You've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy nugs take the crispy and spicy nugs you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like buffalo or honey barbecue, garlic, parm, or if you're a real heat seeker out there, you can try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs. Listen, I'm going to dare you to do it. I dare you. That's seven delicious ways to try the nugs that you already love. Take a flavor, grab some extra napkins, and then grab a few more napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's got to be Wendy's that participating U.S. Wendy's. So let's dive into the final part of today's show, and I am joined by my guy Bill Bender of Sporting News. Bill, I know it's been a busy week for you. You've got kid duty, dad duty, but also week one of the Cog's football season. I know has you super busy, man, but I appreciate your time and I am ready to rock and roll because that we are kicking this season off right, Bill, with some big time football games this weekend. Yeah, and you know, and obviously familiar with us at Irish Breakdown, it's been a wild week. My wife is down at the Eucharistic Congress in Charlotte, so that's dad duty with, you know, Grant and Bella. Grant has his first scrimmage tonight, and then his first game next week. So yeah, it's football season. We've managed to juggle the dad duty with the podcast and the radio hits. And you know, I'll tell you this, Brian, all you just said it on that last segment. It's all here. We've done a lot of talking. These games are finally here. I can't wait to see some of these. And I know we're going to zero in on a couple of them for this weekend. Night, college football nation. What's going on? Marking on the second here, get inside access to the college football world and be on every week. That's three time national champion head coach Urban Meyer announced a Rob Stone, and I take you from the field into the locker room and beyond discussing the top moments in college and pro sports. Plus conversations with the biggest names from every corner of entertainment delivered to you at home or on the road. Watch triple option on YouTube or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. You got to start the story there or if you want to see Brad Pitt and George Clooney go to Apple TV Plus and if you want to see their new movie walks you can't do it. We can't do it. We can do it. I can do it. Definitely go to Apple TV Plus. The minute is cool. Okay, fine. It's very cool. Worlds stream September 27th on Apple TV Plus. Before we get going, Bill, you heard us talking about the Notre Dame game. Do you have any thoughts you want to share on this game? Because I know you and I talked about this. We have a podcast going up today of you and I and Bill Trochey talking about that game. Do you want to share any thoughts here before we dive into this weekend's real big games? Any thoughts on the Notre Dame, Texas A&M game? And then if you want to offer your score prediction, you can. Was it Trevor that's getting married? Yes, he's getting married one day. I have some thoughts on that. He's going to, yeah, you said like just wait, Trevor, just wait till the day where you're running from football practice to volleyball practice to getting home. And you know, this time of year, I have a very understanding wife and that's what matters. She definitely knows. She knows they'll be watching Notre Dame on Saturday night. And you know, you know, I talked about it on our other podcast with Bill Trochey. I keep coming back to what you were saying about the misconception that Notre Dame doesn't win these games, you know, Notre Dame under Freeman seven and four against ranked teams. It is a tough road environment. It is one of those moments for Riley Leonard, where the anticipation is you haven't seen him. I checked the weather. I rarely do that. I do that with big 10 games in November, 75 degrees at night and 86% humidity. That isn't as bad as I thought it would be, if we're being honest. Like normally when I think of Texas, I think it's going to be a thousand degrees at night. But how they how they do that will be a big key, obviously. So Notre Dame number seven, Texas A&M number 20. That's a big game this weekend, but it is not the only big game this weekend. And so we're going to get into some of the other games that we think are going to be big games from this weekend. And look at, we'll just kind of briefly kind of talk about each game, Bill. What's at stake? Well, how you see the game playing out and make our predictions. And let's begin at noon on Fox. You have number eight Penn State at West Virginia. They played this game last year at Penn State. Penn State won convincingly, although not quite as convincing as the final score, you know, James Franklin put one on the board at the end of the game, which I actually didn't have a problem with at the time to be completely honest with you. But this is a big one because West Virginia was a much better team, in my opinion, by the end of the year than they were at the beginning of the year. This is a big home game for them. This is a big potential statement win for them. They got their quarterback coming back. Have some pretty good returners coming back Penn State's a team that a lot of people think has a chance to make it to the cops while play often and do some damage in a revamped big 10. What are your thoughts on this matchup, Bill? Well, you know, first of all, it's why I love college football games like this, the regional field. You as you, I don't know how many of your listeners know I grew up in. I don't even know how to put it. They call it Southeast Ohio. I call it South Central Ohio because we're not far. We're between Columbus and Athens, essentially. So we're in a part of Ohio where there are West Virginia fans. And when I saw news that there's already traffic jams in Morgantown, I'm not surprised. I know they're going to be rowdy. They're going to be wrapped up. A name that your Notre Dame fans will know the last time they beat Penn State was in 1988 when they had major Harris running around playing quarterback. And he was a name and from my youth, a very exciting quarterback player. You're right, West Virginia was much better at the end of the year with Garrett Green and the way that they were running the ball. He averaged 17.9 yards per completion last year. So they had that deep passing game on top of it. All that said, Penn State dominated this game last year. Drew Aller played very well. And I'm wondering if he'll turn him loose on the road. They have a strong running game, strong defense. We can criticize James Franklin for the big game losses. They haven't lost to an, they've lost a one unranked team in three years. And that was in nine over times to Illinois. They are a little bit of like, so it doesn't, Brian, don't you think that means that they take care of business a little bit? Yeah, like this, he's, he's basically the new Brian Kelly, where he's going to win. Like that's how Kelly was the his end of his tenure. And that's really how Franklin and Ben, as I think is what 20 they struggled, obviously in 20 during the COVID year and then 2021, they were an up and down team. But those were sort of anomaly seasons. You go back to kind of who they were and in 19 and 18, like they're going to beat the teams they're supposed to beat. They're going to struggle beating Michigan and Ohio State. That that's, that's their issue. That's, that's what they've got to prove that they can do. These are not games that they lose, in my opinion. And the key, the key for me is it's going to come down to how good is Phil Troughton's offensive line play. If they play, and it's, it's very similar to Notre Dame. If Notre Dame's offensive line plays well, they're going to not only win this game. I think they win where they're clearly the better team. And I think the talent gap between Penn State and West Virginia is significantly greater, in my opinion, than what it is between Notre Dame and Texas A&M. And so is the, if the old line plays well and keeps Dorellar clean, even though I don't love Penn State's receiving core, that's my only potential hiccup for them. It's not a hiccup against West Virginia. It is a potential hiccup when they play Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon, USC, teams like that. I don't think it's going to be a thing. I think they roll in this game, Bill. I have them winning similar to last year. I have it being like a 30 to 17, 30 to 14 type of game. That's how I see 31 to 20. And for those that track, you know, we do the picks against the