or taller. The only guy that sub six feet is their nickel. Who's a good football player there's one of their safeties is six three really long rangey kid. So they're going to do some things where they're going to make you work for yards in the past game. And I want to see Notre Dame beat have some aggressiveness. First efficiency, good decision making, getting some separation, and then also seeing some aggressiveness I want to see some some different wrinkles from for this week against this particular defense which is going to be a little bit different schematically than what Texas A&M was. But I want to see Notre Dame go on the hunt a little bit more on defense. That that's really where I'm at and when I look at this matchup I think that's going to be a big key for Notre Dame. Wrapping up this part of the preview will go to the the offense against the defense obviously Notre Dame last season was a top 10 scoring defense a top 10 team in yards per play. We'll see how they're going to be this season. Obviously the first game of the year was a battle for Notre Dame. I do believe Texas A&M is going to have that is one of the two to three best defenses that Notre Dame is going to play this season. I don't think there's any doubt about that at all in my mind and you had 356 yards and 5.6 yards per play. You look at comparable teams last season and you look at how Notre Dame performed in comparable games last season against Ohio State Notre Dame had 351 yards and 5.5 yards per play again against A&M they were 356 and 5.6 against Duke. Notre Dame only had 381 yard that had 381 yards of offense 6.1 per play but most of that was gained on the last drive of the game. They're even had three big plays on that drive. It's Louisville, Notre Dame only had 298 yards and 4.5 yards per play against Clemson, Notre Dame only had 329 yards and 5.4 yards per play. And I would argue that Texas A&M's defense is better than all those defenses, in my opinion, talent wise, certainly. You know, post Ohio State, better than everyone except Ohio State's defense last season. So you had a better than expected slightly better than expected performance statistically weren't able to put the ball in the end zone as much as you'd like to see. But Notre Dame was able to get out there and and and do what they need to do to win now it's about taking next steps right it's okay you you did what you needed to do in that game, you were able to win the game heck if you just scored 23 points against Ohio State last year you win that football game. Right so that that's certainly a positive outcome in that regard but now Notre Dame needs to take that next step offensively against what is a pretty solid. Mac defense as I said before pretty solid group of five defense and when you look at that what Northern Illinois did last season in their conference as you see right there I mean that's national rankings actually. They were pretty good last season in the Mac, they were the fourth best Mac defense last season and scoring at 21 points per game. They were number three in the league and total defense at 319 point five yards per game, and they were number four in the league and in yards per play at 5.12 so 5.1 per game so this is a solid defense. That's a good job last season allowing limiting big place as you can see there 31st in the country at limiting big place. Not a great third down defense not a great red zone defense and they were not good at all at forcing turnovers. So you obviously Notre Dame should be able to protect the ball but you know we're gonna see if Notre Dame is is the same old Notre Dame if they've been in the past these next couple games in my opinion because you look at this team and you say. So I understand the not wanting to turn the ball over against Texas A&M, but you've got to be willing to be more aggressive against a team like North Illinois. You do you have to be more aggressive than that. And so I just, you just can't get a situation where you're so afraid of turning the ball over that you don't take any chances. I want to say that that's happening now because it was one game, but I want to see how Riley handles that message to where yeah you don't want to turn the ball over but you also have to be willing to take some chances and be aggressive and will he be able to do that against his team and I think you're going to need to if you're going to win this game is the way that they need to because like what are we talking about here when we talk about this game are we really talking about what Notre Dame needs to do to get upset. No, I see somebody in chat talking about how I'm, you know, doing a Lou Lou Holtz impression of building up their opponent I don't really know what you're talking about I mean look we can do this this dance where every team that's not a power five big time team sucks and the name should win by 100 or we can take an honest look at a team, right? Imagine that taking an honest look at a team. And what we're talking about with Northern Illinois is not is not going to win or lose. The question is are you going to play to the level that you need to in order to say hey we took a step as a program that's what Notre Dame needs to do. Did you have growth in this game it's not about winning or losing. It's about are you able to say hey we got better in the areas we need to get better. And when I look at this particular matchup and I look at the things that Northern Illinois is good at and I said very clearly that they are a good group of five team. Right. Then you can look at and say hey this is an opportunity for you to get better it's not like playing Bowling Green in 2019 it's not like playing the Mexico it's not like playing even Ball State. Where you can just kind of roll the ball out and you have no chance of losing or you're going to win by a 50 plus points and you don't even play well you're going to have to play well to have the kind of blowout win that I think you want in need. And so if you think that Northern noise is the sucky team that's just going to you