Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, 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 and 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. (upbeat music) I've been using sports.com for rolling. It is Monday, happy Labor Day to ya. I mean, it is just, it's so much easier. It's been found out in the wee hours of, I guess Sunday morning by the time it was done. It's so much easier after a big win, after all the gnashing and bad predictions and everything else Notre Dame comes away with a win at Texas A&M Saturday night. Everyone in Notre Dame land is happy. In the meantime, BK stews down on the bayou. We'll talk about that in rapid fire in a little bit. I mean, I think the look on your face says it all as soon as I said, BK. I mean, let's just be honest. It's gonna be a fun conversation when we come to that point in the show, right? Oh, it is. I watched that game, obviously, with, you know, there was a lot going on there. Let's just say that. A lot of mixed emotions. You know, two of my top three hated teams were facing off against each other and, you know, had to make a business decision on who I was gonna root for. So, yeah, we're all some fun talking about that one. - He's Vince DiDario. I'm Sean Steyer's, you know, we're just, we're gonna get to the, you know, like the actual topic of conversation, like Andre said. Forget about everything else. All he cares about is Notre Dame football and they have the opportunity to go to the playoffs. We won't put the cart too far in front of course, but I mean, it was a big win Saturday night, Vince. You know, I-- - It was. - It was. - Let's, you know, let's just jump into this because I don't really often get caught up in all the narrative talk and all that different stuff because at the end of the day, I mean, we sit here and we talk about this before and after we try to break it down as best we can, but nothing that is said in any channel or platform affects the actual outcome of a game, right? So that's why I don't typically get caught up in too much a national narrative. But at the same time, when it's a season opener that's just, you know, that's really all we have because it simmers, it stews, the closer the season comes, people start talking about it and you've got a big game like this, so there's a lot more conversation going on like that. The five bombs of the world, you know, they affect what people think one way or the other, you know? And I just find it laughable now, Vince, not quite two days after the fact that it has gone from, how can Notre Dame win at Texas A&M? And you've got Nick Saban on Game Day, you know, well, you know, Bryce Young struggled here a couple of years ago. So how can Riley Leonard expect to win, right? You know, like, you know, you've got that and it's too hot in Texas. And the environment at Kyle Field is insurmountable. All this stuff and on and on and on and on. You know, so it's gone from that to now, well, Texas A&M's not Georgia or Alabama, you know? - Of course. - Like how much, how much does this actually matter? You know, I just, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, but at the same time, it's funny how. - Oh yeah. - And all the narrative switched in short time. You knew this was coming. I mean, we have lived long enough to see when Notre Dame's overrated, even all of the people that were predicting Notre Dame to win, and it's obviously a small number nationally, but, you know, they put out like their top 10 and all these different things, like a new top 10, and then a lot of them have Notre Dame raised up higher, right? And people, oh, Notre Dame's overrated. They're not really all that good and all, but these are the same people that said they were gonna go down and get their butts handed to them. So it's like, okay, you can't really have it both ways. Are they overrated or were they gonna get beat? Which, I mean, you know, which one is it? And it's okay, look, it's okay to say you were wrong. I predicted that Florida was gonna beat Miami by a point, because I didn't believe in Cam Ward. Well, Miami had a hell of a game. Cam Ward had a hell of a game. Can you keep it up the whole season? We'll see, but hey, I was wrong. It's okay to say I was wrong. Now, it's probably 20 years of marriage that have isn't still that into me, but I can say that I'm wrong and it's okay. I don't understand why, you know, all these people, fans, analysts, and all this stuff, they're just beating this dead horse over and over again about Notre Dame and they can't beat, they can't win, they get an SEC team on the road, Kyle Fields, the hardest place on the planet, to play for the world. - Nobody wins a cowfield. - Nobody wins a cowfield. - Oh, it's just happened last in state two years ago and now Notre Dame. - Right, right. - Nobody else wins it. - Like, I just, but then to make the excuses on why they were wrong, it just blows my mind that they can't just say, you know what? I was wrong. - Seems better than I thought. - Now, in defense, this whole direct, I happen to have direct TV lucky me right now and I flip on ESPN this morning to see what kind of college football talk I was gonna get after a big weekend of college football, but there's a little Disney direct TV dispute going on right now. So maybe it's good that I don't get any of the ESPN channels, but I did want, you know, but that also includes obviously SEC networks. So I have no idea what anyone said 'cause I haven't seen anything put out on social media. - The night of and the next morning, so, you know, the college football recap show that they do and they give out the stickers and, you know, all that stuff. Notre Dame was barely hinted at or mentioned when it came to the performance that they had, right? - Because it doesn't matter nearly as much when they win as the build up to telling you why they're not going to. - Correct. And so they got no love for winning that game in any way, shape, or form and all the helmet stickers and everything else went out to these teams that put up 60 against a 1-double-A team. Like, that's what you're supposed to do. Like, 1-double-A is 1-double-A for a reason, right? Or FCS, FBS, whatever. But like, I just don't, like, it was really funny to me. I can't even remember who Tennessee played, okay? They played a crappy team, whoever it was, right? And they put up a bunch of points. - I am a laborer, however you say is the game, the quarterback had a nice game and-- - Yes, they're like, "He's exactly who we thought he was." Who did he play again? - Yeah, exactly. - You know what I mean? - Well, you know, this was part of our conversation in "Countdown Dec." There are a lot of things we, I'll say this, Vince, like, since we're talking about them being wrong. Like, people obviously have no problem pointing out when you or I or anyone else is wrong. So I'll, you know, I'll just go full-gloat here. And if you go back and listen to "Countdown Dec kick-off," the show that we did on Friday, before the game felt like we nailed a hell of a lot of points in that going into the game, in terms of what we thought was gonna be important, how we thought the game was going to be playing out a lot of different things, like, "But boom, but boom, but boom, just..." It played out much more like what we thought it was going to play out than what, because why, Vince, because as I said in that show, none of the national conversation, and until late in the second half of the broadcast, none of the conversation factored in Al Golden and Notre Dame's defense. Like, that was an afterthought in this whole conversation about how good Al Golden's defense was and is. All the conversation was about this great, insurmountable Texas A&M defensive line. And they were good, but that young Notre Dame offensive line, while not perfect, they stood up against it, didn't allow a sack all night. Now the game plan played into that, we'll talk a little bit about that as well, but not nearly enough talk about how good Notre Dame's defense is and how elite Notre Dame's defense is. And again, like going back, they talked about Texas A&M's defensive line, like, "Mean Joe Green was playing out there," and it was the steel curtain defense and all this different stuff. And again, it was about how great Connor Wigman is because he had a five star next to his name when it came to recruiting. And I don't know if maybe that's why Riley Leonard wasn't getting enough love. 