spread at sporty news every week at eight and a half point line. West Virginia, six and seven is a home dog against the spread with Neil Brown. But you said it earlier, and it's an inside joke at this point that everybody can see if it's Penn State by four late and they've got a chance to put one in at the end of the game. James Franklin's never shy about that cosmetic touchdown to cover the spread. And I kind of think that's how they're going to do it. Let's talk about the next game on this on this list, Bill. And this one is, this is more of a hot seat tracker game for on one side. And then a how good is this team on the other side? And that is Miami at Florida, not a game that we've seen enough of in our lifetime, to be completely honest with you. One of the big travesties of the scheduling of the last 30, 40 years is the fact that we don't see this game more often. But here it is. You've got obviously on one side, Billy Napier is on the hottest of hot seats. And you've got Miami as a preseason top 25 team despite the fact they've gone what 12 and 13 the last two years, because the portal, that the portal was good to Miami this offseason. And one thing Mario Cristobal has done well since he arrived was recruit well at the high school level also. So he's not relying only on the portal. But this year, Cam Moore, Damian Martinez, are just two of the big names that Miami got, did lose a couple receivers. Colby Young went to Georgia, but they are going to be loaded. Can he get it all together and get them on the same page enough to go on the road, play a team like Florida, who basically is fighting for their lives. So does this team rally behind their head coach and kind of play like just rabid dogs? Or are they kind of ready for the zero to be over to and Miami rolls them? That's really the storyline for me, Bill. That transfer quarterback, Cam Ward, one that we're doing our prep for the weekend. And you guys talked about Riley Leonard, I will be watching all these transfer quarterbacks. And there's so many, but the key ones and Cam Ward's in that conversation as a key player. We've seen him put up numbers at an incarnate ward, incarnate word. Let me get that right. At Washington State, and now he comes to Miami where that's been the missing piece. I think Damian Martinez is probably the more important addition, a real physical runner from Oregon State between the tackles. And can he do that in the swamp? This game, Brian, feels a little bit to me like Utah Florida two years ago, when Utah came to the swamp, and you were thinking, everybody was picking the Utes, but then you forget the swamp is the swamp. Still a tough place to play. This is a coin flip game, Billy Napier's heard all this noise all off season. That's TBD because of their November schedule and how absurd it is. I have a feeling that the Gators are going and you said it. They've only played twice this century in the swamp. Something flooky happens, block punt, block field will something like that. I think the Gators win. I had to score 30 to 27 Florida. So plays, sloppiness, special teams, weirdness, the Gators find a way at home. I would love it if you're right about that outcome, Bill, wouldn't love it. And I'm normally root for the ACC in these type of games. I do. I just really despise Miami. And I despise the way they they're going about their business. He's very much trying in his weird way to bring back sort of the you, you know, that that swagger. I just don't know that he has it to be completely honest with you and and everybody. This is like a year. It's like with Texas A&M, right? It was like that with Michigan for a lot of years until Jim Harbaugh actually said, okay, we're actually going to live up to the preseason hype this year. It's that way with Penn State. There's just those programs that every year people are just begging for that team. This is the year and they're going to keep picking that team until it actually happens, right? And Miami is that new team. Well, and it's it's just hilarious that you said that because I have on my DVR, I have an hour or so before the kids get home, I was going to watch Catholic's first convicts, the ESPN 30. It's on my because my DVR will catch a 30 30 here and there and I'll delete some of them because I've seen I kind of want to watch that to get the mood for that than the weekend. You know what I mean? And and I was looking at a Catholic's first convicts t-shirt on one of those random pop ups on my Facebook. So I wanted to grab the one out of my closet. I mean, I want to buy it and just wear it to my kids, one of my kids games just but we're all Catholics teams in the diocese, so it might not have the same effect. I 100% true though on Miami and how this season we cry wolf a lot. We so desperately want to be they've won 10 games one time since Larry Coker retired or laughed whatever you want to call it. They never that's been my point about Texas A&M like Notre A&M doesn't win these kinds of games. I'm like, guys, Marcus Williams been in Notre Dame two years. He has as many 10 win seasons as Texas A&M has the last 20, right? And Miami's that same way. What's funny is you look at A&M the last two years, Bill, there are three and seven against ranked teams and this is going to play into the to this I promise I'm not getting off to hand off to engineer. One of their three wins over a ranked team was in 2022 against Miami who at the time was ranked in the top 25. I believe Miami was 23rd at that particular time because there was that whole Miami's back and Mario Cristobal did this at Utah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and so Miami starts the season ranked 16th. They blow up Bethune Cookman, Blot Southern Miss, and then they went three and seven the rest of the way and finish on ranked. But you know, A&M's got a went over number 13 Miami. And you're just kind of like, well, what did Miami do to warrant that? Because that was a team that went seven and five the year before and they finished that season five and seven. But it's that it's that same thing. Remember a couple of years ago, an A&M in North Carolina, both started in the top 10. And I was like, neither one of those teams are going to sniff the top 10 by the end of the season. But those are just those hot teams and Miami is that hot team. This is the kind of game that a win, however, starts to change that narrative a little bit, Bill. It's not that it completely moves it because no, not a lot of people expect four to be great, but it's a statement win for them for their own confidence for what they're trying to sell their players on. And then of course, recruiting, it's going to help them in recruiting to be able to go on the road and get that win in the swamp. Because you know, floor is going to have a lot of in-state kids on campus on that Saturday. Well, and for us, for the national standpoint, our those are the games that in the cynicism kicks in a little bit. For me, it's the you pat the winner on the back. Hey, good job. Loser, it's like, that's who we're writing about the press conference, the what happened, how could you lose this game? Because you're going to feel the heat for the rest of the season. And I could totally see that trend hit about, you know, about seven o'clock on Saturday night. I'm going to ask you a question before I move on this next game, Bill. Who is more negatively impacted by a loss? Mario Cristobal or Billy Napier? Billy Napier. And it's close though, because Miami, they have, they could lose this game still win the ACC. I mean, the ACC is going to be, ACC could have a crazy perception weekend between that and I know Clemson and Georgia. And I mean, even tonight, if North Carolina loses to Minnesota, up at Minnesota. And we're all going to say, well, who's going to win that conference? Florida, just from the standpoint, we've been talking about his hot seat all summer. They're like, I mentioned their schedule. I'm one of those guys, it's like, where are we losing the reasoning here? You can't say somebody has a ridiculous schedule, then get mad if they go six and six. Now they do have to go win some of these games. I think this is a gettable one for Florida at home. And just because it's Miami. And that's one that's going to generate a lot of emotions, rather they win or lose. He needs a perception win. Correct. Big time. And if you get this win, you got Samford coming up the next week, you got A&M at home in two weeks, you're at Mississippi State, you're home against UCF. There's a chance they're four and one going to Tennessee. Right. If not, maybe even five and no, I don't, I think