(upbeat music) All right, time to call the bill a bit of an audible because the boss man is back in the hotel, in college station, down there, amongst the hundred and whatever thousand people, sad folks and probably a hundred thousand sad folks. (laughing) You didn't get any fights or anything. - No man, you know me. - Okay, good. - I roll man. I only with you. - That's fair. - That's fair. - That's fair. - Some guy, I ended up catching my order. I gotta go do a show, man. Y'all taking fricking forever at Taco Bell, but had a guy tell me to fire the offensive coordinator. - Bench Conner Wagman and I was like, so Notre Dame's defense had nothing to do with it. - Right. - No man, I'm like, okay, all right. - Prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members. Prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize picks, it's just you against the numbers. 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Number one, okay, but there was, I just cannot wait to watch all these clowns at ESPN just make themselves look like fools all week talking themselves out of why this wasn't that big of a win for Notre Dame. After all those clowns went and picked Texas A&M and all they had to do, like they're just sitting there talking about this. But you guys do know that Notre Dame has a defense too, right? I did watch that team hold Ohio State to less than 20 points per game in the last two years, right? The team that y'all picked to win it every year other than Georgia, right? I mean, and they held him to less than 20 points. Marvin Harrison didn't even go for 100 yards against Notre Dame, not in a game in two games combined, but we're gonna act like Notre Dame doesn't have the best, you know, the best defense on that field tonight. We're gonna act like that. Is their D line legit? They showed it tonight. That's a good defensive line. There's no doubt that's a good defensive line. It's them Louisville right now. What I've seen so far this year might have the two best D lines that I've seen that Notre Dame's gonna face. I would have said four or say preseason, but after watching them get pushed around by Georgia Tech, I'm not as concerned about that one. But it just, and for all the Notre Dame fans that spent all the last two weeks talking about, they don't win games like this day, but I don't wanna hear you talking about A&M's not that good. I don't hear you talking about, "Oh, you know, what kind of weapon is not as, look, the fact of the matter is this. The bench, you know this. Ryan, you coach football, you know this. The two best feelings you can have as a football coach is when you play the football team, number one, to dominate a really good football team. - Right. - Number two is to not play your best, not do all the things you need to do, but grind it out, be gritty, and say, "Hey, you know what? You watch the film." There is a lot to clean up. 10 plus penalties. Mitt tackling tonight. I can't wait to count the extra yards A&M got after first contact after the game of that. - Yeah. - And that stuff proved crucial. - Sure. - A dying shooter, I thought was so good tonight in so many ways. I mean, just great reads all over the field, but how many times did he hit a guy not wrap up and let them get four or five yards afterwards, including on one play where he snips, does a great job sniffing out the screen, and then goes out of control, doesn't tackle the guy, he gets five yards, and also in their 49-yard field goal range. He makes that stop there at 55. Now they got some tough positions to make him to try a longer field goal, or are you going to punt the ball and try to play field position, right? So when you watch this game tonight, fell as the linebacker play, I mean, I can't wait to talk to Ryan after he watches this game again, and we can talk about the linebacker play. It's got to get a lot better. The old line's got a lot to clean up. Pass Pro's got a lot to clean up. Riley Leonard had multiple missed opportunities in the past game, but they went on the road and beat a team by 10 that a lot of people in this chat, and everybody on the ESPN outside, a guy who's like almost 90, picked to beat Notre Dame. Nick Saban picked A&M. Oh, the environment. Just 'cause your team struggled with that environment the last two times, you went down there. Doesn't mean Notre Dame is going to struggle with it tonight. Oh, I don't know if they can handle the heat. All I know is I saw A&M players cramping up in the fourth quarter of this game, not Notre Dame players. Oh, they, you know, but the old line, they went for a Buck 98 on a team that gave up 108 yards per game on the ground last year. Oh, they don't have enough speed. The team in white and gold was the fastest team on the field tonight. I mean, all the false narratives that Sean, you and I have just been going back and forth on the phone about the last two weeks. I just wanted to screen, I almost went off on my show Friday. I had to hold myself back 'cause I'm so sick of these narratives. They're just not based on reality, but emotions and what was true 10 years ago. This isn't Brian Kelly's Notre Dame anymore, folks. This is a different era. And, you know, you talk about the quarterback, people are crying and whining about the quarterback, right, Leonard's got to play a lot better than