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(upbeat music) What's good, I've been Asian. Welcome to another edition of the Irish Breakdown podcast. It's Brian Driscoll. I'm Vince Diderio, and it is time for the first one for the review of the 2024 season. And as we always say, Brian, it is always better to jump into the film when it is after a win. And in this case, a big win for Notre Dame on the road, college station, all of those, all of the things, right? Big win for Notre Dame. Want to know, we're going to break it down for you. We had some fun with this one. You know, a lot of mistakes, a lot of things to clean up. But as we always say, it's so much easier to clean things up after a win than it is after a loss. And so we'll get into it. It's going to be a lot of fun. But we'll get into it. It's kind of, it's actually Vince in response to that, because this was a phenomenal, phenomenal weekend. Saturday was great and Sunday night was also great. By the way, yeah, I had some fun. And I was very petty after that game. I jumped. You were actually more so than usual. And I also got into a chat of an LSU Jones. No, you didn't. I did. I did. I did. They even brought me up. They were like, there's no way that's the real Brian Driscos. And I was like, yeah, it's me. But it's funny because I got my notes. I'm like, okay, what I like and don't like. And on the defense, I'm like, dude, I'm on level two of this now. There are so many things from the defense. I'm like, picking apart. You better there. I got to better there. I got to better there. But they can, holy crap. They have this team of 246 yards and 3.6 yards per play and 3.3 yards per pass attempt. And I'm sitting there picking all these things. They got to get better at. Right. Right. That's a pretty good place to be Vince. You know, in a lot of it has to do with, you have good, very good coaching. And great answers. And we'll get into a lot of that. But you also have a really talented football team. And that was, that was very evident on Saturday Vince. And I know we'll kind of dive into an overview of the show, but that was, that was very evident that this was a very talented football team. And a very confident football team, which was also a big part of this is that there. You'd have thought this game was being played at Notre Dame Stadium. The way that A&M reacted to certain things and the way that A&M handled certain situations and the fact that they got tired at the end of the game, you'd have thought. They were the team coming from the quote unquote cooler climate down to the other area. It was just an impressive all-around performance. And of course, it's being downplayed by A&M ESPN, which I told you all before the game. I told you guys all the last two weeks, if Notre Dame wins, it will not be holy crap. They're better than you thought. The only people that are doing that are like non-ESP and people like Joel Klatt and there's a couple of people like that. But most of it's like, well A&M's not as good as we thought, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right. So don't care, you know, they did what they needed to do, but overall Vince. Excellent, excellent win for Notre Dame. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks. You can turn ten dollars into a thousand dollars. I'm a Bears fan, so this one gets me really excited. One Caleb Williams passing yard gets you one win on prize picks every week in September. 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For a whole new way to nug it's got to be Wendy's at participating US Wendy's. So let's let's kind of go over how this show is going to be put together and it's a slightly different than than in past years and so I want to make sure everybody understands that so you know we're going to go through this thing we're going to talk we're going to revisit the keys to victory right and so if you are you know smart and you were on the Irish break down calm and you read the keys to victory offensively keys to victory defensively before watch the show on Thursday you know what those keys were so we're going to revisit those keys we kind of did this last year I think in the second half of the season more than the first half but we like that segment we're going to keep it so we're going to revisit those. How did they live up to this right was it as impactful as we thought it was that exactly so we'll talk about keys to the offense keys to the defense. And then we will jump into the offense specifically okay what we liked what we didn't like things of that nature and then of course the defense as well. If you want to get a question in you are more than welcome to submit a super chat this is not a mailbag situation, but super chats are always welcome always appreciate that will always hit those at the end. But this is not there's not going to be a mailbag at the end or anything like that for the evening shows that's usually how we go about things. So you should be used to that. But it always a super chats are always welcome and you guys have been awesome with that from the post game show as well as even Ivy Nation sports talk earlier we had a bunch of super chats which is awesome. Got one right here from DK give this events pute super chat give this events home boys doing double duty on a holiday just glad you survived the Texas heat Brian. I did it wasn't as I keep telling people it was hotter than Indiana last week than it was in Texas when I was down there. Crazy. So but yeah there we go there we go there's a little super chats right there so drop those super chats and leave the respond to them all at the end or