'Cause like, again, like even during the broadcast, I think I heard Herb Street say something the effective, well, neither one of these quarterbacks has that much playing experience. What? No, the guy you're in love with doesn't have that much playing experience. The guy who has actually done something had 26 games under his belt. He had a full season two years ago, you know? So again, it's like, I'm giving it a worked up. But again, listen, go ahead. Even at the end of the game, you know, Kirk Herb Street said, you know, well, Texas A&M, they're gonna be playing a lot harder defenses coming up. Like, okay, here's the schedule, Sean. Tell me which defense on this schedule is better than Notre Dame's. McNeese? No. Florida? No. Bowling Green? No. Arkansas, I'll let you answer. Arkansas? No. Missouri? I mean, we can go stereo, no. Yeah. Mississippi State? No. LSU? No. Clearly not, based on what I saw last night in South Carolina? No. New Mexico State? No. Auburn. No. And Texas. Like, that would be probably not, but maybe, you know, maybe in the ballpark. I still think Notre Dame's is better, but we can have a discussion about Texas. Right. That's literally the last game of the season before the SEC Championship game. Because everyone just assumes that you're in the SEC and you're playing all these great teams. Like, come on, man. Like, I realize he's just saying things to Phil Air and all that, but it just sounds like an idiot when he says stuff like that. Notre Dame has an elite secondary, they have an elite defensive line, and they have a fast and athletic line backing core. That's a really good defense. Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over 5 million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. All you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in. Get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today. You can now win up to 100 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 gotta be Wendy's at participating US Wendy's. - I will say like in the ESPN and the broadcast defense, you know, again, like I know that you and everybody picked up on the Herb Street comment there at the end. But like if you, 'cause I didn't hear it in the moment because once Jeremiah Love scored that final touchdown and they kind of, as did, yeah, I'm like trying to get things written and like add some final stats and nuggets and things like that from the game. So like the broadcast was, you know, not registering. So I did go back and, you know, I was watching like those last couple of possessions. Fowler was actually, you know, like he was using the term this elite Notre Dame seconder, you know, things like that. You know, like if you go back and watch it, Fowler was saying that. And like, you know, again, you know, like, you want to talk about Fowler and whether he's, you know, anti Notre Dame or whatever, like he was, he was, he was up here. He was firing up when Bo Collins went up and made that, that contested catch there on the sideline, the 20 yard gates, you know, but again, like that was standing, you know, the facts are Texas A&M 146 rushing yards. Okay. You know, not like I've seen some people talking about that. Well, we gave up 146 rushing yards. Well, one, if you looked at Colin Klein's offense, because that's, that's how that offense runs to 3.8 yards per carry. Bingo. You're going to live with 146 on 3.8 per carry all day long. That's the stat. And then the other stat that obviously, you know, jumps out at you as a hundred yards passing. Like, and, and then all of them. Well, it's 30. Right. What is that even like, as they, even 40%, like that's, that's awful. Right around. I mean, it's awful. And you can't say that Connor Wigman is just a terrible quarterback. Like that, that's not the answer. Like watch the game and see what Notre Dame did to Connor Wigman. He wasn't exactly missing wide open guys. Okay. Like the one interception to Don Schuler, he overthrew him. Okay. But there was also pressure in his face that forced him to throw the ball high. Yeah. Right. He didn't just have a clean pocket and was, and just sailed the throw. Right. So, look, did Connor Wigman play well? No, I'm not saying that he did, but a lot. But the vast majority of the reason for that is because of Notre Dame's defense. They blanketed those receivers. They were in his face. Right. I mean, they were putting pressure on him the entire game and made him look average. And by the way, that's what Notre Dame does to good quarterbacks. I don't know if anybody has paid attention in the last. And that's also the best defense he's ever played against. Right. Exactly. You can talk about, okay. Yeah, he he had some nice games. And as we broke down last week, there's a there's a pretty vast split between what he's done against group of five teams versus what he's done previously against pro five, obviously now. Power four competition, 76% his completion percentage against group of five. And before the other night, it was 76, well, hold it. Yeah, 76% versus group of five, 56% against power five. Very big split, 56% for his career. Notre Dame held him to 40%. Depending on which metrics that you want to look at, Saturday night was either the worst or second worst game of Connor Wigman's career. I would say when you factor in the two interceptions, it's the worst game of his career. And it's not just because he's bad, right? Because Notre Dame's defense made him look that bad. Right. Look, I never thought that he was an elite quarterback, like that. I never thought that I didn't think that he could just put this A&M team on his back and go win a football game. Like I just don't know that that's who he is. I didn't think he would look this bad, right? And again, it's because of what Notre Dame did to him defensively. It's not because he's a terrible, terrible quarterback. It's because he didn't know what the heck was even going on. I mean, that was the problem. He was confused, he was rushed, and he couldn't set his feet and make a throw, period. Yep. Robert says Notre Dame's defense was fantastic as a great cover guy, Benjamin Morrison continues to be. He still needs to improve his open field tackling, still one of the best corners in college football. And I mean, like, I think if you look at even, like Dion Sander is the ultimate example of this. I mean, he was known as a guy who struggled with tackling. But if you can cover and they're not going to throw your way, you typically don't have to worry about tackling as much, right? You know, it's like, yeah, that's something he can work on, but I'm much more concerned about, you know, if you keep, if his presence keeps you from throwing in his direction, and there are all these other playmakers back there in the secondary, it's like you throw a Don Schuller in the mix. Xavier Watts was already there. You throw Christian Gray now into the mix. It's always going to be Pick Your Poison at this point. And all of those guys can make plays. I mean, look at the last play that Christian Gray made. Right. Well, and Don Schuller was all over the field. I mean, Xavier Watts had another pick. Like, again, like you said, Pick Your Poison. I don't care who you're going to throw at. It's going to be a difficult day, whoever you circle in the secondary to try to attack period. I mean, there's no doubt about that. And look, I had a lot of faith in the defense going into this game as the game progressed. My, my excitement for the defense, you know, just continued to grow. I can't even remember because I'm a little delirious from Saturday night into Sunday morning, but one of the guys on the show said the Notre Dame defense is kind of like an anaconda, like they get you surrounded and they just continue to squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze until they end up winning the game. Like that, like they just get better and better and better. And outside of that touchdown drive, obviously that Texas A&M had kind of makes just kind of step back and say, whoa, outside of that, they had another opportunity to shut down Texas A&M and they did it, right? I mean, for now, they got nothing on that final drive. I mean, nothing. And it's not like they were playing pre-vet. You know what I mean? They, they were still playing in their defense, right? I mean, they were coming after them. They were bringing pressure. I mean, they were doing all this stuff. It was a zero cover blitz on the Notre Dame. - And that, no, and I mean, that's something that I think Herb Street did say in the broadcast is, you know, it's like, as a defense, you can pin your ears back when you've got a touchdown lead and there's under two minutes to go. And now a guy like Wigman has to throw the ball. He can't rely on that running game anymore. That's what protected him when he was protected for most of the night was they had the ability to at least try to run the ball. And they hit a runner or two here or there, but, you know, look, explosive plays was something that we talked about quite a bit as well. No, no, you're exactly right. We talked about that in the countdown show. Because of how good both defenses are, we felt like the ability to make explosive plays by the offenses was going to be at a premium. And now the definition, you know, it's fairly loose. Different people sort of have, you know, plus or minus five yards, but in general, an explosive passing play is 20 plus yards and explosive run play is 15 plus yards. Some would tell you that, you know, 10 plus for run play, whatever. But, you know, so if you just go 20 and 15 as your standard, Notre Dame had five total explosive plays. Three of them came on the last touchdown drive. - When it mattered. - Think about that, yeah, when it mattered. And, you know, Texas A&M's longest run was 14 yards. Their longest pass was 18. And I mean, Jadarion Price with a 47-yard run. Jeremiah Love of the 29-yard run. And then, you know, again, Bo Collins, the 20-yard catch. Love