he did tonight. No doubt, missed a big opportunity. Devin Ford might still be running. He might be to like Oklahoma by now if he hits him when they were backed up and he's getting he scrambled, right? He's had, missed him in the end zone. He's got to hit Jeremiah Love on that slot fade. He's got to get that ball up, the boat columns on the deep end cut. There was a lot of opportunities there for learning to run A&M but he did two things tonight, fellows that I absolutely love. Number one, even when the past game's not there, he's a playmaker. Past quarterbacks love Jack Hartman, Jack Cohen, love Sam Hartman. But if their throwing game wasn't there, they brought nothing to the table. - Right. - Riley Leonard tonight, what, 63 yards on 12 carries, showed that even when the past game's not there, he can be a playmaker. And just little things like sliding, staying in bounds on that last touchdown drive, letting that clock run, knowing the situation, just more football. And the other thing too, he was so calm tonight. Every time someone's about to get ramped up, Jayden Thomas is losing his mind on that penalty he got. And I understand where Jayden's coming from. He's thinking the tight end did his job and stayed behind the line of scrimmage. He's like, it's not passing her finances to screen. Well, Cooper Flanagan got passed in so Riley calmed him down. And what happened, I think a couple of plays later, Jayden Thomas comes in to crack somebody as Gidarian Price bounces that ball outside for a touchdown, right? And that's another thing. I don't want to hear another conversation about the best running back rooms at college football unless you're going to include Notre Dame. And if you're not going to include Notre Dame, then you're not a serious person anymore. Don't talk to me about team speed when I watched them two running backs last night. And you know what I loved about it too guys? It's not like they were just opening up these big holes and they just ran through untouched. They were opening up good holes, but then they got to the second level. They had to make plays. Gidarian had to truck somebody before he had to bounce it outside and run somebody over, right? I mean, and you saw Jeremiah Love. I mean, he was brought here for speed explosiveness. Two best plays he made tonight were about him running through people, right? So like Notre Dame, I felt their mistackling had a lot to do with just not wrapping up, not playing with force. Notre Dame's offensive players just running A&M players over tonight in the second half of that game. I mean, they were the tougher team in the fourth quarter. And that's not a, that is no disrespect to A&M because I gained a ton of respect for the A&M football team tonight. They battled their butts off, right? They came against the really good top 10 there A&M team and brought it for four quarters. Guys, they just got P5 better team. Like I know that's why their fans are so upset. They don't realize they got P5 better team, you know? And I'll say something else too. I really felt that my criticism for Marcus Freeman tonight is my man, treat those time outs with more respect. Early in half, right? Do not call a timeout when you're gonna punt from midfield. Let the flipping clock run down, okay? But you saw the faith he has in this football team in the second half of this game tonight. - Bingo. - And he was willing to make those two fourth down calls. And you know why I'm okay? Let's, first of all, he got the first down. That was a bad call in terms of my opinion. But the reason I'm good with that, even if they did get just flat out, clean stopped, is that's him saying, I know, even if they get the ball at midfield, they're not gonna go down and score in our defense. So it showed confidence in his offense to make the conversion. And then it showed confidence in his defense. Guys, we haven't always seen him play with that kind of coach, with that kind of confidence in his football team in past years. And that showed me something. And you could argue that was kind of early to be going for it on fourth down in the game. But he said, I have faith in my football team. And the message that that sent to the Notre Dame football team, in my opinion, is huge. And so to see this team come out and play with the grip that they had, play the toughness they had, and play a sloppy, sloppy game, and still come away with a 10-point win, says a lot about who this football team is, fellas. Because you can say, like, if they just went out rolled A&M and say, well, maybe A&M isn't really that good. But this A&M team brought it. And Notre Dame gave them a pledge. I mean, first drive of the game, two third down penalties? They gave them the first down? - A third and a second. But the first one, it would have been a three and out, if Notre Dame doesn't have the penalty. - Well, then you had the third down past interference on Christian Gray, right? On the third wall. Wasn't that also on drive one? - No, no, that was later on. - What drive was that on? - It was on the, it was, well, I'm gonna have to find it, but it was definitely not on the first drive. - The old trusty play sheet here. - The two penalties on the first drive. - Yeah, the third and two. - Were Traore in Mills. - Right, you have the third and two where they, there was Mills and say Mills and Traore, right? - Yep. - And then on was a drive two. Trying to find the one where Christian Gray, you had another one where Christian Gray gives up a third down conversion on third and along. 