we'll bring them up here to get in so like there's another super chat then we kind of kick off this next overview of the entire game segment. Yeah that I'm going to bring up that kind of fits into it so some that's what we'll do that too is when it's pertinent to kind of what we're discussing we'll try to fit it in during the show. Perfect. So let's jump into this thing your overall thoughts as you went back you're looking at the film offensively defensively special teams like you're looking at the whole film you're going back. Did I'll ask the big overarching questions you have different thoughts after you watch after watching the film as opposed to watching it live and then your overall thoughts on the game in general after watching the film as well. A lot different with you a lot more a lot less pleased with the execution even more so than I was during the game. Even more encouraged by that reality, however, because you look at and say boy there was a lot. We talked about this on Saturday night events and into Sunday morning. Yeah there's mistakes and you got to clean it up but there was even more than I thought I mean there was this game could have got ugly early for no like for Texas A&M meaning what no name could have done with them but there was just a ton of misuse and mistakes and like little things not like big things like I take you a month to figure this out but just like little things a lot more than I anticipated. And but then at the same time you're sitting there saying like some of the stuff is the reason I didn't think they were mistakes is because of how nothing came of it. And like like one of the things that I'll just say it now because it kind of applies to both sides of all but like one of my things for the defense was man. There were times where I was like okay great job great being in position and then you go back and watch the film and you're thinking dude they got out leveraged like they were not where they needed to be. In past teams if they would have had that same situation happen that ball is getting up the corner for a big play. There was a particular play below I believe it was Jalen Snead completely got just just stayed stared at the backfield too long. And then it bounced and it was like a two yard game because when he went. He went you know what I mean it's just like he was so fast to the ball. That is just like dude they didn't even read it correctly but it didn't matter I mean in those things are going to mean there was a place where like that happened with Drake and Kingston and a lot of those guys but when you when you break it down you realize how many more mistakes there actually were. And how much more they have to clean up. And then when you're like but they out gained A&M by over 100 yards and should have had at least another 100 at least another 100 if not more. And should have probably taken about 30 or 40 at least off. If they don't do silly things. Like that game could have got ugly and I know there's a lot of A&M fans like if this if that I'm like guys you are lucky to be in that game that's what I realized after watching the film and I did not anticipate being that how having said that I will say this. That doesn't take anything away from Texas A&M they're a good football team. I watched a lot of football last night watch a lot of football today Vince. Texas A&M is going to win a lot of football games this year. I agree. He just ran into a bus all I'm sorry. They're a team in game one of a new system on both sides of the ball with the brand new head coach and they went up against a team that is just ready to roll. Sure. And you know Notre Dame Notre Dame was able to adjust a lot quicker on both sides of the ball because they have a group of players that are better that know the system's better. Especially on defense that allow them to acclimate and make adjustments better. All right. To your point about Texas A&M and what they could look like by the end of the season. I completely agree with you and I this is actually the first time that I looked at their schedule and what they've got coming up. It's a very manageable SEC schedule. I will say that I think there's a lot of wind potential wins on that team. Now they got stuff to clean up to don't get me wrong. But the defense alone for Texas A&M will keep them in games if not win them games on their schedules. So so and their offensive line play a lot better as well than I thought they really did. And I'm not saying this at least I'm not I won't speak for you Vince but I'm not saying this in like man two months. I'll be honest this summer I had said I'm glad we're playing this team in the opener. Yeah for sure. Or Notre Dame's playing this team in the opener and not in November. I don't feel that way now. And that has nothing to do with Texas A&M that's just Notre Dame has a lot. They're going to be a lot better November too. Yeah for sure. You just realize when you're watching a game how young they are. Right. And a lot of spots. And not just young at spots but like even some of their quote unquote older guys are new. They don't have experience. Yeah exactly. Right. And those things kept them from just being a second late to see this a second late to see that and there's a lot of room for improvement but at the end of the day. Notre Dame was the smaller team but they were the stronger team. The more physical team. The faster team and the better prepared team. Coaching wise and conditioning wise. And they were much more like one of the big issues we've had in the past Vince with Notre Dame when they've gone on the road. Is they don't handle the environment