with an 18-yard run. And then two plays later coming out of the two minute timeout. The two minute warning, the two minute timeout. It's 41-yard touchdown run. - It's interesting the way they explained that last night about how they're not allowed to call the two minute warning, which I thought was like, why? That's the hill that college football wants to die on. - Right, I mean, is that trademarked by the NFL? - I don't get that at all, right. - You mean that warning is trademarked now or what? - What, that one, like, of all the things that were said in last night's USCLSU game, that's the thing that stood out to me. It's like, well, we're not allowed to call the two minute warning. So, we'll call it the two minute timeout or the two minute break or whatever. They ended up calling it as like, really? Okay, all the issues in college football, that's where they're going to plant their flag. Okay, sounds good, got it. - That's the one, that's the one. - But no, you're absolutely right. Look, at the end of the day, I agree with whatever one of the textors said, you know, the most important thing is to get the win. And that is 100% true, there's no doubt about it. But for me, this game was decided in the fourth quarter, right? When A&M's guys were grabbing their legs and cramping and puking and doing all these other things. And Notre Dame, you know, somebody said it, Riley Leonard comes out for that final drive with a big old smile on his face. It's tied 13, 13, crowds going crazy, 107,000. You know, they're talking about the press box swaying back and forth, you know, all these different things. You know, he's Joe Cool, Joe Montana, you know, in the Super Bowl, I realize it's not the Super Bowl or the National Championship. I'm not, again, not putting the cart before the horse, but Notre Dame was the stronger team in the fourth quarter on the road. They just went down and they bullied A&M all the way down the field. - Yeah. - So like, that's what this game came down to. That's my biggest takeaway. Are there things that they need to work on and get better at 100%? But in the fourth quarter, when it matters on the road, what was it? Notre Dame did a, let's see here, eight plays, 85 yards and took four and a half minutes off the clock. - Right. That was the ball game. - It was the longest drop, both in plays and time. It was the longest drive of the night for either team. And again, we talked to Carter, Carter Carl's last week and we played a couple of his comments in the countdown show again, like I really encourage you to go back and listen to that countdown show because I feel like, you know, we kind of nailed it. I'm just saying it's gonna bet yourself on the back a little, but yeah, like he talked about how Texas A&M, their mode of offense, they wanted to grind it out and matriculate that thing. Now they did it for one drive, but that's it. Notre Dame scored two touchdowns. They scored both of the touchdowns on explosive plays. They were run by price, they run by love, both of them. You know, and again, even though love scored his on an explosive there at the end up, you know, everything up to that, like you said, seven plays and however many yards prior to that as well. Notre Dame was able to use the clock as they needed to put themselves in that position and come up with the victory, you know? So a lot of different comments and stuff are flying. - Oh yeah, and we're gonna talk about the offense and I definitely want to get into more specifics with the offense and we will, but that drive said a lot to me. It did. - I agree, here's Marcus Freeman talking about it. - You know what it reminded me of is the Duke game from last year, right? And it was the thought process. Do we tell them to go down? If something happens where we break it, we tell them to go down or we do score and I just, I didn't want to put that in his head. I didn't want to take points off the board. The analytics will probably tell you to go down and, but again, you know, again, just as I told Denmark, man, keep battling. Were we tied at that time? Or were we tied at that time? I can't remember, but hey, we were good. I said, well, there was a lot of confidence. I remember I kept saying in huddle, like, this is right where we want to be. This is right what we've talked about. We got a lot of confidence and I'll go execute on this play, right? And so that was my communication. No, and I mean, that's exactly what they did. They controlled the game right there with that touchdown drive. And you want to just get into some of the game plan slash Riley Leonard because, like Robert says, he was not impressed with the quarterback. Notre Dame allowed to transfer in. Really wish they would develop their own quarterbacks. They already recruited. I mean, that's coming. You know, that's-- - Relax. CJ Carr is here next year. You're all next, yeah. - But look, part of the reason you went out and got a Riley Leonard and obviously, the pairing with Mike Denbrook fits in. I realize people have some issue with, well, you're not throwing the ball down field, all this different stuff. Well, part of the reason is they want it, like people talked about how are you going to protect this inexperienced offensive line against that pass rush and that defensive line of Texas A&M? That was part of the game plan. Like, you needed shorter passes and you also needed Riley Leonard to be the runner that he was because, like, you telling me that Mike Elko didn't know on that final touchdown drive because everyone, again, wanted to talk about, well, Mike Elko's got the upper hand because he coached Riley Leonard and he knows he's dead. It's easy. You tell me Mike Elko didn't know Riley Leonard was coming on that last drive, on that last possession, Riley Leonard busted off two big runs in part of that. Look, here, the final drive, right? The big one that they went down and got that touchdown and we talk about, okay, it's Riley Leonard, right? First play, QB run, plus nine yards. Then, obviously, they had the loss to love. Then that third and five to Great House is the best throw we had all day. I mean, that was on the money on that out route, so that's a first down. - Big conversion of third down. You know, you talk, remember, remember, that was only their second, right? But ended up with two third down conversions all night. They got the biggest one in the night and they needed it on third and five. - Correct. The very next play is the, I put plus, plus catch, obviously, the Collins on the sideline, but that ball has to be in a certain spot, you know, for him to go up and get it. He trusted his guy. He went up and get it. The very next play is a 12 yard run by the quarterback, which then loosens up the defense and then you've got love for 18, love for one, love for 21 touchdown. Like, Riley Leonard was that drive, guys. You can be, I guess, in your feels about whether you think he's the man or not to lead Notre Dame wherever. He put his cape on yesterday and led this team to this victory. Don't get it mixed up. They don't win that game if somebody else is a quarterback, in my opinion. I think he helped win that game. - You're absolutely right, because he is a dual threat quarterback. - Correct. - The way, like even, you know, earlier in the game, when you watch Riley Leonard, you see all these defenders around him and, you know, Riley Leonard is like frogger. Like he's zigging, you know, all of a sudden, he just either runs right by him or runs in between him or, you know, like, there's, there's, it seems almost effortless the way he's able to get downfield with his running. He had won, he was never sacked all night. He was tackled for loss once. That was a one yard loss. And like when he bowled his way out of that pressure, when he was almost sacked, you know what I mean? - Oh, if he gets that ball a little bit better. - I mean, if he gets that ball up a little bit, it's obviously a touchdown to them forward. I get that. But if he's anybody else, that's a sack. Like you can be upset that he didn't get the ball to them for it. I was upset. I thought he could have maybe just kind of lofted it up there, you know, whatever. But that should have been a sack, Sean. Like he, not only did he get out of there, he spins out of it and then like steps out of it. I mean, that was an unbelievable play. Like, and that was so early on in the game where I was just like, okay, I'm glad this kid's on Notre Dame. That was an impressive, impressive play. - Right. And again, okay, here's Marcus Freeman on the game plan in terms of how much, you know, you need Riley Leonard. This is a fairly short comment, but you know, how much Riley Leonard, the plan was for him to run in addition to the short passing game, all those different things. - For this game, yeah, for this game. Each week will change, but this was exactly the game plan for our offense this game. We had to be smart versus a really good defense and we executed really well. - Had to be smart versus really, you know, again, it was, it was like, this is not the game plan you're going to see every week. I would not be surprised if they come back and maybe they're trying to push the ball down feel early