'Cause he gets called for passing interference. - Yeah, the second drive is where there was an off sides and a PI on the same drive. - Yeah, third and 11 on a second drive. - Yeah. - You know, and you let them go down into, so I mean, there were so many opportunities where Notre Dame had misses and mistakes. - Right. - That you're gonna get in the film room and clean up. And that's a great feeling. I don't know how, I mean, I'm sure you guys talked about this, but when you can watch film and see so many mistakes, you know, like Sam Pendleton's gonna have a lot to clean up from this game. But you know what he did on those last two touchdown drives? He'll lose somebody off the ball. And that's why you're playing them. I mean, Ryan, how many times do you and I talk about Sam Pendleton during his two years, basically, from Notre Dame, we're like, one thing I know about this kid, he's gonna punish people. He likes punishing people, you know? And I thought Anthony Knapp held his own and, you know, I'd have to get back into film and really break down the entire offensive line, but I thought they battled. That was the big thing for me is I thought they battled. The biggest frustration for me, I just kept waiting on them to just take a shot against A&M. I really did not. I'll give A&M credit what they were doing and as they were playing a lot of really deep too high with their corners playing aggressive, trying to funnel everything inside to basically take the tight ends out of the game. And Notre Dame didn't have a kind of a plan of attacks. So they're basically saying, hey, we're gonna kind of protect against the deep ball up the seams and force you to go outside. And I don't think Notre Dame had enough confidence that they could protect long enough to maybe take some of those outside shots until we got in the fourth quarter and they hit that back shoulder to Bowe College. But like my thing is that was there all night. That throw was there all night. I thought the corner route, they hit on Snag and they're playing too high all night. You can't give me a couple of smashes or something, you know? And I thought A&M also had a really good third down package. I mean, third down off at tonight was brutal. I mean, just absolutely brutal, but I thought A&M had a good package. They were taking the quick game away and saying you're gonna have to throw the ball down field to convert on us, but you're, you know, but you're not gonna be able to have enough time to just tap all out. And then obviously there's some pass protection issues, but man, I could sit here and talk for an hour about all the things they need to clean up. They got the win. But we sat here, we're in the chat and by the way, I apologize for, you know, giving away stuff. I kind of forget that you guys aren't watching it the same exact time that I am. But when they, how much time was left when Notre Dame got that ball, it was 13, 13? Oh, so they got the ball once and didn't do anything with it. And then they got it again and scored the touchdown. There was 623 left and they went on a 429 drive. - And I texted you guys and I basically said, where's the text? I said, I can find it here. - I said, 'cause like, let me see here. To me, this drive is the game. You either move and score and win or you punt it again and eventually lose. Like I really felt like that was the moment where we're going to find out if this team has what it takes to win. Can they really put a drive to go? 'Cause you go to overtime on the road against sexy and then you're not winning that football game. - Exactly, we talked about that. Yes, that's not what they, that's not anything that we wanted to happen. Nope. - Nope, nope. You just don't win that game and to watch them come out and make the place they did. And you saw why they brought some of these transfers in. I mean, that's ultimately, that's what they brought those guys in to do, right? Is to make plays like this. I'm trying to find the touchdown drive here. So you had the 20 yard game to Bow Collins. You know, it gets started off with the Reed zone, Riley keeps it, gets plus nine. That spin, that spin out. You get a minus four, you get third and five and they were terrible on third down all night, but they got that one, third and five. - And we talked about, we talked about that one. We talked about that one how that was, that was right of learner's best throw of the night. Like sentence feet, put it right where it needed to be on third down on a crucial drive. Best throw of the night. - And then to come right back after that, throw the deep ball to Bow Collins. That back day in and off, and next thing you know, you go quarterback counter for plus 11, you go inside zone for plus 18, go plus one and then Jeremiah Love breaks it for the win. It's like that throw was the final, that third down throw to me was that final spark like, "Hey, we got this," and then that aggressive play ball. I thought that was huge. I thought that was absolutely huge to be able to make those plays and they needed it. They desperately needed it. So yeah, they were terrible on third down