between A&M and Mississippi State, they probably go like one and one in those two. If they're a good enough team to beat Miami, but you know, that's the kind of thing that could maybe salvage that they desperately need a confidence builder. And if I feel like this game is going to determine the trajectory of Miami or a Florida in a big way, if they lose this game, they're going to go hard. They're going to lose to A&M or lose a Mississippi State. They may lose to UCF. It's going to go hard. If they win, I think that could be something that really skyrockets them. I agree. Let's go to the next game, Bill. And we're going to dive into the USC LSU game number 23 USC plays versus number 13 LSU. This is games going to be out in Las Vegas. Their name had one of those games recently in the Legion Stadium Sunday night, seven 30, it's going to be an ABC game. LSU is a four and a half point favorite. Let's talk about USC versus LSU bill. This is a huge game, in my opinion, for both teams. And I think it's especially, I think it's especially big for Brian Kelly, take my Brian Kelly thoughts out of it. This is year three for him. The perception is that, you know, look, you can't go lose to a team that's considered inferior to you and USC is considered inferior. And SEC fans will give you the benefit of that out if you lose to another SEC fan team. They will not have such similar doubt if you lose to a PAC 12 team and you can say USC is a big 10 team. It's a PAC 12 team in the eyes of their fan base. This is and this is a big Lincoln Riley needs this kind of win to get his program back on track to get swagger back. This is a much bigger game. And it's not being talked about as much as I think it should because I think this is a huge game for both of these wildly entertaining game. And yes, it's an SEC versus a legendary classic SEC versus big 10 showdown versus with US that that's so weird. I mean, you know, it's so weird to think I was talking about that at Big Ten Media Day just seeing the USC logo and same part of the country. And my parents, my dad hated USC. He was a high state guy, you know, like the or, you know, as Ohio State, Michigan, those schools hated, hated USC because of those Rose Bowl losses. I remember, you know, my people talking about Charles White and OJ Simpson and just miserable. So it is a Notre Dame fans have a lot of those stories, too. Right. Like, Anthony Davis and Charles White and OJ Simpson as well. Yeah. So I mean, like, just that Midwest hatred for them. And I think for me, growing up, it was the jealousy of you would watch the Ohio State Michigan game. And then you'd be like, it looks so warm during that USC UCLA game, but I digress. Defense, you know, who can play defense here? Dance and Lynn hired by USC and can Riley emphasize how they didn't, they missed six tackles in the Louisville game, whereas there were games where they were missing 20 and 30 tackles this year. LSU same deal, they can play defense last year. What is a Blake Baker? They hired him for Missouri. Does that clean up their defense? They have some talent. And I think you hit the nail on the head with the SEC, they're going to view this as we're an SEC team. We should handle West Coast tests. Whatever you want to label USC, they should handle them is how they look at it. The approval rating takes into effect here as well. Brian Kelly, I still think the jury is out on how LSU fans view him, even though he's won 10 games each of the last two years. I don't think the jury's out on Lincoln Riley at USC. I actually kind of believe him when he says he inherited a mess. And when you had Caleb Williams that first year, it made it look better than it was. And then year two, it kind of caught up with him. So now they're at a point of where we're at in a game like this, good measuring stick. I'm excited to watch Garrett Nussmeyer and Miller Moss, though. I think both of those guys make some plays. I both played awesome in their bowl games. I got it in a shootout type game. I picked LSU 35 to 28. That line's a little tricky. If you want to take USC, I wouldn't be angry. But, you know, it'll be one of those things. It'll be a lot of fun. Obviously, DeAnton Lin was a great hire, but it went beyond that he hired Doug Bell, who's the DC at Houston, who noted a name interviewed for their OpenD coordinator job when Marcus Freeman took over his head coach. You are Eric Henderson from the St. Louis, or Los Angeles Rams. And then you got in the portal and DeAnton Lin brings in two of his DBs from UCLA. You go out and get a killing arm from Oregon State. That's the thing I don't think enough people are talking about is like, look, they got some good football players in the portal this year that are familiar with this. They didn't go out and get some kid from SMU or UCF or some kid. They got Pac-12 kids. They got the first team all Pac-12 kids from Oregon State, a linebacker whose name I always struggle to pronounce. He's got the first name Eman, and then the last name, it's, I can't pronounce that one. But, you know, you have him. You still have Mason Cobb coming back who came in from Oklahoma State. You got a killing Arnold. You got John Humphrey. You got Camari Ramsey. And, you know, to me, honestly, I think that's going to be a big part of this, is you have guys are going to be familiar. You're not just bringing in, like, Mike Elko had to bring a lot of different portal guys to rebuild that secondary and Kansas State and UAB and all this play. You went out and got two kids that are going to start in your secondary who know your defense. They played for you there. And that's something to help Mike Elko last year when he got the kid that transferred in from Texas A&M who had played for him at Texas A&M. It helps that transition. And I think that's going to be the biggest difference why I've been a lot higher on USC this offseason than a lot of other people. I also think Miller Moss being the quarterback and not Caleb Williams is going to force Lincoln Riley to go back to maybe scheming people up and not just trying to play hero ball with Caleb Williams all the time. I think that can be a good thing. That reminds me of Packers Aaron Rodgers stuff where I used to, there was a game against the Bears where he got hurt and had to stay in the pocket and he lit up Chicago in the second half. That could happen in USC's offense, right, where he has to play on schedule. We know Lincoln Riley's an offensive. I'm not going to use the word genius, but he's very good at it. Like he knows what he's doing. So another transfer to keep an eye on in this game is CJ Daniels with Liberty Transfer receiver LSU, 1,000 yards, 10 touchdowns last year. They always find guys that can play outside. Yep. I mean, Corbin Lacey's going to be good. Right. Well, Chris Hilton, if healthy, he's going to be good. They're going to have offensive weapons. And their offensive line is going to be very good. That, that to me is the ultimate decider in this game is can USC's D line hold up against LSU's offensive line? Will Campbell gave him a little bit of Baltimore material yesterday? You know what I mean? Well, they got two NFL tackles, you know, Emory and Will Campbell. So your center's pretty good too. And then USC's got talent up front, but their talent hasn't always lived up to the occasion. That's, that's really what it boils down to for me. It is the transfers at USC finally step up and say, Hey, we're here to play winning football, not just here to get our paychecks from big NIL details. That's what it boils down to. And I think, well, what do you got? I got USC winning 34 31. I like it. And you know, I point to last year's bowl game. And look, I hate looking at bowl games. I do. I hate put too much into bowl games. But the one thing we saw in that game is we saw vintage Lincoln Riley, which is, Hey, I got to scheme this stuff up because I can't ask Miller Moss to put the team on the shoulders. This is, it's got to be more on me. And, and again, bowl game Louisville had a lot of guys sitting out. I still don't like USC has to change their culture on defense. They have really good talent. LSU has to change their culture on defense. And the talent hasn't caught up yet to what it is on offense. That's ultimately what it boils down to for me. I think it's going to be a back and forth game. I've been kind of back and forth on all this. I think USC's aligns going to be better. I think that they're going to make some big plays. And I think their defense is going to make enough stops. I think their secondaries and is better than LSU secondary, which is going to help them pull it out. And