against Northern Illinois next week. But that's not, that's not what you needed to do in that road environment with all the concerns about communication, young offensive line, you know, all the concerns that everybody had, right? Like all those different things, you can't ask the quarterback to stand back there in the pocket for three and a half to four seconds looking down field. Like he would have taken some sex in that instance and it would have looked a lot different if that's the game plan that they had. - 100% and I, when it comes to the offense and the game plan, yes, I wanted them to push the ball down the field a little bit more. There's no doubt about it. But they obviously had a game plan for the way that they wanted to possess the ball. And they, you know, they didn't want to put the ball in a precarious situation because they knew that the defense was going to be very, very good, right? This is a defensive minded head coach who has a lot of faith in his defense who is trying to instill faith in his offense, right? And that's that first drive of the second half, I think encapsulates that, right? Because they went twice on fourth down, number one, because he knew the defense was going to stop them if they turned it over. And number two, he's trying to, you know, let his young offensive line and young offense as a whole, no, hey man, I got faith in you that you're going to be able to pick up this fourth down, okay? When you go, when you look at all the starters and you can go all six wide receivers, you can go three tight ends, you can go, you know, the offensive line, both running backs, whatever, right? It's a lot of new, okay? Transfers, young guys that have never played before, you know, all of these different-- - Guys who haven't played in a game together. - Yes, and that's the point. - Again, don't forget, this is an entirely different starting offensive line, an entirely different starting offensive line many years ago, currently a different quarterback. - That's my point. - And both Collins, and Chris Mitchell, and Mitchell Evans was 100%. Yeah, and Harrison. - Yeah, I mean, yeah. - Yeah, and so many different, and look, both running backs are in a completely different role than they were in last year. So there's a ton of new here with this offense, and I want people to remember, Mike Dembrock was very, very clear about you're not gonna see a finished product offensively in game number one. He said, I want you to judge us on how much we improve week to week. That's what I want you to judge our offense on. This is now the starting point, right? That's all game one is, it's a starting point. They did enough to win the game, right? The defense didn't score any points, which I'm actually a little surprised about. Those were all offensive points. And the one time that I think that they got three points off of a defensive, off of a turnover, they got three, right? The rest of those were all offense. So it's a foundation, it's going to get better. You watch, it will, once these guys start gelling and playing together and understanding each other. - Yes, and that's the thing, because we talked about this, they weren't playing McNeese or whatever, Putsville, Tennessee, or you know, whoever these other schools were playing. Yeah, it's like they were playing Texas A&M, still a legit opponent on the road in that environment. Like those were all legit factors. Maybe we downplayed it a little bit, but those were legit factors, Notre Dame went in, like were they factors, of course they were, but Notre Dame, you know, had to go in there and they had to overcome some of that stuff. It's going to naturally look better now, because, you know, the bigger challenge now is, especially this week, how you flip from easily getting up and going into that situation with Texas A&M to how you come home and get up for Northern Illinois and then how you go to Purdue in Miami, Ohio. None of the, like those teams will all be good in their own way, but none of them are going to be as good as what Notre Dame just faced for the, you know, maybe until Louisville. And I mean, that's obviously TBD. Obviously nobody expected Louisville to be what Louisville was last year to see what you've got this year. But you know, my point is, you know, like Purdue's best player was playing for Texas, you know, from a year ago, was playing for Texas A&M. So Notre Dame is going to have a chance to come together and figure out a lot of different things in terms of the offensive line, the offense, all those different things, naturally now, because there's going to be a much different, much, you know, a much bigger difference in the level of competition that they're going to do. - No doubt about it. And it like, you know, we call them get right games, right? And that's what they've got coming up here over the next few weeks. And so you can't take them lightly, but the, you know, the margin of error is not as small as it was against Texas A&M, right? And so you've got an opportunity to get better in all facets. These linebackers can get better. You know, everybody on this team can get better, which is scary in some positions because they're already really freaking good, but they can all get better. And that needs to be the focus, you know, going in. It's not, you know, it's the whole faceless opponent thing. It's, you know, you've got to work on yourself. You've got to be, you know, you have to be better, right? It doesn't matter who you're going up against. You need to be better, right? Texas A&M could end up being one of, if not the hardest defense that this offense plays all season. And I'll bet it pretty well. - I mean, odds are, and we still have to kind of find out after that Florida State loss to Georgia Tech, we still have to kind of find out, like, are they better than they played in that game? Because there was obviously a lot of hype about that Florida State defensive line that didn't come to fruition over here in Ireland. But like, is that going to be the, like the next best defensive line that they see? I'm going to get to some of these super chats here. - Yeah, we got a bunch, actually. So thanks, guys. - But with the quarterback conversation, because Robert brought this up, he says, "Allow me to rephrase, why can't Notre Dame recruit and develop their own Riley Leonard?" He's the third quarterback in recent memory. Notre Dame has relied on for the transfer portal. I mean, and that's fair. And again, we've talked about this, like, you go out and get Riley Leonard to win games like Saturday night. That's why you brought in Riley Leonard. Look, this is not a shot at Steve Angeli, but Steve Angeli is the number two right now. And I think we're having a different conversation today if anyone other than Riley Leonard was the starting quarterback Saturday night. But they've recruited Kenny Mincey and they've recruited CJ Carr and they've recruited these other guys, you know, whether or not, you know, like-- - Yep, yep, yep. - Line on the dotted line and whatever else. But that's where this is leading. Like, the pipeline has started. It's just that you needed one more guy to kind of fill in that gap year because, I mean, just look at the schedule. Notre Dame with the right quarterback in place right now has every reason to believe that they're going to be in the college football playoff and they just became a college football playoff front runner by winning Saturday night as well. - Well, look, here's the bottom line. - But you don't win if you don't have Riley Leonard. - Correct. - There's the bottom line, Sean, and ever since Brian Kelly left, quarterback recruiting has been excellent. I'll say it, right? And that's even, by the way, including when Tommy Reese was here when he no longer had Brian Kelly to tell him which quarterbacks to recruit, okay? So those guys don't just come in as true freshmen. They do have to, you know, simmer and sit and figure it out and all of these different things. And so the, you know, the best two quarterbacks on your roster from a just a straight up talent standpoint or Kenny Menchie and CJ Carr. And once they get through, look, Riley Leonard is the perfect guy for this team right now. I do believe that, right? And it allows those younger guys to get another year another belt, see what leadership is all about and all of those different things because whether you can agree or disagree with what Riley Leonard does on the field, he's a really good leader. Just watch all the little tidbits and things they do on game day and on the, you know, the peacock doc and all these other things, right? So he's a really good leader. He prepares, his life is football. Those guys can learn a lot about life and football from him, okay? And so once he's gone and these guys actually get to take over, now you're gonna see a cycle of homegrown quarterbacks that are gonna be just fine at Notre Dame. This is the last year. This is absolutely the last year but enjoy it because Riley Leonard's a really good quarterback, okay? And I know his passing stats probably weren't what people wanted but when it was important, he hit the throws he needed to hit. - Yes. - And he'll be the first one by the way and