in this game, but they made the third down plays that they needed to make it the end. And I'll be honest, I heard what you said at the end Vince. Once they scored, I know there was time left. My buddy Jason Texamine, who's like, "There's too much time left." And I was like, "There's no way they're scoring this defense." Right, that was my initial thought. But then I thought, "Hold on a second." That's what I felt about Ohio State last year too. Let's see what they can do. But they made the place. I mean, they've never even threatened them. Never even threatened them. And they got two shots at it after that first time. So it was a great team win. Your offense, your defense, and your special teams needed big plays in the final six minutes of the game. And they all made it. I mean, they kicked that field goal against P-A-T. I mean, it's this clean app, clean hold, clean kick. And it was just like, "That's 46." He made that like it was nothing. And you're like, "This is why you brought that kid in. This is why you brought Riley Leonard in. This is why you brought in both college. This is why you brought in RJ open. This is her. I mean, the safety play tonight was so good. You know, it's why you brought in Rod Herr and they're just getting started because you saw the young guys make a lot of play. Like Drake Bowen had some plays. You're like, "He doesn't know what he's doing right now." But there was a couple other plays. Did you see that counter? They ran a counter and Drake blew the lead blocker up and just completely shut that down. So he's gonna have to get a lot better. Kinks is gonna have to get a lot better. Christian Gray is gonna have to get better than what he did. He didn't trust himself a couple of times tonight. But those, all those young kids that had those boob a card, you gotta get better moments, they all made a lot of plays. And that's what we hoped this team would be. You know, we didn't really know. We hoped that they could be. Is yeah, they can win when everything is going right, but can they really win those nitty gritty games? This game in a lot of ways reminded me of Louisville. You love that early score. It's back in, your office is really when the whole second half, they pull away. Third name never let that happen in this game. And that to me tells me that this team is a little bit different, you know? This team's a little bit different than they were. But I don't wanna hear anything from all the people complaining all week about how good A&M is and their A&M doesn't win games like this. And, oh, you know, the SEC this and the speed that and the offensive line this. Make sure you don't try to back out of that now. Own that, own that ESPN, own that. And don't try to tell me now that A&M's overrated and they're not that good and all this other nonsense. SEC had two chances at home to get statement wins tonight over good teams and both of them got beat by double digits. So you all can quiet down a little bit while at a SEC noise until they actually beat somebody good. And that's not Texas beating Michigan in two weeks, right? So I think it was actually for the ACC, which the seasons got off to a pretty rough start for the ACC, I think Notre Dame and Miami both gave them much needed big wins today. 'Cause everybody knows the other names, they're viewed as a de facto ACC team. So big, big wins tonight. So I'm fired up guys, a lot to clean up. Vince, you and I is upon further review on Monday is going to look at some of that stuff. But it's an opener, gonna be sloppy and opener. Oregon tonight beat like Idaho by 10, right? Did you guys see that? What was the final score of that game? I know it's a close game, but it's like a 10 point game for a while, right? I watched. - It was 24 for the team. - Yeah, so Oregon's team, everybody loves beat Idaho by the same amount of points that Notre Dame beat Texas A&M on the road. Like I don't wanna hear all that noise. Put some respect on Notre Dame's name and that's really what it needs to be. But obviously moving forward, gotta keep earning that, keep getting those wins. So I'm excited guys, I'm fired up. It didn't go how I hoped it would go because now I wanted to blow out 'cause my nerves can't take that. But if you're not gonna get that, this is the kind of win that you need. My only concern coming out of it was question I guess is, and we're gonna find that out here by the time we get the Louisville. 'Cause what we answered the next three weeks, I don't care you come out throwing nothing deep ball of victory games, don't care. I wanna see what you're doing, it's Louisville. Was it a, hey, we don't think they can score on us. So we're not gonna maybe take some chances that maybe give them this or give them that. Maybe, I don't love that. That's kinda what we saw against Ohio State last year. The difference is this year, you had a quarterback who doesn't make some plays. Sean and Vince, I said this to you guys. When they got Riley Leonard, I said, they would not have lost Ohio State last year if they had Riley Leonard. In this game, you saw why. - Yep. - You saw exactly why. - Well, this was a classic case of you and I talking about the fact that there's gonna be games where he has to put the cape on, right? - Yep. - That's what he did. - Yep. - That's what he did. 