I think we're going to see the breakout offensive breakout of Zechariah Branch in this game as well. I think they're going to build a lot around that kid and he's going to be dangerous this year. Yeah, I talked to Reggie Bush yesterday as part of a promotion that they have going with him in the next week. And he mentions Zechariah Branch as well. So that's one of those ex-factor exciting guys to win. I like to pick Brian. I'm not going to get you wrong. I still, and by the way, LSU, four straight week one losses. Yeah, so that would 2021-22-23. It's not like they're playing G5 schools here. They played a two back-to-back really good Florida state team. Yeah, they did. And they lost to UCLA and Mississippi State. They probably want those ones back. But so I think more is strangely said, people want to say Lincoln Riley Hussey, there's more on the line for LSU here, no question. Yeah, I agree. I think for USC as long as they, it's a close game and they battle and then go on a roll, I think people will get over this loss. I think people are going to have a hard time in down south getting over this kind of loss. Because here's the thing too, you talk about it's a big weekend for the ACC. It could be a big black eye weekend for the SEC if they don't handle business as well. I mean, you catch Ls by USC and Notre Dame and Clemson, something like that. And all of a sudden, there's going to be some interesting storylines. I don't think those are all going to happen. I don't think they lose all three of those. We'll get into that next, but it's certainly a lot. It's certainly a proven weekend when it comes to the rivalry debate between these teams. So I'm very much looking forward to that. This episode is brought to you by Microsoft Azure. Turn your ideas into reality with an Azure free account. Get everything you need to develop apps across cloud and hybrid environments, scale workloads, create cloud-connected mobile experiences, and so much more. Discover what you can create with popular services free for 12 months. Learn more at azure.com. That's A-Z-U-R-E.com and sign up for a free account to start building in the cloud today. At King Super's 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 Super's pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King Super's, a world of care is in store. Visit king supers.com/vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply. See site for details. Last game that we're going to talk about, Bill, and that is going to be the, what I think is certainly the most interesting matchup of the weekend outside Notre Dame and Texas A&M. And that is number one, Georgia against number 14 Clemson. This is a big, big game. We've seen this game a lot over the last 10, 15 years. This is not like, oh, we haven't seen this game in a while. It's going to be Saturday at noon, ABC game. Georgia is a 13 and a half point favorite, which shows you just kind of how much the Tigers have fallen off here in recent seasons and what that perception is. Last time these two teams played was the last was, I believe, the year that Georgia won their first title since Herschel Walker was it running back? Was it for the, for the, for the old Bulldogs? 10 to three game where there's zero offensive right now. Yes, offensive football back very far when Christopher Smith had the only touchdown in the game to the Bulldogs. I'm excited. I, here's a, I'll ask you the question first. Like, do we think Carson back is the top player in college football? No, I think he is the starting quarterback who puts up good numbers on the perceived best team in college football. Yeah. And we talked about this that yesterday, throwing a ball more than 10 yards or more. I'm going to harp on this all season because it translates to the next level. 11 touchdowns, five in the INTs on those past 10 yards or more. It's not like 20 yards or more of this. So, and he loses Brock Bowers and he loses Lab McConkie. I think everybody on the planet knows that and mentioned it this off season. And they also lost the kid that got kicked off the team. Robert Automas. Yeah. So, okay, you lost all that. Clemson still plays defense. That's right. They play, remember this, I can't equate it to their disaster opener against Duke last year because Clemson in that game, if you remember watching that game, they just had everything. It was one of those Murphy's law games. Everything went wrong, bad snap, fumble on a fourth down. They still ran the ball. They still play yards. They still played good D. They just run short fields in some bad spots. I think Clemson can play enough defense to hang around. But I have the same exact questions about Kate Clubnick that I do about Carson back and probably more so because Clemson, where has their receiver production been? The last three years. You know, I think they were going through a transition and where for a few years, they were recruiting guys that I didn't understand when they were recruiting. Like, I'm excited about Bo Collins another name. The day he committed to Clemson, I said, I don't get this. I don't get why he committed to Clemson and I don't get why Clemson wanted Bo Collins. He does not fit what they're trying to do. They need shifty or faster speedy guys. The guys that they had that were tall early on when they were winning titles were burners. They were vertical. Joseph and God is not that guy. Bo Collins is not that guy. And I just think they've been kind of recruit the highly ranked guys and they didn't really fit the system. You know, DJ Uyungal, they did not fit that offense. He is a big long armed throw it down field, big long delivery guy that you're trying to ask for a million screens and things like that. I mean, it just, it wasn't a fit. And then, of course, they've had some really good young players come along the last couple years. It couldn't stay healthy. They're supposed to be healthy now. A lot of those younger players are healthy now and they are more fit what they're trying to do. The other, the other problem that Clemson's had to the last prior to last year is their secondary took a big dip. It got a lot better last year, but then they had some personnel losses. And I'm curious how that secondary is going to hold up this year with a lot of talented new faces in the secondary. But to your point, what Clemson did late last year and what they do now that I think is going to make this a game is they went through a bit of a, okay, they're not real good on the both sides of the lines, like they used to be. This D line is young, but very talented. I watched their two freshman defensive line, three freshman defensive line kick Notre Dame's butt last year. When you look at TJ Parker and Peter Woods and they've got Demontay Capehart, who's a massive kid who's also young. Peyton Paige is another talented young player. That's the thing that kind of gives me pause when thinking about, well, on paper, you know, George is this and and Clemson had four losses last year and struggled and did this and Georgia was the most dominant team in college football against the schedule where they didn't play anybody. And then when they finally did play somebody got punched in the mouth and lost, you know, but I think Clemson has the ability to play with them in the trenches. Their line was a mess early last year towards the end of the year, had a bunch of young kids in the lineup and they started playing better. They started running the football. Phil Moffa could could kind of run behind that line. They were one of the few teams that really took it to Notre Dame's defensive line last year earlier in that game. You know, I think that's the thing why I think this is a close game and it's but it comes down to it. Yes, I think Carson Beck's a good quarterback. I don't think he's what people make him out to be, but he's certainly been better than what Kate Klubnik has been so far. And that's going to be the key is if Kate Klubnik is the key for Clemson, if he can play well, they got a shot. If he doesn't, I think this game is going to be a higher scoring version of the 2021 game, right? I got 27, 17, Georgia. Okay, I got 24, 17. So we're close. Yeah, like they tack on a, you know, feelable, whatever. But I think they played out pretty close and the trenches and in games like that early, they'll play close to the best. So it could be conservative early. Then we see which, which quarterback can open it up. And if you're not like Florida state last week, maybe you open it up before the third quarter. So I think that'll be the key in that game, no doubt. I like this battle. I do. I think this is going to be