well at all. And this has been true for a long time. I mean not not reacting to a hurricane. You know what was the I mean there was games where Notre Dame on the road would get like a delay a game on like the first play the game. Remember that on Brian Kelly. Oh frustrating. Yes. And there'd be times where it's just like you know like even thinking last year. You know against Duke how many false starts did their fifth year senior center have in the first half against Duke. And that really those things weren't issues like this team handled the environment. Much better which speaks to me that this team is a team that has very impressive leadership and that's something we said we won't really know till we get into the season. Sure. This is step one. Because this team was ready to play this game. This team did not allow the environment the noise the crowd to phase them at all. At all. And there's a lot of reasons why I think they're a better prepared football team. They are they have now much more continuity from a coaching standpoint. I mean outside of Mike Denmark. They don't have anybody new. I mean Chris O'Leary left and he was replaced by someone that was already there essentially. And not only just in the secondary but also just overall in the staff because then you know Max Bullock gets promoted. Right. Right. The rest of their I mean well it's Mike Denmark and Mike Brown. But Mike Brown coached him into bowl game. Right. I mean so he's a little bit more familiar than Mike Denmark than Mike Denmark is. And I think that helped them a ton as well. And you finally and you're seeing the benefits of having a staff that knows Marcus Freeman. And what I mean by that is not like his guys versus the other guys and people that have his back. I mean that that's always true. You want to have people events. I mean you and how many times have you and I talked about this with our breakdown. You need to make sure you have people on your staff that take pride in. Yeah. Doing right by Irish breakdown right. Yep. But it's more so they know his expectations and they can then carry it out within their rooms. And that doesn't just come from people that have known him for a long time like Dan Brock and Gino Godouli and Mike Brown and guys like that. It also comes down like Al Washington who only coached with Marcus Freeman for a year at Cincinnati. That's it. But he's now been at Notre Dame for three years with him. So Mike Mickey and him coach together for a long time, Maxwell and Al Golden did not. They didn't know who Marcus Freeman was prior to them coming to Notre Dame. They knew he was but they didn't know him. They didn't work with him prior to that. Correct. And now they do. Now Al Golden spent hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hopefully thousands of hours talking football and then expectations with Marcus Freeman. So I think Joe Rudolph didn't know didn't have a relationship with Marcus Freeman prior to coming to Notre Dame. Now he does. And you just kind of, you know, dealer McCullough. Now he's in year three. So I think all those things played off. This was just a team that was much more prepared to handle the environment. Yeah. Then they have been in the past in these similar moments. Now what we don't know, what we don't know, is what they do at the next time in this moment. And that's still something that you can't answer in one game. If the concern is you look great one week and then not the next, you can't answer that in one game. Correct. So we're going to have to wait till the Louisville game and then Georgia Tech and you know some of those, but, but this is a step in the right direction. Let's go ahead. You know, what I was going to say was, look, we, I don't think we've had as big of an issue with, you know, Marcus Freeman getting teams ready, getting his teams ready for a big game. Right. They haven't always won those games and that's a different conversation. But like, what I'm saying is, how do they respond next week. Yeah. Well, you know, the marshals of the world or what, however you want to do it. I agreed with you until Louisville and Clemson last year. That would be my, that would be my, like, that was our thing in the first year was like, look, they were ready for the big games. They were, they were mentally and emotionally ready for how state they just weren't physically good enough to beat Ohio State. Correct. They were ready for BYU. They were ready for Syracuse. They were ready for North Carolina. They were ready for Clemson. They were ready for USC. They just couldn't stop Caleb Williams. It was, it was never a, it was a personnel problem. It was the martial game that they weren't there for. It was Stanford. It was UNO. That's what I mean. They couldn't stop them. Like they didn't have, but, but still, it wasn't that they weren't ready to play that game. They were, they played hard. They couldn't bring them down and back. They were missing some guys, no excuses. They USC that day was better than Notre Dame. Sure. And, and so it was the, it was the lower games that, and then last year, it's like, look, they were ready to play NC State. They were ready to play Ohio State. They didn't execute, but they were ready to play when they basically went through the motions against Louisville. That was the first time, like, okay, this is not, this is not a, and then the same thing against Clemson. So that'll get answered down the road. But, but my, another point, Vince, is those two games is also where a lot of the crying about, they don't win games like this and they don't play well on the road. And I'd say, look, they played