'Cause look, nobody's gonna argue the fact that he didn't have a great game first three quarters. Even he said it in his interview, right? He's like, I don't know why the mic's in front of me. You know, it took me three quarters to get settled in. You know what I mean? - Yeah. - So he's gonna be even his own biggest critic, but when it mattered most, man, like he led the team down the field, period. And it was a huge moment. - 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. - Boom. - Let's go back to what Brian just said. That's going to be a question mark for people that they try to put over Riley Leonard's head. 'Cause as I can say, you struggle for three quarters against Notre Dame last year. Now you faced another good defense and you struggled for three quarters again. Like is this a trend, he's going to have to answer that, but he doesn't get the true exam until probably November. - But you know the difference is Sean, you know what the difference is? They lost no name left, do you know why? 'Cause the dudes around him, Warren is good on the dudes on the other side of the field. That's the big difference is now he's surrounding. He's like, look, hey, you know what, we saw games whichever Lawrence wasn't as good as he needed to be. But in the fourth quarter, I mean, he was mediocre against Notre Dame in 2018 until what? Until that two big throws late in the second quarter. That's all he did to the whole game. But he made those plays he needed to make those plays, right? He didn't play that great. He wasn't throwing that great against Ohio State 2019. He's like, okay, past game ain't working. So let me do some Hooper Superman stuff and take the Clark Kent costume off and go out and rush for 100 yards and do what I need to do, right? That's what the quarterbacks do. To your point though, that's good. I mean, can you drop back and throw the ball in teams? You know, 'cause like, yeah, you beat A&M this way. But if we're being real and we're sticking to, if I'm saying, hey, own what you said before the game, I'm gonna do the same thing. What I said before the game is guys, this is not the same as beating Ohio State. This isn't your bring on Bama, bring on Georgia, bring on Ohio State moment. This is a team you should beat. This is a team you're supposed to beat and they did what they needed to do. And that's a great thing, right? But doing what he did against A&M doesn't mean, hey, when they play the Bulldogs, he's gonna do the same exact thing and they're gonna win the same exact way. Nope, you've gotta be bettered. A lot of the mistakes they made on the O line. Okay, that may not have fly against Georgia. That may not fly against Ohio State, right? A lot of the missed opportunities Riley had. You can't have those when you guys play Louisville in a month. You can't have those when you go on the road and play USC in November and you definitely can't have those when you guys are playing Georgia or Ohio State on the neutral field in December in January, right? But that part will come guys. I mean, he missed all spring. We thought there might be some rust. You know, it's one of the things I had in my what to look for. Is he gonna be on the same page with the receivers? And it wasn't, you can see it in pregame and missed like two straight deep balls in pregame. He's gonna have to still, to point Sean's, he's gonna have to prove he can make some of those plays in the passing game against the better defenses on the schedule. But you can still win these type of games because he can do the other stuff. And that's the difference. That's the biggest difference in this game. And that's why another name is Wanna Know. And that's why we said Vince, right? I mean, Thursday guys, Ryan and Trevor, we were doing it. I don't care if it's 10 to nine. I don't care if it's ugly. You have a sloppy, you get Wanna Know and then you got three get right games. So Louisville comes to town. That's the key. And they got, they gotta go. - Great. - Done. - Thanks for hanging with us, Brian. You're gonna stick around you. - Yeah. - Is that okay with you guys? - Oh, can I hang around for the super chats? - All good, yeah. No, we've got a bunch to get to. But before we do, I wanna finish up this segment with some game balls. So we're gonna go around the horn and I want you guys to give your offensive game ball. All right. So we'll go clockwise. So we'll go Trevor, Sean, Brian, Ryan. We'll go clockwise around the horn. Trevor, your offensive game ball, sir. - Mine's gonna go, I thought about it 'cause I saw that's what's gonna be on our agenda for tonight. I think the easy answer would be Riley Leonard for a multitude of reasons. But for me, I'm actually gonna go Bo Collins is gonna get mine for tonight. For a handful of reasons. First, he was very consistent in the past game. And I think that back shoulder that he caught on that final drive for the go ahead touchdown is what gave the spark to help finish that drive. That to me was the play that almost invigorated the rest of the team that was, yeah, we're just better than this team. Don't care what the media's saying. Don't care what college game day said. I don't care that we are at Kyle Field and this is the SEC. We, as a collective team, are better than Texas A&M. And I think that's a game changer. And Bo Collins stats are not gonna jump off of the stat sheet. I think he had five for 62. But all of them were meaningful. If you go back and look at the all 22, so he's getting my offensive game ball. Sean. (mouse clicking) Sorry about that. I'm gonna go off the grid a little bit. I'm gonna get my game ball to all the first time stars. 