he said it in the post-game interview on the field. He's like, I don't even know why the mic is in my face. He goes, I played horrible for three quarters. He goes, it took me a while to get settled in but the fourth quarter was Notre Dame's. Like, bingo, like that's exactly what it was. He put the cake on the fourth quarter. - He's the guy you knew you could put the game on his hands in the fourth quarter. - Absolutely. - Like the play at Clemson last year showed that and the kind of runs that he made and that the kind of couple throws that he made on that final touchdown drive, show that. Like you needed, you needed not just Riley Leonard to be able to throw the ball because of the kind of defense that he was playing and because of the kind of yards you needed to get, you needed Riley Leonard the runner as well. You couldn't have a guy who was just a pro-style stand in the pocket type quarterback. You needed both assets from Riley Leonard. - And look, Riley Leonard almost single handedly Beat Notre Dame last year when he was at Duke, okay? The reason he didn't beat Notre Dame is because he didn't have the guys around him to compliment what he's able to do. Now he has that at Notre Dame. He was able to get the ball in the hands of playmakers and then also make plays himself. That's the difference. And that's why you went out and got Riley Leonard. So look, there's still a lot of football left to be played and we'll see if we're right, we'll see if we're wrong. Like I'm not gonna stand here, you know, preach, but like, we said this on Saturday. - Yeah, we said this last week as well because we had the question about who was gonna have the better QBR after the game. - And it turned out to be Riley Leonard. But like I said, QBR with a quarterback like Riley Leonard and specifically with Leonard is unimportant because of the extra facet and asset that you get with his legs. He's gonna make winning plays with his legs that don't factor into QBR or whatever other stat that you wanna put on it, you know? That's why you got a guy like-- - Yeah, 100% his QBR, his rating according to the stat thing is 104.2 and Connor Wegman was 54.7. - Yeah. - So, but he also had 63 yards on the ground. So in a 5.3 yard average every time he ran the ball. So, you know, very important. - Josh, there is, I think somebody already answered it, but just so everybody else knows, there is an upon further review coming up at seven o'clock Eastern time tonight. Vince will be doing a double shot, he'll be part of that. I mean, DK says, I don't go past an hour and a half. So I'm gonna get you out of here. I just didn't time to catch up breather and get in there. You wanna get to some of these super chats here before they go too deep or is there anything else you? Like, do you wanna talk a little about the offensive line first or like, what else? - Yeah, I mean, we can definitely talk about the offensive line. I had a chance to watch most of the game back already and look, they weren't perfect, but they played hard. And when they went the right direction and they did the right things, they were dominant at times against a defensive front that's the best they're gonna see all season. I mean, I'll say it, Texas A&M's defense, I think, at least the front seven. I'm not so sure about the secondary and they had obviously a guy get thrown out early in the game and all these different things, right? And I think they had an injury as well. But that front four also with the linebackers, like this is the best Notre Dame's gonna see and they held their own. I mean, they did, they held their own. Texas A&M's offensive line was much bigger than Notre Dame's which led to some issues defensively for Notre Dame at times. But Notre Dame's offensive line battled, man. - What's crazy is like, because of you're going on the road and all those different things, like you expect young offensive lineman to be the ones jumping and all starts and all that stuff and it's the freaking defensive line. - I know, right? - You know, I know some people were, 'cause I was listening to part of you and Brian toward the tail end of the post game show the other night. I know that came up and people, you know, want to go at Al Washington. I mean, you had guys who were amped up. First couple, first couple of drives of the game. They were going, you know, they were here. - Two of those penalties were in the first drive. - Yeah, they were here in the clap. They cleaned it up the rest of the game. Like, I mean, you know, like second half he's out there, you know, thinking that he's gonna get that a hard count. They're just sitting there like, come on, just snap the ball. We're not falling for the old, you know, banana and the tailpipe trick once again, you know. Like, let's go, let's go, let's play football here. And they, yeah, they cleaned it up. - And they, look, we said going into the game 'cause the Andrew's saying that Leonard made the offensive line look better than they actually were. We said at the beginning, you know, all week and for weeks, it helps to have a guy like Riley Leonard behind this offensive line because he's going to be able to escape some pressures, right? He definitely escaped one sack. There's no doubt about that. - This is part of the game plan as well. - Yeah, again, that's why Riley Leonard was such an asset. Yeah, I agree. Like, you know, again, it wasn't perfect. - I wouldn't say a bunch though. I really wouldn't say a bunch. - But like if you got to play Northern Illinois and then Purdue and work out some things on the offensive line and then go to Texas A&M, I think you're probably talking about at least a little bit different strategy from an offensive standpoint going into that game. But they knew that they had to protect those guys because they were young and experienced, you know, just the communication and the whole thing. It's not where it's going to be, you know, three, four games in and it's certainly not what it's going to be by the end of the season. - Oh yeah, for 100%. Look, Riley Leonard did a good job as a passer to get rid of the ball when there was some untouched pressure that came his way, right? We know that he stepped out of the one sack where he threw the ball short to Devin Ford. So yes, Riley Leonard did those things, but his athleticism got him out of a couple of pressures. I think there might have, like let's say Jack Cohn, for example, was the quarterback. There might have been two or three sacks. I wouldn't say a bunch. I think that is, that's a little bit hyperbole. I think, you know, it wouldn't have been that. - A&M only had four hurries. - Yes, there you go, there you go, thank you. I haven't seen that stat, so I wasn't, I didn't know for sure. - I was thinking about it earlier today and I meant to write it down. Unfortunately, I had the stat page open. - Awesome. - Four hurries is all they had. No sacks and four hurries. - Yeah. - The whole night. - Like yes, is Riley Leonard a part of that? - 100%, but so is the offensive line. - But is it better than a lot of people thought they would? - If you had, like, I don't want to, his poise was a part of that. And again, it's why with this, with what you knew that you had in place, that's why you went out into the transfer portal and brought in a player like Leonard with the experience that he has and the skill set that he has that you could add to this team. Because, you know, again, like there's talent in those guys behind him. - Right. - But they're not going to, like it's a lot different situation in that, you know, just based on the kind of quarterbacks they are, if you were playing that game with any other quarterback besides Leonard Saturday night. - Yes. - But again, the offensive line, it's, here's some of Marcus Freeman today about the line. - Yeah, I was really proud of the way they performed. They did a good job versus a really tough defensive line and they battled and, you know, there's some mistakes that maybe to the normal person's eye is like, man, that's an old lineman's fault, but there's also some things as a coaching staff that we got to put them in better situations, you know, make some different checks and things like that. But they continued to battle, even after, you know, maybe you got beat, you got a holding call, you had a false start, like they reloaded and they went back and performed and they really competed through all four quarters. So we're really pleased with the performance of our offensive line. - Yeah, so Andrew put in a comment as I was playing that. And I mean, I think it's a fair comment because again, if all you do is look at the stat sheet, seven tackles for loss, lack of hurries were due to how quickly Leonard got rid of the ball. Again, part of the game plan and, you know, his legs as well. Some of the tackles, like the tackles for loss on the running, there was a little too much lateral, you know, jitter bug in the backfield. It's like you got to find a hole and you got to hit it. There was a little bit too much side to side by both price and love the other night that led to some of those tackles for loss. - But they also had 198 yards on the ground and 5.8 yards carry. - And when they found the