well against North Carolina. They played well against Ohio State two years ago. They played well at Syracuse. And, but it's because that the two most recent road games against good teams, they, they laid an egg, couple eggs. Okay, that's gone. So I don't need to hear that they don't win games like this anymore. They do. Now they're going to show they can do it consistently. Sure. But the reality is they're not going to play another true road game against a good team until the last game of the season. Yeah, because Georgia Tech, they played Mercedes Ben so that that was a, that was an important thing for me Vince is to see this team, how this team handled the moment like they didn't play great early. But it was this typical first game, didn't used to the flow of the game. There was no, like when A&M goes down and scores. There was no, you know, offense comes right back down and it ties it up and defense started answering and they were fine. But even then, you know, we'll get into that later, but that was the big thing for me and, you know, this is one of the super chats I wanted to bring up Vince that, that kind of plays into it. This is from indie fanatics 90. He said Freeman is no longer a new head coach. Thank you for the soup chat, by the way. His staffing hires the team's physical and mental toughness playing mostly fundamentally sound football and the in game decisions are all signs of really good. But if not great head coach and these futures bright, the great part will have to find out. And the thing about the fundamentally sound is there were a lot of fundamental mistakes in this game, but you could tell those things were being done outside the structure of what they were normally doing, which is going to happen at times in openers and it was mostly younger guys that were making some of those mistakes. And it was also not atmosphere induced right for the most part, you know, like the Pendleton part late that was right, but then 11 penalties, that's not good, but they were not. Yeah, I think they were just saying, I think you're right. Yes, that's true on offense events, but I don't know if defense isn't too anxious because of the atmosphere. Right. And also they're usually quieter when the defense is on the field, because they don't want to get too loud for their own offense. Fair. And I just think they were, they were just pin their ears back one and trying to make plays. And I actually think that hurt them a little bit as the game went on, because I think they there's a couple times that I felt like they didn't want to jump off sides again so they were maybe a little late reacting. Yeah, but, but the point to him is like, look, they were, they were physically ready. They were physically tough. They showed mental toughness. I mean, and part of it is like players love emotion from coaches, if it's genuine. Oh yeah, right. Not like, just as an example like pounding on the table after a press conference and a really forced attempt to try to send a message to your team, just as a random example that means absolutely nothing about what happened last night. But they want to see real emotion and when they're kind of walking out and they're playing that song and it's just like, okay, you know, and then all of a sudden Freeman just loses it. I mean, he just lose, he just turns around. Like, did you see the video events. He's just kind of like it. Yeah, he's just kind of not. I mean, that's what I do. You know, it's kind of okay. I'm feeling it. I'm very good. And then also he turns around. He's just going like, okay, Marcus just lost it. Coach for him, but it was like, but did you see a real Wagner's reaction? I mean, it was like, let's go. Yeah, exactly. It was genuine. 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. This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all new prologue, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the class leading passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com/ev to see offers. But that's who he is though, right? I mean, exactly. He's like John at the crowd. Yeah, I mean, but it was real. It was, and it sent him a say, Hey, we're backing down from no one. Correct. And it's kind of like the fight against Miami and then Lou Holtz to save Jimmy Johnson's You Know What For Me. It was like, we're not backing down from anybody. Matter of fact, we're taking the fight to them. And that's what it felt like the entire game, right? But here's the thing, Vince. That only happens because they were prepared for that. That was that final. Let's go like they weren't timid of the moment. And then when he went off, they were then ready. He went off because of how fired up they had been and how hard they'd been going all camp. And now it's just like, I can't hold it in anymore. And that's how the players were. And that's where I think the odds came from. You know what I mean? Like, that's where some of those things came from is that was the first time in the game. Like, right. That was the, like, the defense was the first team on the field. Like, that was first game. Boom. Yeah. Right. But, and here's it. And I said this on the show earlier today. It's like, look, this is who Marcus Freeman is like, we see this, you know, juiced up Marcus Freeman at practice. I've seen him when he's watching his kid play. Like, that's genuine. You know, whereas other coaches, they try to manufacture emotion. Like somebody else we saw in a post game press conference. Like, this isn't manufactured. This is genuine. And look, kids are smart. Right. I coach college kids. Like, they know when you're being genuine. And my