know roll the ball out and give up. You're mistaken. And as I've said before this is a team in Northern Illinois that in recent seasons has had I believe multiple victories against power five teams they obviously have certainly beat Boston college last year. Beat Georgia Tech in 2021 so in the last three years they've beaten power five teams on the road. This is not a team that we should just look at and say well no name is going to roll the balls out and win by 60 they've got to go out and earn it and but more importantly, are they building themselves as a team. And the offense especially needs to go out there and build themselves up in order to have success in this game. Let's move over to the defense this is a matchup again, that is going to be an interesting test. It's a Notre Dame's run defense was okay against Texas A&M. It wasn't great it was just good solid. They did what they needed to do. Right, and and that's really the the important thing for Notre Dame is being able to have that, that sort of improvement in the run defense to a degree I felt like they were willing to give up some things. Against Texas A&M in order to limit their opportunity to have big pass plays they were willing to give up four or five yard gains here and there in order to limit some of that I think A&M had a very big offensive line and they leaned on Notre Dame at times especially when the the second team defensive line was in the game. But you look at this this Northern Illinois matchup and it's another good test. You have a veteran offensive line coming back. When you look at Northern Illinois they have four returning starters on the offensive line. Their offensive line has got very good size for a Mac team left to right there 66 298 653 11 63 305 64 321 and 66 312. They have very good size and I said for those guys are returning starters, and they've got a running back coming back that's a really good football player in Ontario Brown and I and I've talked about him before. He was the second team running back on my all opponent team. He's a kid that's got some very good ability he's got he's a very low low built short and thick legs. He's built like a lot like his coach was when he was a player in college got really good agility change the direction ability good balance. He's a guy that is not going to necessarily be a threat to rip off a bunch of big runs as you can see last year Northern Illinois ranked 37th in the country in rushing yards per game at 179.6 they ranked 22nd in yards per attempt at 5.0 yards per attempt but the only ranked 66th in runs of 20 yards or more. And so he's not really a home run threat per sale though he did go for over 20 on the first carry the game against Western Illinois. It's more so about he's a chain mover. And you think you have him for minus two he makes a quick cut next and you know instead of you instead of it being second and 12. He's just a second and six because he made a guy miss and got to the second level. You know on third and two you think you got him squared up at the line of scrimmage you hit him he bounces off pops it outside and moves the chains. That's where Ontario Brown is a is a weapon. It's he's just that slasher type of back with vision feel for the game. It was very productive last season for Northern Illinois he finished here with 1296 yards last season at 10 touchdowns and averaged over six yards a carry 6.1 yards per carry. And so this is a kid that's a very good football player he went for eight for 69 in the opener they didn't play home a whole lot but he looked good. He looked good when he didn't play. But he does he is a kid that does have a couple 80 yards touchdown runs in his career but again those are not those are not against teams that like like Notre Dame is going to play. He's racking those up against against different types of teams actually he did have an 80 yarder against Toledo last year ran for 280 against Akron last season 167 against central Michigan 159 against Western Michigan. Last season went for 132 in the bowl game last season against Arkansas State. The season before he that's when he rushed for 1296 he only ran for 689 yards as part of a split back field in 2022. That's when he had his 86 yarder, had a 51 yarder against Vanderbilt eight carries for 60 yards went for 13 for 70 against Eastern Illinois. He went six for 37 which is 6.2 per carry against Kentucky, and had 17 for 84 against Toledo that season as well. So this is a good running back with a lot of good production. He's got over 2000 career yards he's probably going to be in the 1000 yard rusher again this season so this is a good this is a good football player, good running back and a guy that to keep their eye on now what they don't have this year like they had last year's they don't have quite the same, you know threat as a as a rusher that they had last season not that Rocky Lombardi was like a great runner he only had 129 yards last year but he was really good in the red zone and seven rushing touchdowns. Last season they used him a little bit more effectively running the ball down the stretch in the first seven games eight games of the year he had five games of minus yards he was over 15 or more in every game after that. And four of his touchdowns came in those final five games where they were able to do more things near the goal line and then the red zone with him. But you least had to respect his ability to kind of pull it and keep it. I don't know if you have a lot of that this year with Ethan Hampton and Ethan Hampton's a solid athlete he can do some things but he's more of a drop back throw it bootleg. He's the kind of guy you're more worried about you lose contained on a bootleg and he tucks it and runs and picks up eight to ten yards that's more of what you're looking at as opposed to a guy that's really dangerous as a runner. This is a kid that's going to do more damage sitting in the pocket against you and throwing on the move they do a lot of movement stuff. If you can shut down Ontario Brown you basically shut down