holes, when they found the hole, like, again. - Right, so I mean. - We talked about the explosive place. - Yeah, I'm not happy there was seven tackles for loss. I get that, but they also had plenty of positive yards as well. I mean, I'm very interested to see if we, you know, we fast forward to the end of the season, how many teams are going to be able to rush for a 200 yards on Texas A&M? I'll just say that, 200 yards and 5.8 yards a carry. What's that number going to be? And I will be shocked if there are seven tackles for loss by opponents in the next two games combined. - Oh, yeah. - Yeah. - Again, you got to factor in who you're playing. And I get it, you know, like, like, one, they won the game. Are there things to clean up? Sure, Marcus Freeman said as much today. I mean, 11 penalties, you got to clean them up. But again, you went on the road and you won the turnover battle. You made more explosive plays. You did all these things. And despite the fact that you had 11 penalties, you still won the game because your defense is elite. You've got an elite quarterback as well. And, you know, while some of this other stuff is a work in progress, I don't think you freak out about that because again, just by natural nature of who you're going to play for the next month or so, a lot of that stuff is going to clean itself up naturally when these guys just have a chance to get out there and play together. They'll be able to clean a lot of this stuff up, I think. - Agreed. - So now we can jump into some of the super chats. - Nice. - Thank you, Irish, for the super chat. He says, "The best thing I can say about the offensive line was they were just good enough to win this game. The best is yet to come for this group, really tough first test." - I think that's fair. I think they were better at times than I thought that they would be, but they still made mistakes. But I think if they can make this their worst game of the season, then they're going to be really good when it's all said and done. I mean, look, they almost doubled their career starts in one day. So, I mean, there's going to be mistakes, right? I mean, they went from six to 11 in one day. So, I'm just, I'm happy with the way they played overall because I expected mistakes, but Irish is absolutely correct. The best is yet to come for this group. So I liked that perspective. Thanks for the super chat. - Yeah, I mean, you know, they, but I guess, you know, got their feet thrown into the fire. - All 100%. - Right away. - You know what I'm talking about, like this is the definition of getting thrown into the fire and learning on the job. - Yeah, exactly. So you go into that environment. Again, like nothing they're going to, 'cause like even think about the road games, you know, 'cause like Florida State is a home game. Louisville is a home game. Georgia Tech is a neutral site game. Army is a neutral site game. USC is obviously like the next big road environment you're going to face is 12 games from now or 11 games. - Right. - Into the season. But in the Coliseum against your biggest rival, nothing until then is going to come even close to that. And even when they get out to the Coliseum at the end of the year, I mean, USC big win for them against LSU. We'll see what they're going to be by the end of the season. But that environment even is nothing like what they played in Saturday night. - Oh my gosh. - Just in terms of routiness and noise, you know, just the whole thing. - The Coliseum won't even be full like the game starts. - Unless USC has had a good year, you know, 'cause like the fact that Notre Dame is going there, well, you know. - But I mean, even as a full stadium at complete, you know, high tilt for USC fans, it's not even, it's going to pale in comparison to. - Oh, exactly. - Yeah, exactly. It's just completely different. And they're certainly not going to get that on the road at Purdue in a couple of weeks. So, yeah, I mean, nobody had to deal with the road conditions in the top 25 that Notre Dame had to deal with on Saturday because most of these games in week one or week zero are at neutral sites. So they didn't even have to deal with the road stuff. You know what I mean? - Miami is probably the only one who's going to get swamped. - You agreed. And to Florida fans that they really think that this is going to be a good year because they all want to fire their head coach. - Well, yeah, I was going to say. Might be a good point though too. Fred, thank you for the super chat. Great start to the season. Love the show. Never thought I would say this, but we have the best secondary in football right now. D-line will just get better. Resilience prevails. Go Irish. And we haven't talked about the defensive line and, you know, like cross and mills, like they would kind of come out of there for big chunks of the game. And they let those, you know, we talked about the depth of this defensive line and you're like, oh, you know, do they need to get back in there in the game? They didn't just throw them back in because A&M started to have a little success. But then again, like when you needed Howard Cross and Riley Mills be fresh because they, you know, they were able to have a little bit lower snap count because of that depth at the end of the game, peers your peer, pin your ears back big boys, you know, they were in, they were fresh and they were doing everything they needed to do. Big performance. - Yeah, nope. Couldn't say it better myself completely agree. Thanks, Fred, appreciate you. - Absolutely. Nerd for life. Thank you for the super check. Joining late, but Joel Klack picked Notre Dame for the game and had a very great things to say about the Irish after. Others are now saying how easy the schedule is. Have to find something. - I mean, of course they are. I mean, even Notre Dame fans are saying the schedule is easy. So that's fine. That's all well and good. You know who also had an easy schedule? Last year, the national champions. - Yeah. - And we gave them crap all season for it and they ended up winning the national championship. I realize there was some other stuff that went on too, but they still had-- - But it still says national champions right now. - Right now it does. And I also will say that they would have still won maybe not Ohio State maybe, but like they would have won all of those games with the roster that they had. I mean, they just, they were the better team on the field in at least 11 out of those 12 games of the regular season. So say what you want to about Michigan and believe me, I'm their biggest critic, but they had a really good roster last year. - I know. - I know. - Really? - I know, but they had a really easy schedule and they won the national championship. So and nobody, well, I shouldn't say nobody's gonna take it away because they certainly might. But, you know, if it wasn't for all the other crap, they would have a national championship in their hands, so. - By the way, Vince, automatic for the people. - What's automatic for the people? - See, I knew it. Did you even read the tweet when I tweeted about the show? - I mean, I read it, but it didn't mean anything to me. That's why I said, I don't think I got nothing. - I said, like I said in the retweet, 100% chance, Vince had no idea what the reference to automatic for the people, REM album from early 90s. Everybody hurts, Vince. Everybody hurts, especially. - I think I know that song. - Yeah. - That was like the only big hit from that album. I think it was one of REM's last big hits, really. But yeah, little, anytime you use the music reference, Vince is gonna have no clue. - Nothing. - Right, 5150. - Yeah, yeah, that'll still never ring a bell with me. - Thanks again for the super chat. Irish Notre Dame doesn't win the game without Riley Leonard. He's a big time football player and a difference maker. - Yep. Look, are there gonna be more skilled passers out there? Sure, there will be. Are there gonna be more skilled runners out there from the quarterback position? I'm not so sure there will be. And I'm not so sure that there's better leaders out there either. So you put all of that into a mixing bowl. I think Notre Dame has the right guy behind center. - Yeah, you know, like Robert is saying, can't do anything about the schedule when you plan it out years in advance. And on top of that, you know, let's not forget Miami was supposed to be on this year's schedule, but due to their own snafu, that's why you had to plug some holes in, you know, with this whole thing. - Good point, this season. - That's a really good point. That all of a sudden would have been a great game. - Yeah. - It's airy. I'm still not wholly convinced that Miami is going to continue it, but I mean, we'll see. It's one win, it's being in-state rival. So like from their perspective, they're feeling good, but I'm not completely convinced on Miami either. I do think like them, Florida State, Clemson, that's probably the mix. And you know, NC State was my dark horse, 'cause I got the coast of Carolina. Excuse me, guy transferring over there. They really struggle. I think it was Western Carolina. They struggled to beat them last week. So we'll see if they get any better. - I