college kids are only, you're older than your high school kids. That's what I'm saying. My school kids a couple extra months on them. You know, right. Correct. Like these kids know, right. When I'm in a classroom, they know when I'm BSing him and they know when I'm not. Okay. So you can't manufacture that. When I saw that video after the game was over, I think it was yesterday morning, probably. Like, I was like, you know what, that's Marcus Freeman. And the kids know it. And that's why go all the way back to when he got the job. And he came into the locker room. And he was all jacked up. Like, that's genuine. I've seen other teams try to kind of recreate that. And it's not genuine because that's not who that guy is. You know, so I was all for it because I know that that's who he is. Right. And that's the point. You've got to be. You and I have talked about something. You've got to be you. Yes, exactly. As a coach, you've got to be you. And like, so like, you know, I could relate to certain players because when I was younger, because like, okay, but we kind of come from a certain place. We kind of come from a similar background. I don't care what I look like. And I don't care what you look like. We come from similar backgrounds. You know what I mean? Like, we have some more interests or things. You know, I'm not some 45 year old guy walking in the locker room, you know, talking about, Hey, man, did you hear the latest album from? No, guys, I'm 46 years old, like you and I have nothing in common except we, I love y'all. You love me and we love football, right? And we love this institution. Like, that's all we have in common. Right. You know, the music I listened to was, you know, I'm now that old guy that listens to music that was out before kids were born. That's now what I listened to. It's got to be genuine. Kids will respect you if you're yourself. That's why kids could relate so well to Nick Saban into his 70s. Because Nick Saban is who he is. He's not gonna change for you. You know what I mean? He's gonna, he is who he is. But you know exactly where he stands. So when you saw the team come out that way, you could tell Vince, it's like they were ready to explode. And then when he goes, it's like, okay, guys, it's, it's, it's, it's okay to, to let her rip. It's okay. We came here to fight. And you know what I mean that in the right way. And those are things that you kind of, you kind of look at Vince and say, this is a team that has a little bit of a different swagger than it did maybe last year. Right. Absolutely. I actually think last year's team had similar swagger in areas. But I think this year's team has it, but they're more prepared to really carry it out in the, in the bigger moments. And there were plenty of times this team could have folded. And you know, here we go. You know, they took the first score. We have this supposedly have this great defense and they take this first score right down the field and get points. And, you know, our offense can't do this, can't do that. You know, they all fronts, offense is a move in the ball. They go down and score and you're thinking as a play like, well, here we go again. That's not how that's not how they thought at all. Defense made stops. Offense gets the ball back two drives later. They go down and make plays and score. And they're just, there was at no point in time, did you ever feel like they're shook, or they're rattled, or they've lost momentum and they don't have answers. And, and that's really, really a telling thing about a team that's able to do that in the first game of the year. I mean, we saw, we saw a team last night. And this isn't even meant to take a shot a break, but we saw a team last night in LSU that has some veteran players of key spots that kind of didn't handle the moment well. First team preseason all American left tackle talking about this is going to be a fight and all this other kind of stuff experience three year starter gets to fall starts last night. Their preseason all American veteran had more false starts than Notre Dame's true freshman left tackle. Right. And right tackle combined. They weren't able to make the plays exactly. They weren't, they weren't prepared to handle that moment because they don't have the person and leading them that can prepare them for that moment. Because they don't think that guy has their back the way that these kids think that their head coach has their back and they have it has to be every day. And that's what we saw from this football team that that was the biggest, the biggest takeaway events, being on all the stuff that's got to get cleaned up that stuff. Why we're spending time on it that stuff is so important, because that's the stuff that if you can keep it up each week, then all of a sudden now it comes down to our talent. If you can, and this is what you and I said, all this is the frustration with last year events. You, you are the more talented team, but you didn't play hard against Louisville, which allowed their lack their inferior roster to out fights you and out hit you and out hustle you and out, you know, Notre Dame Clemson, you had the better roster you had the better roster if they were 100% healthy. You definitely had the better roster when they were down eight starters, but they wanted it more than you did. They handled adversity more than you did. They made their chances. They made their opportunities and your team didn't. And Notre Dame didn't always do that. Last Saturday night, we saw a team that had that Vince that said, Hey, bring whatever you want. Do whatever stupid yell that you want to yell do whatever