a game where even though Clemson, I predict him to lose, I won't be shocked if Clemson pulls off the upset in this game. I won't. What I think what I think is going to happen, Bill, is I think this is going to be a very competitive game. And it's going to be a lot like kind of what Notre Dame had against Georgia a couple of times where the perception was Notre Dame has no chance against Georgia playing at Georgia in 2019. And Notre Dame went down there. They lost, but they had to pull off the end. They had it, you know, inside the 50 yard line to touchdown wins the game. They couldn't get it done. But they went toe to toe for 60 minutes and people like, Hey, this is a pretty good football team at Notre Dame. I think Clemson has sort of a similar situation in this game where Georgia just has like, I think their front seven is just too good for Kate Klubnik to all of a sudden figured out this week. I think he's going to make enough plays to keep this a game. But at the end of the day, I just don't know that he's going to be able to make enough throws down the field to really force Georgia to stay on us. And so I do think it's going to be a little bit lower scoring game, not like it was in 21. But where Clemson battles, it's a competitive game, but Georgia's still the better football team. Now, if Kate Klubnik can make some of those plays and the receivers are able to just to get back to being, you know, playing Clemson football, then I think they have a shot to pull off the upset. The question that I'm going to have, Bill, is will Davo allow Garrett Riley to actually call the game that way he wants to call the game? Not side to side play vertical a little bit and take their shots when they can. And, you know, and you got an exciting game now and not to change the subject. But I wrote about this game. I talked to the Peach Bowl or the it's now the Affleck kickoff game CEO Gary Stoken. And he's hoping that we continue the trend with these games. This is, I think this is the question, by the way, Bill, I thought there were some very good points made in that about whether or not these type of games will or will not continue. Well, I'm on the fence with it, because as a fan, yeah, I want to see it as a if I was Lincoln Riley or Marcus Freeman, I'd be hesitant to do it because, man, it's you're stepping out now Notre Dame has to do it. But like if you're Georgia and Clemson, okay, what's the incentive? I love that they're playing it. I think it's going to be a fun environment. And Gary Stoken's good guy, the Peach Bowl CEO, he's one of those guys behind the scenes that keeps keeps these in our living room and makes sure that the quality is good. I don't like seeing a top 25 where we have 11 teams playing FCS opponents in week. Right. So there's got to be a happy medium, clear power five team. But maybe you play Duke instead of Clemson, it's your Georgia, right? Or hit instead of Florida State, something like that. I forgot to give you another day in prediction. Oh, yes. You want me to do that now? Well, let's finish this point here real quick, because I definitely want to get your prediction. But here's my thing about those games, Bill, and you nailed it in the article. So for those of people, go follow Bill on Twitter, but go to sporting news. Obviously, he's got this article on the front page. His thing was, it's going to be determined by the committee and the teams that are considered kind of locks or they're in the competition to play for the league title every year, Ohio States, Georgia's, I can see them having less incentive. USC is nuts. If they think they can just be the third best team in the big 10, play known in the non-conference and they're going to get the benefit of the doubt in the comfortable playoff. They're nuts if they think that's going to happen. By let's say they decide to drop Notre Dame, Clemson, Florida State ACC teams cannot afford to not play these type of games, because if you don't win your league, you're the number two team in the ACC. You're not guaranteed to make the comfortable playoff. If you're the number two team in the big 10 of the SEC, you're almost a lot to make the comfortable playoff. That's not true in the ACC and in the big 12. So what's going to be interesting is if the SEC and big 10 bow out of some of these big games, do you then see the ACC and big 12? So hey, we got to do some stuff. We got to partner here together to make sure that we're giving ourselves some of these opportunities and are those games big enough to kind of create that outside of the normal rivalries that already exist? And then that puts a lot of pressure on the ACC teams to win those rivalry games. Florida States got to beat Florida. Clemson's got to start Smack in South Carolina. Georgia Tech maybe gives Clemson a game, which I actually did last year. They played Georgia tough last year for a while. So I think this is going to be a very, very interesting game, Bill. And I hope that a game like this that games like this don't go away. I hope the games like USC and LSU don't go away because I do think that the thing that they're missing that's not being talked about is if you're scheduling yourself to make the tournament doesn't mean you're scheduling yourself to have success in the tournament. And if you don't challenge yourself outside of your league, how good do you do you know that you you're assuming that your league is going to get you good enough? But in these 18 team leagues, you can't guarantee that you're going to get a good draw every year of good teams that yes, you're 12 and 0 and you make the tournament. But if you haven't played anybody and you're not challenged, you're playing some three or four loss team from the SEC, who's battle tested, you may not that game may not go how you think it's going to go. And that's the thing that I think people like Lincoln Riley are missing is hey, are you really sure you're going to be because if you look at their schedule, there's there's not a single year in the next five years, I think where they play Ohio State and Oregon in the same year. There's only two years in the next five where they got to play Ohio State and Michigan in the same year. So they're not they're not playing Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State and Michigan and with Washington every year. It's just that's not how it's happening. And so you run the risk of saying, hey, we're not yeah, we got in, but we're not battle tested. So if it's really about a championship that you're trying to get, like Georgia this year, I could see Georgia going 10 to 2 and winning the whole thing. If they could. And you know, Luke Fickel, I asked him a couple of questions about this at Big Ten Media Day. I thought he had the best perspective honestly. I mean, they're playing Alabama. They're the the King of College football the last 15 years is coming up to Camp Randall and he just said, we I want it to be advantageous to play in these games and that also you're given a little bit of a benefit of the doubt if it doesn't go your way that you're giving credit for stepping out. And you saw that in the four team era where like Oklahoma would beat Ohio State, that was a separator in them getting into the playoff and vice versa. So I thought Luke had a very good feel of it. And he said now, if we put more teams in the playoff, you definitely want to play in these games because you want to stack it up. If they keep it the same and they don't honor that, I'm wondering if if teams will kind of shy away from it. Now, if I was a power five power four or Notre Dame athletic director and I'm making my team schedule, you know, that September is going to be well, not Notre Dame for the sake of this conversation because they're they're not in the conference. But if I'm Big Ten athletic director, I'm playing two group of five schools, one power five school varying in degree of difficulty by the year. I can't control what Virginia is from your end. You know what I mean? And then I'm going to go play my league schedule. So I would like to play one game though that before I got my league schedule where I actually know where I'm at. What do you have to? What is your end game playing that way? That's my question. What's your what's your goal for playing a schedule like that? Where basically you're doing the best you can to guarantee yourself a three and a non-conference? Well, not necessarily. I'll play it. I'll step out and play one, but I'll play into Virginia. Yeah. Well, that was a bad example then because I'll play two G five schools and treat that at like my quote unquote pre-season. And then I'll