mean, Miami's schedule is ridiculously easy. Listen to this, Sean. - It's the ACC, right? - Florida A&M is next week, okay? Then they get Ball State. - Well, that's Florida A&M is why they're not playing Notre Dame because they over-scheduled with Florida A&M. - Wow. - Yeah. - So Ball State, then they've got USF, then they got Virginia Tech, which people will have high hopes for Virginia Tech, and that kind of got dashed a little bit. - Mm-hmm. - Week one. Then they got Cal. Then they got, yeah. I guess this is probably where you'll find out, I suppose, but they got Louisville and Florida State back-to-back, okay? Then they got Duke, then they got Georgia Tech, then they got Wake Forest and Syracuse. Like, that's not exactly where it is, bro. - If they're not, at least in the ACC Championship game, it's their own fault, really. - Right. - Their hardest games are Louisville and Florida State may be Georgia Tech, and those teams are all on Notre Dame's schedule. - Maybe that's why they found a way to over-schedule and keep Notre Dame off this year. - I mean, those teams are all on Notre Dame's schedule plus you at USC and A&M on the Notre Dame's schedule. Miami schedule's easier. - Yeah. - So there you go. - Riley asking if anyone knows what's going on with Dion Colsey is in the dog house or hurt. - Look, he's, this is not a shot at Dion Colsey, but the bottom line is he's, he was not producing at the level to put himself at the top end of the rotation. That's just what it is. - It hasn't been at all. - Other guys who played better than him. - Yeah. - He hasn't been all camp and I think that's important to note as well when they would split up and they'd be on two different fields and they'd kind of have the quote unquote, like varsity on one field and kind of everybody else on the other field. And he was on the other field. I mean, that's just what it is. And he was never on the injured list. He was always out there in full participation. It's just, you know, the wide receiver room's deep. And unfortunately he's just not in it right now. - Bo Collins and Jaden Thomas are at the same position and they are ahead of him in that position. Like you saw the plays that Bo Collins was making out there the other night so like that's the biggest reason. Those two guys have just played better than Dion Colsey. And I know that there are a lot of people, you know, who kind of feel the same way, you know, like they're wondering why haven't we seen more of Dion Colsey. And it's just, there's a depth chart and they're gonna stick pretty much to that six. Now we could, you know, again, like if the game goes the way it should go Saturday, you could end up seeing Dion Colsey out there. But we didn't even mention Jordan Faison did hurt his ankle the other night. He's going to miss this week's game, could miss next week's game. I don't think there's any reason to be rushing him back out there. But KK Smith, it was another guy that a lot of people want to see. He's gonna move up and KK Smith is the next man. So he'll be in that six man rotation to start out this weekend. And again, like if things go the way they should, that the rotational expand Marcus Freeman brought up, Mike Gilbert is a guy that we could also see more of this weekend. And then you get past that and you're like, you could end up seeing all of them again. That's if they things play right the way that they should. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Jordan Faison should not be the difference between a win and a loss next week. No, or this week, whatever it is. Not at all. 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 podcast, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts. This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the all new Pro-Log EV, 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. Rabbit Nile said Josh, that Josh paint take on elite positions at Notre Dame. There aren't any, apparently is what he said. I saw some people talking about this on the Champions Lounge. He says it's really got him overly upset. This is from Rabbit Nile, Chihuahua. Don't want to get you upset, my man. Yeah, like, again, it's like what Josh paid or anyone else says is not going to have any impact on whether Notre Dame wins or loses. You're going to tell me that with two All-Americans in the secondary in Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts and then like just starting out with those two. And then you throw in a Don Schuler in Christian Gray and Jaden Mickey played pretty well the other night as well. You know, I know he had the, you know, the one penalty or whatever, but like that is an elite secondary. Correct. I'm sorry. That isn't like, like starting with that. Come on, you're exposing yourself if you're telling, if you're trying to tell me there's zero elite position groups at Notre Dame. Now, you know, again, like a guy like Josh Pick, does this go back to, are we looking at recruiting rankings and using that to form our opinion of what we think, you know, someone or some team or some position group is arisen? Like, is that where you're formulating that? Because if you're going to look at that position group and what they did to Connor Wigman in Texas A&M the other night and tell me they're not elite and what they're going to do to most of the rest of the schedule this season. Come on, give me a break. Right. Right. Yep. Agreed. Vince, Vince has got his, his late post game form right now. It's like, yeah, I just keep this, keep this moving. I got lip on for the review in an hour here. Another one from Irish. Thank you very much Irish keeping us employed tonight. He says, I think people should hold off talking about strength of schedule, at least until a few games are played. Notre Dame schedule could end up being better than something. And I mean, I think that's fair because like what's, what tech going to end up being? Right. What's for the state going to end up being, you know, what's USC going to end up being? Like to be in USC made a little bit, you know, and I know, you know, again, it's, it's one game, but it is, you know, like, I know. Well, let's just say LSU and USC both went into Sunday's game with big questions about the defense. And I think they're all still there, too. Yeah. Well, there are questions, but they at least look better defensively. They, they at least USC at least looked competent defensively last night compared to last season anyway. They looked competent at best. I, I was actually, I'm not saying I know. I know, I know, you know, right. It was, it was a challenge at times to watch that defense on both teams, by the way, like, especially in the first half, because I was really watching in the first half and it's like, offenses were able to kind of do whatever they wanted. You know what I mean? And like USC bent, but they didn't break because they ended up, you know, turning them over on like the three-yard line or whatever. But yeah, I was not overly impressed with those defenses. Let's, let's get a few more games under their belts and see what it looks like. And I, I remember leaning over to my kid and we were watching the game together and, you know, talking about the USC defense and I, LSU was just running the ball on them. I was like, they think that defense is going to work out in the big 10. Good luck, but I mean, we'll see. Obviously there wasn't a lot of scoring either. So, you know, is that the defense, is that the offense still trying to get their footing? You know, that, well, that remains to be seen, but I didn't come away from that game thinking, wow, these teams have really upgraded defensively. Yep, Brandon says, Rod heard, look good too. And he did, and didn't notice quite as much of him because he wasn't starting, but they were working him into some sub packages. They had him playing, you know, like, you know, like linebacker roll. Yeah, there's a bit more. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, again, there are a lot of pieces to that Notre Dame secondary and when you don't even really mention herd or, or Jordan Clark, and they're what, you know, like, there's not as much place for the nickel in a game like you had the other night, just because of the way Texas A&M plays offense, but you're going to see a lot more of Jordan Clark and probably heard as the season goes along when they're actually need, you know, with the exception of the two option teams, right? You see almost a completely different defense, usually, you know, more guys in the box and things like that. Nerd for life. Thanks again for the super chat. Did y'all hold your breath when Collins pushed that kid in the back? Yeah, I was waiting for the foot. Yeah. Like, Oh, man, they got so lucky when Bo Collins pushed the defensive back in no flat. I didn't see it live. I did not see it live. I was I had my head down. I was writing down what happened in the play, you know, things like that. I write down every single play and what, you know, what happened and all that. So I didn't actually see it happen. I just heard the commentators talking about it. And I don't know if I ever saw a replay of it either. I don't know if I just missed it or if they didn't do it. You must have you must have missed it because I heard street was talking about it and just basically how lucky and they because they did go back and kind of show it. Yeah, I must have just missed it. I don't know. Maybe I was hitting the head or something, but it was it was not a savvy move on his part. Let's just put it that way. And hopefully he's learned from that. I love the emotion. But you know, get fired up. But you can't do something like that because you could just as easily obviously cost your team as help him out after a huge play. When you're trying to go win the game. Yes. Yeah. Thanks for the super check. Connor says, look here, boy. Y'all soft Yankee boys don't know nothing about this here. Texas heat. I think this is from we were talking about the heat earlier. Yeah, I like that delivery as well. That was fantastic. That was great. I don't think they know anything about Northern Indiana heat because it was hotter than you know what up here the week of the game. So I am extremely happy. We're talking highs in the 70s this week. Andrew wants to know if you have any comments on Jeter. I mean, the kicker. Yeah, I was I was I had some concern based on what we saw him in the spring, but he's been running the game been yelling it. Yep. Look, the kicker accounted for 12 points. Notre Dame. All right. Yeah, 11. Excuse me. Kicker accounted for 11 points. Notre Dame won by 10. That's all you got to know about Mitch Jeter. So he he was money. I mean, and when he kicked it like there were there were no doubters like it's not like he snuck it in or barely hit like those were no doubters, man. And you know, special teams as a whole, right? New punter, new kicker, two new Snappers, new holder, like every piece of special of the special teams unit was new this year, whether a new starter, transfer, you know, Australian implant, whatever, they were all new. And I think as a whole, they did pretty well. Still want to see some more from the punter. There's a little too nonchalant out there for me with, you know, where was that 5.0 hang and I was early like it felt to me like like his first couple punts like not having punted, you know, again, like this guy's from Australia, he's never punted that that that crowd is probably at least five times bigger than everything than anything he's ever played in front of. I'm sure like was he was he maybe a little? I don't want I'm not saying rushing himself, but you know, like, you just kind of feeling it a little bit like maybe feeling a little pressure that that wasn't there just the way he punted. I mean, the hang time was nothing like what we got to see, you know, the the few times that we did get to see him punt. But you know, it's a lot different when you're in a fall training camp practice day one versus in front of a hundred and seven thousand fans and that and guys coming after you. And yeah, you know, I think his first punt his back was kind of to the goal line to a degree like, look, I get it, man, like that's that's tough to have your first punting experience in in college football or American football or whatever you want to say. But like, I thought like he was short leggings, some of it, or maybe that's just his style. Like, I don't know because I've never seen him kid before, you know what I mean? So I'm going to need to see a little bit more from him. But at the end of the day, I think he had a 43 yard average. Okay, I mean, that'll get the job done. So I just would like to see it a little more traditional, but we'll see. D troll hunter says the stadium in Melbourne holds 100,000. We asked him when we got to talk to him during training camp, the biggest crowd he's played in front of and he said around 20,000, 1520,000 when he played in like the Aussie rules, you know, like it was like a age group championship for the country or something like that. So that's the biggest crowd that he said out of his own mouth that he had ever played in front of. So a lot bigger. That that environment down there, a lot bigger, a lot round here. But I agree, you know, like, there's still, he's still from a from a from a standpoint of put it inside the 20 kept the field position the way that it needed to be, you know, no big flukes or anything. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, no, for sure, there was no almost blocks, you know, none of that kind of stuff. So, you know, I'm nitpicking to a degree, I understand that completely. But I didn't see what I thought I was going to see. That's all. Yeah, that's all. Well, get into some more of the linebacker play and stuff like that. Jesse will bring out the whiteboard tomorrow and he had a lot of good stuff. I think it is whiteboards last week in terms of like looking at that Colin Klein offense and what, you know, we thought that that we would see. But Jack Kaiser's play, we haven't talked a whole lot about the linebackers. I thought like, I'll say this like early on, the run fits, you know, that there were there were some that could have been a little bit better again. I think some of it had to do with, as Jesse pointed out, you know, like when, when Texas A&M is going to pull a guard or pull a tackle to the right, well, you know, that's, that's the read of the linebacker. He's supposed, you know, he's watching the offensive lineman seeing where they're going. But Colin Klein likes to do a lot of that stuff, you know, like pulled to the right run to the left, those kind of things. And I think there were times when Notre Dame's linebackers just basically had to sort of freeze rather than commit to that so that, you know, that still puts them a step or a half step behind because of the fact that they had to freeze. But I mean, overall, Jack Kaiser, he led the team in tackles. Saturday night played like you would expect a veteran to play. I thought the linebacker group was was pretty good on the hole. And I thought that Kaiser was really good as well. Yeah, no, no doubt. I was, I was pleasantly surprised by the line backing crew. Like you said, there were times where I thought they didn't shed blocks very well. They kind of took them on and didn't get off. But at the end of the day, Jack Kaiser has a nose for the football that's never changed. And it is not going to change, obviously. I mean, he's the student of the game. And I, Jack Kaiser is the leader of that group. And he will lead in, in, you know, voice, but also action, like he will be around the football at all times. What I was surprised about was he was not always on the field in big moments. And so that tells you how much they trust some of these other guys to like, at the end of the game, it was Bowen and Osbury out there. But I also think that had to do with, okay, you know, Texas A&M is going to throw the ball. And those guys are sure, yeah, face better, like sure, Osbury and Bowen, the space that they can cover. Yeah. But they, but like, it would have just the veterans. Yeah, exactly. But whether they had the skill set to do it or not, you know what I mean? So I, but that still, yeah, it does show that they'd have faith in some of these younger guys who don't have as much experience. Yep. Andre absolutely did tweet it about Jesse and the white board that he saw a lot of the things that he saw on the white board last night showed up in the game. So look at that. Yeah. What are the time? What are the time? Sloppy Joe will wrap up with this and then we'll get into rapid fire. He just says, over the last two years Notre Dame shut down three quarterbacks who were drafted number one, number two and number three, respectively. People can't gauge Wigman as a player based on a game versus the Notre Dame secondary. I mean, that's a great, a great point. Sloppy Joe pat yourself on the back and go listen to Gore tapes because like you just nailed it with that. I mean, like look, look at the, you know, you've got Drake May, you've got Caleb Williams. And who is the third one? I can't think of it off the top of my head. I don't know. Who was the third one? It's Sloppy Joe is still here says over the last two years. So I mean, they do a good job of making quarterbacks look pedestrian anyway. Stroud. Thank you. C.J. Stroud. I knew it was going to be more obvious than what it was. Thank you very much. Thank you. Very who who said, okay, now all of a sudden everyone's popping in. Who was the first one to say that too late? Yeah, that's right. We got a lot of Christopher Hardy was the first Christopher. Thank you very much, Christopher. C.J. Stroud. Thank you. That's right. Bob said P. Stroud. So he was in the neighborhood anyway. Yeah. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) A king supers pharmacy care is making it easy to get vaccinated, care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID, and RSV. Seasonal vaccines are available seven days a week with evening hours, care is giving you a shot at staying healthy this season. Walk in whenever is best and get multiple vaccines in one visit at your local king supers pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King supers, a world of care is in store. Visit king supers.com/vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply seaside for details.