because we're going, we're going to come in here. This is our place. I mean, you saw it in the video, Mike Denver. I'm sorry, Vince. The video where Mike Dembrock, I think he said, this is why we came down here for. This is why we're here. Marcus Freeman. Did you see this is what we, this is, we practice this moment on Wednesday, fellas. More than two. This is what we practice. This is the moment we prepared for. It wasn't dig deep and get in your soul and you'll remember. Like, those are great movie quotes. You know, don't, I mean, it's one of the greatest movie quotes ever is Coach Yoast. You know, they get on the pass on Instagram. I'm yanking everyone of you out. They don't get another yard. You remember forever. The night they played, it's like great movie quote. That's not practical. It's fiery, but it's guys. We, this is exactly the moment we practice for on Wednesday. We know what to do. We know what they're going to do. Let's go make a play. And what happened? Christian Gray knew exactly what was coming and almost picked 60. And that was a zero cover bliss, by the way, like this. I mean, look, give out golden a lot of credit. He has a lot of faith in his secondary, rightfully so. But he's zero covered that sucker. Like he brought everybody to make Connor Wigman have to get rid of that ball. And there was Christian Gray, who, you're right, just about pick six that thing and how about what a cherry on top that would have been. But whatever, like that was unbelievable. One thing I wanted to pose to you, I think I know the answer to this question, but I just want to get it out there. Marcus Freeman's in year three is the head coach. He's in year four in this program as the defensive coordinator slash head coach. The vast majority, if not all, I don't know, vast majority of the players that were playing last night. He either brought in as a defensive coordinator, or as the head coach. And they are him. Like they, they have adopted his personality. Like this is his team, because a lot of the older guys are transfers that he brought in right now. There's some guys across the D line, you know, obviously Jack Kaiser's been there for a while. But even them Riley Leonard is Riley Mills and Jordan Bezelho have spent more time with Marcus Freeman than they did, Brian Kelly three to right. Yeah, actually four to one four. Yeah, that's why I brought that Kaiser has been with Marcus Freeman four out of his six years at Notre Dame. Every year that right that mark that that Jack Kaiser has been an actual player on the field for Notre Dame. And in some way shape former fashion with Marcus Freeman either has his position coach slash coordinator, or his head football coach. Right. And yes, but it, but here that was the thing we talked about coming in. But if you, if you lay an egg and A and M, this isn't Brian Kelly's fault anymore. And it's on him. Yeah, right. We talked about this. This isn't this roster has very little Brian Kelly Dean. This isn't like 2012 when Brian Kelly had a lot of Charlie wise guys on it. And I actually am saying that to defend Brian Kelly because Brian Kelly couldn't go to the portal the way that Marcus correct, you know, roster issues that Charlie wise left him. He had to come now Charlie wise actually left him a pretty good flipping roster, but that's the point is right, right, right. We couldn't have the quicker fixes like Marcus Freeman can and Marcus Freeman had that extra year as the coordinator to your point that to recruit Benjamin. And I think about the full recruiting class, but that Marcus Freeman brought in like his first full recruiting class as a head coach was the 23 class, and that class made a big impact Saturday night. But his first class is a defensive coordinator was that Josh Burnham, had junior to Ella Maka had Jaylin Snead had Benjamin Morrison had Jayden Mickey like that group of guys were part of that class. Now they're all playing big roles. So, dude, this is your DNA. Right, Brian Kelly didn't have that extra year where he was like the OC and 09, you know what I mean, we kind of recruit guys. So this is your team. This is your DNA for the for better or worse. Correct. And for Saturday night, it was absolutely for the better to your point that team played with swagger played with consummate confidence played with physicality and play with fire. What does that sound like? Sounds like the guy that was in the tunnel getting ready to run out of the field. You know what I loved about that video. You and I have said this before. You guys see the Marcus Freeman at the press conference. You guys see the Marcus Freeman on the peacock show. You see the Marcus Freeman in the suit talking nice at the at the other sporting events and he is that guy. Yeah, he is. But what you guys don't know is when he gets on the football field as a football coach he's that old school middle linebacker that played at Ohio State had over 100 tackles. He's intense. Colonel House day team that played for National Championship. Right. That's a fiery guy. Yes. And you saw a football, but he, but it doesn't mean he's not smart because again middle linebacker smart knows the game, not a great athlete. Good athlete, but not a great athlete means he had to have it up here to Vince. Right. And you see this team finally kind of with his DNA and part of that is the coaching staff because you now have a coaching staff where everybody's going and you don't have this guy's agenda going in this direction and this guy's agenda going in this direction. Everybody going in the same direction. Right. And it shows how golden wasn't bought in to Marcus Freeman's