step out and play somebody. And my goal for me given year on a schedule, if I'm a Big Ten or SEC athletic director, is to go ten and two or better because they can't turn me away then. Right. How many ten and two SEC and Big Ten teams are going to be turned away? I don't think too many. Notre Dame's not getting turned away at ten and two. So if I'm making Notre Dame schedule same deal, I have my five games locked in the ACC. I can't control if Virginia Tech or Duke or whichever one of those teams is good. I can control playing USC. Right. I like their Big Ten relationship as it stands there. We're going to see some what like Michigan State, Purdue, Michigan, that type thing. I want to go ten and two because they're not going to turn me away. What I think could happen for some of these teams is if you have a year where you have Georgia schedule from last year, not very good non-comfort. Now, again, I don't blame Georgia because it wasn't their fault. They scheduled Oklahoma. The league canceled the game. They tried to see, but just look at it for what it was, a Michigan schedule last year. If Michigan goes ten and two against last year schedule, I do think there's a chance they get turned away. If Georgia goes ten and two against last year schedule, there is a chance you get turned away because I don't think you're necessarily going to get that benefit out, but that's the point that you made. The committee is going to have to give. I think it's what Luke Fickle was saying. If you go play Bama and you lose that game and you're at least competitive, you can't lose like USC lost in 2016, right? But you lose that game and you go into your league and you lose a game and you don't win the league, but you're ten and two, you played a good schedule. You have some very good wins on your schedule. If the committee gives teams like that, the benefit of the doubt, even over maybe a team with a better record, you know, you're 11 and 1 and we're going to see not even so much about getting in or out, but seating. Hey, we're going to make you eight and you're going to be nine or 10 because even though this team went 10 and two and you and 11 and one, you played an FCS school, a bad group of five team and Vanderbilt in your non-conference and this team went and lost in a toe-to-toe ball game for four quarters at Notre Dame. Same, you know what I mean? So that team is more tested. That team proved themselves. That's how the committee can fix this. If the committee wants to make sure that these games don't go away and then we're having to guess how good is your league really because we don't know because no one in your league tested themselves outside of the league, then they need to make sure that teams that do that are getting rewarded for that. Not just from are you in or out? That's part of it, but seating is going to become a much bigger. We've never had this debate in college football, Bill, where we care as much about seating because it's one through four. It's like, well, you're going to have to play one of these teams anyway, whether you get a first round of the second round. Now, eight verse nine is huge. You're going to be the same team, but now I've said we've got to go to their place. Seven verse 10 is going to be huge because now instead of I'm USC now, I can't control that I'm going to go play in Happy Valley in December in the cold, you know, or if I'm a southern team, oh, I got to go up to South Bend to play Notre Dame and 15 degree weather because we didn't schedule ourselves the right way out of conference. So we got dropped from maybe seven like we thought we should have been the 10 or 11 because we got punished for playing a crap schedule. I totally agree. And you're exactly right as we get into this season and Gary made this point, Gary Stoker made the same point that those games are important for eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 or separators for eight through 12. And we're going to talk endlessly about eight through 12 this year. You know, the Big Ten champion will probably not get talked about much. Right. The two teams in the Big Ten championship game, if they wrap that up in early November, it'll be like, oh, I forgot they exist because they're in there. We're going to spend a lot of time on eight through 12. And hopefully we remember September in that regard because this is, you know, the excitement level I feel is the same. It's tonight, I'm ready to rock and roll, watch some of these games and get into it. And I want them to matter in September. I would push that to seven. I think it's going to be seven to 12 that Matt that gets talked about because the reason I say that is, is because if you're five or six, you're playing that perceived the expected ACC Big 12 champ. You're seven. Now you're playing one of the Big Ten or Big 12 or a big SEC champs in round two, right? You really want to get into the top six. That's the pathway to getting. That's what we're going to talk about for Notre Dame, for example, like five or six, you're in a good place because you're going to play an ACC or a Big 12 team is the assumption, right? Or wrong, it's the assumption. So if Notre Dame is the five seed, they get, you know, Memphis or Liberty in round one, and then they get to play, you know, Oklahoma State or Kansas State in round two, as opposed to if you drop a game, you're not supposed to drop, or let's say that a 12 and no Notre Dame team gets dropped to number seven, verte behind the loser of the SEC and Big Ten games because Notre Dame plays this soft schedule, let's just say, where they don't play any good teams. We'll replace USC dropped us. We'll replace them with Wake Forest or a bad example. We'll replace them with Baylor, Vanderbilt, Indiana, teams like that. Okay, well, yeah, you went 12 and no, but, you know, so did Liberty, and they're the 12 seed because you didn't beat anybody, right? So yeah, you've got to test yourself and an 11 and one Notre Dame team that tests themselves, but has going to get in that five or six. So because if you're the seven seed bill, you now got to go play the Big Ten champ or the SEC champ in that second round. So I think that's where the cutoff is going to be. If you can get in that type top five or six, that's going to be where the debate really comes in my opinion. And they're going to be fun. And we're going to have a lot of fun doing it all season. I can tell you that. I mean, it's already started. We have one of the things we're curious from an interest standpoint is this idea of college football bracketology. As you know, I do the men's and women's bracketology for sporting news now. The women's was wildly successful last year, and it really does center around those last couple of teams. It centers around one seeds and last few teams. And so where you just said it's going to be different, I think you're right, is six through because of the game of and also rather not the committee tinkers with this idea of a rematch is that's something I've been harping on. But let's not watch Oregon Ohio State again. So we'll put Oregon one more down. That'll drive people nuts. It will happen inevitably, I think, too, on someone. Yeah, no question. And to try to avoid it or hey, if it's going to happen, they have to both earn it to get there. Right. So you're not going to put if Georgia beats Bama in the SEC title game, you're Georgia's the one seed. You know, maybe make Bama seven, seven, eight. Right. So that way, if they win, they don't get it right away the next round. You know, I think we'll be part of that conversation as well. It's going to be fascinating. And then, of course, part of the scheduling thing is, if the if the SEC team schedule champ, let's say that let's say Ohio State, they get Bama in a couple of years. Let's say Ohio State wins the big 10. They go 11 and two close road loss to Bama lose a regular season game against somebody really good. But they win the big 12 or big 10. And the ACC champ plays nobody out of conferences is 12 and one. I want to see that Ohio State team, just as an example, since you live in Columbus, I want to see them seated higher than the ACC team, even though they don't have as good of a record to say again. Why? Because they tested them. They battled. We sort of know who they are. We're not going to reward you big 12 team, you know, ACC team for going 12 and one or 13 and oh, and you don't play anybody. Right. You know, so and so that would be the incentive to the SEC big 10 teams and also the ACC teams. Hey, listen, this isn't just about whether you get in or not. This is also about where we're going to place you. And if you don't want to test yourself, fine, you'll get in, you'll win your league, you'll get a buy. But don't be mad at us when we make you a three or four seed. Correct. And you've got to play somebody really good in round two. So I think it's I think the committee's going to have such a huge sale over all of this bill before we end this thing. Any any we have a couple super chats we'll get to but any storylines that you're kind of you've got your eye on as we go into this weekend. And then once you're done with that, I want to get your Notre Dame. All right. Oh, um, you know, a couple things we'll have on tap is the transfer quarterbacks, how they look, you know, transfer Roulette is interesting. Will Howard will have a lot of eyes on him. We mentioned Cam Ward, Riley Leonard, Aiden child, it even goes down to like Aiden child's at Michigan State, Grayson McCall at NC State. How do these transfer quarterbacks have commanded their offense? I think there was a whopping a pull of stat. Really quickly. I just sent it to one of my editors. 