'Cause we knew what the veterans are gonna do. This game we're going to be about Adon Chula, Drake Borne, Christian Gray, Anthony Knapp, Pendleton, all of these youngsters that we've been hearing about. How talented they are. This was the biggest stage for them. They didn't get the easy games. They didn't get Akron. They didn't get a direction of school. They got SEC 107,000 prime time. Here's your first startup. Ladies and gentlemen, they all showed up. Inconsistent at times, but man, they showed up big time, especially those two offensive linemen on the left side in the middle of that fourth quarter. That is impressive. So for me, I'm gonna give the game ball to all the youngsters that we've been waiting to get that opportunity. 'Cause I think all of them took full advantage of the opportunity that was given to them in that first stock. So. - Perfect. Brian, what do you got? - You know, Sean, all week Arabic talking about youth, youth, youth, youth, youth. You know what they forgot to talk about? They're really talented. Really talented. So that needs to get discussed more. I love that one. I'm going with the running backs. All three of them that played tonight, including Devin Ford. 'Cause if Riley Leonard would have hit a couple throws, right? Devin Ford's got maybe two touchdowns in this game. You know, the third down one reason, the end zone. That was a lot like that throw that Ian Book made to Avery Davis to beat Clemson in 2020. Rolling right, find that guy in that little crease. He's got to make that play. And then as I said, he might still be running if they'd have made the other one. But I thought the backs tonight did some, I mean, I thought Jeremiah Love was a little impatient. The timing of run game wasn't there. He missed a couple of jump cuts or cutbacks on some inside tones. But I thought he got more patient as the game went on. And man, he ran hard in this game. I mean, Ford's core of the Notre Dame running backs are like, y'all going to have to bring more than one. 'Cause you're not bringing me down with one. You better bring like, you know, what's that movie, Martin Lawrence? Oh, I see you brought your boys. Like, I mean, that's how it's going to have to be, right? You can't bring me down with one in the fourth quarter. It's just not happening. You better bring your crew with you. And I thought that was the, I mean, without those big plays, they don't win this football game, guys. I mean, like they couldn't do anything and you saw, you kind of started to see it with like late in the first, I think it was late in the first half, right where Jeremiah, or where Jadarion had his long run and then Jeremiah had his long run at right after that. Was that second quarter or third quarter? I think it was second quarter. But I mean, you just really saw them kind of spark this team. And I mean, part of it was I felt A&M's entire game plan was we're not going to let Riley Mills and Mitchell Evans beat us. Now, fortunately for them, Mitchell Evans barely played, which, you know, we also make a note that Mitchell Evans barely played in this game and Notre Dame still won by 10. But their whole game plan was we're not going to let the guy that tore us up against Duke last year. When we were at Duke last year beat us and we're not going to let Riley be. I mean, they're running Reed Zone and they're literally running right to Riley, you know? And so Notre Dame found some answers for that in the second half. And that was a good coaching adjustment. Even though I have some issues, some good coaching adjustments, hey, let's do some things differently to try to get these backs going. And every time they gave them some room they made play. So I don't know they win this game if the running backs don't play like we all thought and hoped that they could play. - Ryan? - I'll go with Riley Leonard. I think a part of a couple of those big plays is based upon the fact that you have a running threat and you have a dynamic element, a quarterback like him. Being able to chip away into showcase the explosiveness and the play make ability has. I think that kept you afloat kind of earlier in this football game. And then when it kind of really settled in and your run game started going, I think a big reason for that was you always needed to count for number 13. So I'll give Riley Leonard the game ball. I know if that's weren't gaudy, but I think he made the big plays and the big moments that he needed to make. - I'm gonna keep it pretty simple. - Can I say something real quick to Ryan? Ryan, that's something that you and I talked about all last year was Riley Leonard is not always going to have the sexy stats. You can't just look at stats to understand the impact that Riley Leonard has on the game. You have to look beyond the stats to understand the impact. - Yeah, so I think that's a great point, Ryan is. Yeah, the stats may not blow you away, but you watch how Texanum did everything they could to try to stop him. That opened up some of those opportunities