nor the nose offense at least their run game. And so this will be a good test for Notre Dame good size offensive line. One of the best running backs are going to face all season and really good scheme as they talked about yesterday. You know their offense is going to look a lot different than it did last year you got a new offensive coordinator. And he is a guy that's going to do a lot pre snap a lot of shifts motions jets. And then they do a lot of things to try to mess with linebackers and jet sweeps and shovels and reverses and you know moving the pocket they do a lot of stuff where they get the quarterback out of the pocket so you can't just pin your pocket and go get the quarterback. You know he's a thrower he's a pocket guy but their pocket moves a lot. And they do it they do a really good job moving him around which can kind of slow your defense down a little bit. And so this is a great opportunity in my opinion for this nerding defense to say listen we're going to face one of the best running backs going to face all year. He's going to be one of the three or four best easily for sure in my opinion. If we shut this guy down in this veteran offensive line down and we then we made then we can say hey we've shown improvement and we're ready to keep going that's really where no name is going to look like. The next aspect is the past game and this is the this is a very interesting matchup because if you look at last year on paper. No name was an elite pass defense last year and guess what folks they are an elite pass defense again this year. We saw that against Texas A&M I mean like A&M had basically option offense numbers against Notre Dame. I mean they pass for 100 yards against Notre Dame and if you listen to the A&M people that you think that that it was all all them making mistakes has nothing to do with Notre Dame but they held Notre Dame to A&M to 100 passing yards 3.3 yards per touchdown some two interceptions. And this is a team in Northern Illinois Northern Illinois that last year ranked the 100th in the country in in passing yards. This is a team that ranked 95th in the country in yards per attempt 82nd in yards per completion 96th and touchdowns and then 96th and past efficiency and then only 14 touch passes last year. Over 30 yards or more which ranked them 104th in the country now they were very good at limiting or limiting sacks but that's because they honestly didn't throw the ball whole lot to be completely completely frank with you. This year they're going to throw the ball certainly a lot more and so I like where this kid is at or this team is at I like what their offensive coordinators doing so far as young guy. And it does a lot of things so I think you're going to see a lot more intricate pass game we saw them last in this pass game hit wheel routes out of the backfield hitting big plays on post snap switches they did kind of a it was just real simple just a real quick and you know motion outside guy goes in inside guy goes out they turn it loose big play. So those are things that no name can and should shut down but they do enough to where if you're not locked in if you have the attitude that some of the fans have which is you know like this team sucks and you know they'll all these type of things then you know you're going to make mistakes and you're going to give up big plays and because you know they'll do a lot of levels off play action you know they'll run like a play action pass and and a movement pass and they'll hit the outs and hit the overs and then they'll kind of take a shot they'll kind of roll right throw back side. Another first touchdown pass was I believe on a roll out to the left. They're going to do a lot of intricate things and they've got a couple good receivers they've got one kid is really shifty player. I had a big play on a jet sweep last week on a shovel passing was a shovel pass. I made a big play on a crossing route last week Trayvon Rudolph short fast quick guy. They're other receivers a pretty solid player as well in my opinion at Camp Thompson. Six foot 198 pound guy so they've got some size that receiver also Andrew McElroy six three that Jalen Johnson plays he's six three. George Demopolis is six two. So they've got some size there and they've got a tight end that's a really good football player for that level kid named Grayson Barnes average about 20 yards a catch last year. Six five 225 pound kid from California. Good football player really good football player. So the past game has got some weapons to work with. There's a much better scheme this year. I think that Ethan Hampton is a kid that's a much better passer than what we saw from Rocky Lombardi last year. So this will be a much big better test for Notre Dame than it would have been from last year but this is still a matchup Notre Dame should dominate. The only way Notre Dame gives up big plays in this game and my opinion throwing the football is if they're just undisciplined. That's that's that's basically where where it's at. If they're if they're undisciplined if they turn guys lose. If they make mistakes if they don't get to their depths if they don't you know communicate then sure aim them can or the Northern Northern Illinois can make some big plays. But this is not a team that otherwise should make some even though I like their talent I think they're going to be a much better passing team this year in the Mac. I think they're going to have a lot more success on the football in this game than this season than they have in the past. I mean said the opener against Northern Northern against Western Illinois Ethan Hampton went 18 of 20 for 328 yards and five touchdowns. And just to give you some context last season they only threw 15 touchdowns the entire season last year. They didn't go over 300 yards in a single game last season their best output was 298 against Central Michigan and it's 297 against Central Illinois. The year before in 2022 again did not go over 300 yards one time 284 yards and they did that on 49 pass attempts. They only had