40. This was from Ross Dellinger this week. 43 of the power 68 power power conference schools are expected to start a transfer quarterback. That's staggering to me. It's almost two thirds. And I've just been a firm believer in you get the best out of that transfer quarterback in the second season. So you've got to temper expectations in year one, you know, and if Riley Leonard, like before your other guys, I think it might have been Trevor that said that if Riley Leonard has this moment against A&M, it's almost unfair expectations from there. He's still a first year transfer in the system. Granted, the expectations are high. Will Howard, same deal. There's a couple more out there. And then guys like even debuts for guys like Dylan Ryola, you know, Jackson Arnold at Oklahoma. I think that always draws tonight. I'll be like everybody else. I'm going to watch Dion. We had a conversation with Dion at Sporting News, you know, a couple weeks ago, I sat on that. I will tell you this story and your listeners, this story about Dion, because I'm never going to forget it as long as I left. Interview Dion, it's pretty bare bones. We talked about he defended his portal. He defended his star system, those kinds of things. Dion has people have opinions on Dion. They're already made up. They're not going to change, but and I'm kind of fair with him. And, you know, grant my son walk behind me. I was in the parish hall at St. Catherine doing this interview because he had practice and, you know, Dion kind of waved him up and said, hey, how old are you? You know, talk to Grant for a few seconds. And he said, if you're going to play the game, play in shades, Grant's never going to forget that. Okay. So the guy's human, the guy loves football, you know, and as somebody who's doing this journey with his son through football, it was a pretty cool moment. I will watch them. I know we're going to all react either way. I think they get it done tonight, but we'll see North Dakota State's pretty good up front. Yeah. Yeah. Here's my, there's some things Dion has done that I don't like. And that's okay. What bothers me is that everything he does, people just immediately, and I said this was going to happen. He got so much hype in year one. And it was all intentional in my opinion with a lot of people because the minute he has any failure, they're going to be the first ones there to tear them down because it's like Notre Dame. You hype up Notre Dame to get the clicks. And then if they have failures, you then crush them to get the clicks. That's exactly how it goes, man. My, the latest thing though, I actually don't have a huge problem with because obviously on my end as journalists, I don't want coaches to feel like they can just go out there and tell people you can't ask questions. Some of the stuff I read that this guy was writing, these aren't, this isn't a reporter being a reporter. This is a guy basically trying to take a hatchet to the program every day to get clicks. They didn't ban him for being an oppressed conference. You can't ask questions. I actually didn't have a problem with it because like, look, if you're going to report on me, you need to have the freedom to, to criticize us when needed and praise it. I don't need you to, like, I don't, I can't stand when people I've talked to at Notre Dame over the years, trying to say, well, you know, you shouldn't, this isn't fair. This isn't, you know, this doesn't make, it's my job is to make you look good. But when you're just basically taking a hatchet job and you're just writing flame pieces just to try to generate clicks, I don't really view you as a reporter anymore. I view you as basically just somebody that's just, you know, trying to use his, the stance to go. So I actually didn't have a problem with, with that based on the things that I've read that that reporter has put out because it was clearly you're trying to create animosity to, to get us to do something or to just make us look bad. And then you want to, you know, cry well as me when we, when you get punished for it because you're not acting in good faith. I'll take criticism if you're acting in good faith. I'll take criticism if you're being true to what your credit a Driscoll said this. And I think he's wrong. Cool. Don't say Driscoll said this. And then I'm going to twist it into something else that I didn't actually say and criticize me for it. I've got no respect for you now. And that's that was kind of my issue with what this reporter clearly had an agenda. He wasn't just reporting the news of a four and eight football Well, and it goes both ways, right? Like for me, Dion, when he was berating a reporter a couple weeks ago, I'm like the reporter, if that's me in that situation, I'm probably going to stop talking. It's a certain point. I'm like, okay, let Dion win. And he's the bad guy. How I think this should have been handled is Dion probably should have invited a killer to the office and hashed it out that way behind closed doors. No need to put this on video or Snapchat or whatever. And you handle it that way and be professional both ways. Listen, I feel like you're unfairly criticizing me. You have it easy because you're the writer. You can do these things. And I'd ban you. And suddenly I'm the one with thin skin. Whereas, you know, at what point does the report and there are reporters out there. I'm not Sean. I'm not talking about Sean. I'm just saying in general, there are reporters that have thin skin. I read the comments. I tell people that all the time I used to be bothered by the comments used to get really angry and internalize it and get angry. Now, I've been doing this job so darn long that I'll send them to my friends and be like, dude, look what this dude said about me. And they'll they'll lose their mind laugh and they'll be like, did he really? And with you, Brian, I feel like, I know we get going on these podcasts because I've had podcasts with you where I left the podcast really angry. I was like, Brian, maybe mad. I want to, I want to just, you know, prove me wrong sometimes because it's like you'll prove me wrong on something. But I just really didn't agree with his take on that. But I respect your opinion. I always have, even if I don't agree with it. And I think some of that has been lost because of social media. Some of that has been lost because I've gone about my entire career trying to be fair. I'm fair. I think you're fair about Notre Dame. I'm pretty fair about Notre Dame. Some emotion creeps in. It always will, you know, being a big 10 guy. Yeah, I don't creep in there a little bit and be in a Catholic school kid. Yeah, it does. But it has to be fair. And I think my article with Dion the conversation, there, there is a quote with a headline where he compares himself to Jesus sort of. And that's the one that got a lot of quotes, but he was laughing when he said it. So context is, he's not comparing himself to the Messiah. But he had a point. Because if he wants everything he does is under the microscope, good bad in between. And he like he wanted he wants that. So when you when you seek that out, don't get mad when you don't like everything that comes back at you. My thing is I what I don't like is when people take it from an honest assessment, like I disliked Brian Kelly, you know that everybody knows that. But I tried, in my opinion, my best to to be fair. I'll praise him in areas where I felt he needs to be praised. And I'll criticize him in areas when he's being criticized in my job. Now personally, people ask me my opinion about Brian Kelly, you