for those other guys. That's a great point. Sorry, Vince. - Nope, you're good. I'm gonna keep it simple. I'm going with the O line. They were the most talked about denigrated group going into this game. And I'm not by any means saying that they played a perfect game. I'm not saying that. But as Ryan said earlier, we saw them kind of grow up in front of our eyes in this game and there's still a lot of work to be done, but they came when it counted. That last drive, they came when it counted, right? And they were able to push the ball down the field whether it was pass blocking, giving Riley Leonard enough time to throw that out cut to Great House or whether it was run blocking and allowing Riley Leonard to run or allowing Jeremiah love to run, excuse me, Jeremiah love to get that touchdown, all of those different things. Offensive line gets my game ball 'cause I just think they had so much pressure on them as a group in this game that if Notre Dame lost this game, everybody like, oh, line didn't do it. They're no good. They stepped up. They did what they needed to do. They weren't dominant, but they did what they needed to do when it counted. So they get my game ball. Now, I know Trevor and Sean need to get out of here. They have busy days today. Trevor's got a very busy day today. And so I'm gonna let you guys give your defensive game balls here real quick. And then you guys can, you guys can scoot. And before we let you go, Trevor, congratulations in advance, my man. We're super excited for you. Go get it, have a freaking fantastic day. And just, you know, forget about Notre Dame football for a while, focus on the wedding. - No, no, don't forget about Notre Dame 'cause that's gonna make your wedding day so much better 'cause you got that dough. - No. - Come on, man. - Listen, man, the blue. - His lady's gonna think it's about her and it's gonna be about both. - It is about her. Come on, Brian. - It's gonna be about both. - Don't worry, guys. The Bluetooth speakers charge, the fight songs prepped. We're walking into the venue tomorrow. It's smiling. It'll be a great day. - No, I appreciate it. Tomorrow, today, I guess, technically, it's gonna be fantastic. She's awesome, knew I was gonna be on the show tonight, so I told her I wasn't gonna stay up too late, so I guarantee she's already asleep. - Good. - Game ball on defense for me. I'm gonna go with Christian Gray. There were a lot of questions surrounding who was gonna fill Cam Hart's shoes. And I think that you could tell that this was his first game airing that much of a workload, but he made the plays where they counted. He got to stop on that fourth and two play, I believe, on Texas A&M's, I guess, last attempt to try to drive down the field to tie the game. He had that big hit in, was that early fourth quarter? It was on a crossing-round, and draws her. And he had the big hit, which I think kinda, the momentum was starting to swing a little bit, things are starting to feel a little weird, and Christian Gray laid the boom, so I think he handled himself well in this environment, in this situation, so for me, he's getting the game ball. - I think I'm going to leave, I'm gonna do my boy double R a solid. I'm gonna let him have his new Jersey boy. I'm not gonna steal his new Jersey boy. I already know where he's going. I think I know where he's going. But I think the impact of Benjamin Morrison and Xavier Watts was really evident. And I think a lot of teams are going to purposely try to throw away from them. But I think both of them are still gonna try to make plays or find a way to make plays, and that interception, X-hat, was absolutely insane. Anticipation, I just wish he had stayed on his feet, 'cause I think he would have taken it to the house. So I'm gonna go ahead and go X-Wats. I think he had a very quiet yet impactful game because I think A&M purposely didn't want to try him. And he was back there single high and a lot of instances as well. Okay, Doug, yeah. So I think very quietly, I'll give him my game ball for his impact. - Mr. Driscoll? - I honestly, I don't have one. I don't, I mean, 'cause like, to one, you give it to the other. I could make a case for Christian Gray, Benjamin Morrison, Xavier Watts, Rod Hurd, Don Schuler. How about this, a game ball for air ball defense, except the linebacker, no, I'm kidding. They did some things too in this game. - They did. - You know what it was, guys? I don't know that anyone played like, maybe Morrison, but even he had like a missed tackle that gave up a 20 yard. I mean, nobody played like, great. I mean, I thought, I thought Xavier didn't get underneath that first end cut. I thought he should've found that route. Maybe, maybe the coverage was not for him. I thought what made this defense so good was just as a unit, they played so well. He died of a highness in their main, some plays. I mean, you know, Howard Cross was like, was he even on the field the first two quarters? And then all of a sudden he's in there and he makes a big old sack at the end of the half, you know what I mean? You know what I mean? It's a hole making plays late in the game. You know, like not only the pressure, but then that great run fit where he got held, but he fought hard to stay outside to not let that guy get cornered. There were so many guys that made