three games all year in 2022 over 300 yards passing. The last time they threw for over 300 yards in the game was all the way back in 2021. And again so they're just they're not a very good passing team they haven't been a good passing team a lot of that in my opinion is, is, is due to Rocky Lombardi and yes Tommy that is 30 plus yard pass completions yes. So it just speaks to it's not 30 plus yards down the line pass the line it's it's so it could be a five yard completion guy runs for 25 yards and there it is. That's a 30 plus so that's that's what that means. But when you look at there in the opener this year again Western always not good they threw for almost 400 yards and five touchdowns. Very different scheme quality talent much better thrower quarterback and then you have a veteran offensive line that didn't give up a lot of sacks last year so if you're not disciplined. They can't hurt you. If you're disciplined and you play your game Notre Dame will shut their pass game down. It really is that simple but I did there are some things about it that I liked it. That are you know it's it's not even about Notre Dame as much but when I look at their schedule you know it's Buffalo and UMass and Bowling Green Toledo Ball State Western Michigan Akron Miami Ohio and Central Michigan see him what. I think this team can do some things in the Mac this year because of the fact I believe their offense is going to be a lot better. I really do I think their offense is going to be a lot better than it was last year and it comes down to the change in offensive coordinator and the weapons they have in the passing game. It's going to make them much more much more effective in my opinion in the in the throwing game which is what they need because teams are just going to come out and try to shut down you know Ontario Brown and that's just what they're going to do. And you know like last year here's a crazy thing last year as good as his running back was they only threw him the ball 12 times for 52 yards he was nothing but a check down guy. First game of the year has two catches for 45 yards so again they're going to use him in a lot of different ways a lot of different ways so I like this Northern Illinois team it's not a team that should challenge Notre Dame. But I'm telling you if they can stay healthy and keep improving this team's got a chance to make some serious noise in the Mac there's no doubt about it just overall looking at the statistics. Notre Dame should dominate again no names the top 10 team and scoring defense yards per game yards per play red zone defense third down defense they were top 30 they were top 15 and few as 30 yard gains allowed 13th and turnovers forced. The only area where where Northern Illinois was a top 50 team was third down defense they were 47th and then they ranked 42nd and 30 plus yards yard plays allowed. That's the advantage Notre Dame in this matchup, but I do really like this Northern Illinois team I'm telling you guys this is a good Mac football team not in related to you know they're going to beat Notre Dame or or should give Notre Dame a game but I will say this if Notre Dame's not locked in they will make it a game for at least a while. This will not be a game that Notre Dame just rolls the ball out and runs by guys for 20 yards and easy touchdowns and they're not going to have a lot of blown assignments they're going to play hard. As I said this is a team that under Thomas hammock is one multiple games against power five teams. They're not going to be afraid of Notre Dame they're not going to think they're not going to come in and just lay down and and let Notre Dame roll all over them they're going to battle. If Notre Dame plays their game it won't matter. If Notre Dame doesn't play their game then it'll be closed for at least two two and a half quarters at least. So I want to see what this team does and as we talked about in yesterday's show we know they can handle adversity now let's see them handle success. And so that's a that's going to be the breakdown for Northern Illinois so we'll have our tomorrow we're going to go game records next and buy some mail buy so hold but just a reminder tomorrow we'll do our keys to victory. In this game will be Ryan and I will do that and then of course we'll make our predictions for the game tomorrow. Going to give you a little bit of a teaser we both have Notre Dame winning shocker okay I don't want to ruin it for you. And then Bill Bender and I will get on the show after that and we will preview Texas Michigan Iowa state Tennessee NC state and Nebraska Colorado so we'll spend a lot of our time on that Michigan Texas game but we're going to preview those other three games as well. So that'll that'll be our slate for tomorrow at tomorrow show but this is the preview for Northern Illinois give you a chance to see what this team is about. And it's again it's a good football team if you're someone who likes Mac football and I do I really like because I grew up watching it you know I'm an Ohio guy. I went to camps at Miami Ohio and Bowling Green when I was in coaching because we would recruit you know the same areas so we would go work their camps and and you know and get a chance to see kids that maybe they weren't going to recruit that we could maybe try to convince come play for us and things like that so got to know a lot of those staffs got you know went there when Urban Meyer was a Bowling Green went there when Dave Claus was a Bowling Green. And you have a lot of respect for that league and what they do and the things you have to go through so this is going to be a really good test for Notre Dame and just another good building block for them as they get ready to continue into the season so I'm going to hit that like hit that subscribe hit the notification bell share this podcast give us a five so review. And I will see you guys here in a few seconds as we get ready for part two of today's show where we're going to talk about game records. 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