vision. He had a left by now. Right. If our Washington wasn't, if you know what I mean? Like, and that's not say how golden ever wasn't. The point is how golden has plenty of opportunities to exactly any other job he wanted, especially after last year. He chose to stay at Notre Dame with Marcus Freeman. Why? Because he believes what they're building together. And guess who also had other opportunities? Mike Denmark, Mike Mickens, Washington. All of you guys. Mike Denmark could have stayed at LSU and been the highest paid coordinator in the country. Could have, but he decided to come to Notre Dame. Yes, he loves Notre Dame. That's absolutely part of it. Don't get me wrong. But he also believes in Marcus Freeman. So, you know, these guys are all pushing the sled in the same direction that I mean that's, that's the key. And it bleeds down on to the team and the team. They saw it last night and especially in the fourth quarter. This team is Marcus Freeman's team. They played how he coaches. Okay. And he also in his, in his whole journey to being a head coach and all these different things like super fiery games, super emotional, super excited. Soon as that game started, he was on the sideline. It was all business. He wasn't overly emotional. He wasn't, you know what I mean? Like, he was locked in to what they wanted to do. He made calls quickly. You know, those fourth down calls. It wasn't like he was asking everybody's opinion. Like, he knew the game plan. He knew what he wanted to do. And he did it. You know, the first time he got super emotional was the fourth down stop at the end of the game. I told you, I told you, you know what? Like, he, I saw a different Marcus Freeman on Saturday night. And we talked about it in the post games. I don't want to retread all of that. And it might not sound like, well, what's that do to a film breakdown? Because when you really dive into the film, those things become more obvious. Like, yes, to where, okay, maybe they weren't in the right position there initially, but they knew how they could quickly react. And you could see the town taking over. You can see the recruiting having its impact. I'm going to have an article coming out in the next couple of days where I'm going to talk about like you're seeing the Marcus Freeman, Chad Bowden DNA on this on this roster and you're seeing. Okay, this is the vision for what Marcus Freeman has for learning football. Right. And you're seeing more and more of that when you look at those sophomore kids. Right. And that was a big part of it. Big part of it. And you see why Riley Leonard fits in so well another game, too. Like, again, you see this goofy kind of happy go lucky, you know, silly. I mean, if you watch the Peacock thing that kid, that's a goofy kid. And I mean that in a great way. Like, oh, yeah. It's a great teammate to have in a yes, you know, like, I love hanging out that guy, you lay back like, yeah, don't tell you seriously, but right. But man, you get them on that football field and that kid is a warrior on the football field. Man. And look, it's not coach speak when, you know, we heard in fall practice that he wanted to be hit. Like he wanted to, you know, take the red jersey off. That was not coach speak that was not some anecdote for for writers to put into a story, you know, like that's him. He just wants to be out there with the guys getting hit and doing it all like. And that's what you saw, especially in the fourth quarter, man, like, you know, putting on the cape and just being the guy. And it wasn't perfect. At times, there's no doubt about it. And the first person will tell you that is right at Leonard. But when it when it mattered, he got the yards that mattered on the ground and through the air. Like, he was a huge part of winning that game. So. That's our overview of the entire of the entire game. We're going to, we're going to start breaking it down here in just a second. But in the meantime, make sure you hit that like button, that subscribe button, that notification bell, share with your family and friends and of course jump on the boards boards that I was breaking down. I didn't bring this up before. So I will bring it up now. We're not going to put any video out here on YouTube because of the demonetization and all of that. And we won't put like the screenshots and things right in the past two. That is now moving over to the boards because we're going to have live film and talk overs and yes, as a nose and all that stuff. So that's moving. That'll come out tomorrow. Right. So boards that I got moving back a day. Yeah, because of the. Yeah, just travel. So on for the review today, that stuff will all be tomorrow. So normally we'll do a pond for the review on Sundays and then all that stuff will hit the boards on Monday. So it's just one day removed today or this week. So boards that I was break down calm again best money you're ever going to spend especially during the football season because there's going to be a ton of breakdown video breakdowns over on the boards. So you want to get signed up. You want to do your thing. You're not already because, you know, we're still going to do a pond further review because we watch the film and we want to talk about it. But if you want to see specifically what we're talking about and get even more in depth, you got to head over to the boards boards dot average breakdown. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] When you need meal time inspiration, it's worth shopping king supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouthwatering meals. 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