plays. And I thought Al Golden did a really nice job of adjusting. I thought this was one of the best all around team defensive efforts that I've seen in an opener against a quality opponent. So I'm just, I'm just, if I'm, hey, this one's for the defense and I've handed to the coordinator and then he can figure out who he wants to give it to. That's what I would have done. I just, they won this game because the running backs are outstanding. The team played hard, but really what it was down. It was defense was just exceptional tonight. - So I actually wasn't going to go with Shuler Sean, which is kind of funny. But I think a shout out to the safeties, 'cause I think the safeties both made obviously big impactful plays. I think an underrated player in this game that actually I think kind of set a little bit of a tone as far as like, hey, there's SEC speed maybe in South in Indiana, I think was Jalen Sneed actually. I think we didn't talk about him enough, but like he made one play, it was crazy in pursuit. He had a couple of hurries in this football game as well. So I, and he, more than anything, I didn't notice him for bad things, which has been kind of the issue with Jalen Sneed in the past a little bit. So I thought the game ball to him was I think that there was a couple of plays, especially one in pursuit early in the game where you're just kind of like, oh, might have to scheme up a run game a little bit differently, 'cause there's some pursuit on the backside of this run right here. So I'll throw, I'll go with Jalen Sneed, the junior first time starter. - Well, since it made it all the way around and he didn't get picked, I'll take a Don Shuler on this one. And I, you know, we talked about some of the mistakes that he made, you know, a tackle that he missed, you know, on that field goal drive and some things like that, you know, needs to make those plays cool. But he also made some very impactful plays as well and being a first time starter and a guy that when the depth chart came out, I was a little surprised to see him in that starting slot to be perfectly honest with you. Like we were all impressed with what he did in the spring and all of that, but he obviously kept that train going. That hype train for him kept moving for all the right reasons and they rewarded him with a start and he played a lot of football tonight. And with the knowledge that A&M was not going to go toward Xavier Watts. Like they don't, they want to take that part of the field away. And so a Don Shuler was going to be tested and I think he passed the test, you know, didn't get a hundred percent, but he passed the test. I thought he did very, very well. And he passed with a good grade, right? And so I was very impressed with the Don Shuler. I think the Notre Dame Nation got a chance to see kind of what we've been seeing in practice and things like that and why we're so excited about what he can do. I think everybody got a chance to see that tonight. And so yeah, a Don Shuler is my game ball for defense. So those are again. - Vince, if you never would have watched Notre Dame play before tonight, you would have had no clue that this is the first meaningful snap that the Don Shuler has ever played football game. - 100%. - He did not play like a basically a red shirt freshman who had never, I mean, he played with the confidence. He was always where he needed to be. Yeah, he's got to clean up and, you know, finish some plays off better, but good gosh, that's the easiest thing to teach a defensive player. The hardest thing is to always be in the right spot. - No doubt. - You would not, if he's a red shirt freshman never play a meaningful down. You'd have been like, no, not the way you played tonight. No way, no way. None of those kids looked like the moment was too big for him. That's what Sean was talking about earlier. None of those young kids, look, including Anthony Knapp, and Sam Putt made, none of them looked like the moment was too big. Sometimes Nick Skeartin was too good for him or Sir Mark Turner might have got him most of plays, but as far as the moment, man, those kids were, those young players were phenomenal, but the Don's confidence is just insane. Absolutely insane. He just plays like a Fed already. - No doubt, no doubt. So that's going to do it for our game ball section. Trevor, Sean, thanks for hanging with us as long as you did. Have a wonderful Sunday. - Thank you, Trevor. - Yes, congratulations again. - Thank you. - And go have a great time today, man. - You got it. - All right, fellas. So that's going to do it for this segment. Make sure you hit that like button, that subscribe button, that notification bell. Share with your family and friends. Get on the boards, boards.iversbreakdown.com. All kinds of fun stuff over there. You will not regret it. So make sure you hit that up. Best thing money can buy. No doubt about that. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - An " That's Chat" podcast hosted by Mark Serperman himself, Algaldi is the top rated podcast covering the Washington Nationals with an episode appearing the morning after every Nats game. The "That's Chat" podcast is proudly part of the blue wire podcast network available on all podcast platforms and at bluewirepods.com. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