have, you're going to get it. Right. And it's not going to be pleasant. But that's that's different. And that was my thing with this reporter. I just felt like he was, he was making it personal in order to sort of make a name for himself. And I'm not a fan of that. And people say like this is against the First Amendment. No, it's not. You're not being asked able to ask questions because of certain things is not your you can still write whatever you want to write. And clearly this guy didn't need quotes from questions to ask to write hit pieces on on Colorado, in my opinion. I'm just using that broadly, not sort of for him just in general, is you you can write whatever you want to write. I didn't ban your newspaper. I didn't ban you from the premises. I simply said you can't ask questions. Now, if Dion did this just because the guy predicted them to lose a game, or you know, criticize him for like fair things, like, Hey, dude, you deserve blame for this. You went for date last year. That's that's a different deal. And I can I can there's a there's a line that you can cross because on this side of the aisle, we we we criticize whoever we want. We can hammer this guy, you're on the hot seat. We can talk about people maybe losing their jobs. But then whenever we get challenged, it's oh, oh, First Amendment, freedom of the press. No, right? Like if you want to if you want to have that type of attack on me, like I've said this to Notre Dame coaches, you have a problem with what I write. Here's my number. Let's talk it out. Right. And if you if you convince me that I'm wrong, I'll I'll offer a correction. I have no problem with that. Actually, funny story, my galco did that with me once, right? I critiqued a play and a player in a coverage. And he hits me up and he's like, Hey, just so you know, actually that play was on this guy. We were in this coverage. And this is what happened. And he kind of, you know, explained to him, I said, Okay, cool. And I make a correction, right? Because I want to be factual. But and I had that happen with other Notre Dame coaches. Here's my number. If I get it wrong, if you think I'm being personal, you come talk to me about it and we'll have that conversation. And it's not a well, I'm a reporter. I have a right to say whatever I want. Well, yeah, you can, but but but you don't have a freedom from certain consequences. You know, if your publisher doesn't like it, if your publisher thinks you're bringing on negative, you know, negative heat, then you don't necessarily have a right to have that job anymore. You know what I mean? Because if you're if you're violating your duties, which is to report things honestly and fairly, then you know, you kind of you're not guaranteed that job. There's there's to me feel to understand what a right is, in my opinion, Bill. And and so it's like, if you want to be able to offer the criticism, be able to take it back. My only thing is like, I don't have any problem blocking people on Twitter. I have one rule. It's not that you you can't disagree with me is that it's don't make it personal. Right. If you make it personal, you're gone. I just I don't have time for this kind of stuff. Disagreeing all you want to make it personal. You and I have had plenty of disagreements. Oh, for sure. But we love talking ball. Why? Because I know you've thought through your point of view, you know, you've thought through mine and it's never personal. Right. And I think that sometimes when people cross the line, Dion has to I think at times maybe have a little bit of thicker skin when it comes to criticism of his kids. I think Dion has plenty thick skin when it comes to people criticizing him. Yeah, he doesn't care. I don't have very thin in when it comes to people criticizing his kids. And that's where he's going to have to do. You can't be their dad at the press conference when you're talking about people criticizing for their for the things that should or Sanders maturity or leadership is something that is fair to be to be critiqued just like it is for Riley Leonard or Cam Ward or any other quarterback. You can't be his dad in response. You've got to be his coach. And that's where I have the most criticism for him is, you know, dude, you got to you got to separate being dad at press conferences and stuff like that when it comes to your kids. That's a good separator and a fair point. So I mean, but yeah, to put a bow on all of it, that's what I'm looking for for week one. You asked for a Notre Dame prediction. I got 27 19. Yep. I mean, I think we're in about the same neighborhood on that. I said it on our podcast yesterday. I'll say it again. I just think they're the better team. I think the defense travels. I think they deal with the heat. Yes, Texas A&M can be a goofy place to play. So that's a good tone center for their season. You know, you got to go down and win those games. And I think one of the things you said yesterday that stuck with me and it should stick with others is this is Mike Elko's first game. So first time coaches are going to do some exciting things. They'll do like a reverse early or a double pass, something like that to get the crowd into it. But once Notre Dame adjusts, settles in and as long as Riley Leonard doesn't turn the football over, they'll be fine. Do you have it as a four field goal game? Or do you have it as like a missed extra point? They go for too late and no, I'd be at some point time or one. Man, you really do think it through. I kind of go. Oh, man, I got to get to 19. You know, how I kind of work through predictions sometimes as you look at the over. Okay. Okay, what's Vegas thinking? No, probably about right. Yeah. And then throw in like a, yeah, they could kick some, they got to make their field goals here. And then, uh, so to get to 27, what is that two, four touchdowns, two touchdowns, four field goals? How about I do three touchdowns and two field goals? For Notre Dame, that's three touchdowns, two field goals, 27. So 19 would be a seven, a seven, yeah, four field goals or two touchdowns, two field goals, but you don't get an extra point. So let's do that or do that one. Yeah. Something goofy happens along, you know, I laugh last week because if you really pay attention to how they do those lines and the Florida State Georgia Tech line was sitting at 11 and a half. And you kind of look at how that line will go. Of course, they go for two on the first touchdown. So it's eight and nothing through the line right off, right? You're like, now I'm already offline. So that happens more in college football than anything else. But definitely looking forward to it. Um, I hope, I hope your listeners enjoy our talks because this is going to be a feature all season. Yes. We were excited about it, Bill, when I told him we were going to be, because I've got a lot of requests for, Hey, can you talk about other big games? Yeah. And, and you know, like when I talk about it, even if I try to be as fair, it's still a Notre Dame guy talking about this game. Right. So you're going to get a different perspective on it. Yeah. And I know we'll spend, we're going to spend 45 minutes on Michigan, Texas next week. That's, you know, that's going to be a big one. There's going to be some very interesting games. I was actually, it's funny, Bill, you bring that up as we wrap this up. I was actually looking ahead to the next couple of weeks. Because I'm like, you know, there's, there's always that either week two or week three, like the last few years, there's been some great week one games. I think last year might have been one that didn't have a lot of them. But usually there's a lot of good week one games. But you get into like week two and week three is when it gets a little bit like, um, not a lot of great games. But then I looked at it and I said, you got Texas in Michigan, you've got Arkansas, Oklahoma State, you've got, there was a couple others, Baylor at Utah's, Iowa State, Iowa, Kallet, Auburn, you dive into some big 10 games. And I think we're going to be, the Michigan State of Maryland is going to be a very interesting game to discuss. So I was like, okay, good. We're going to be all right. There's going to be at least enough games to talk about. But like you said, we could spend a whole segment on that Michigan and Texas game for next weekend. That's going to be a Tennessee at NC State's another one, Colorado, Nebraska. So there's going to be Houston at Oklahoma. There's going to be some Boise Oregon. So I was like, I kind of did one of these. Yeah, we'll be fine next week. We're going to get a little bit of a jump on it. So yeah, yeah, we'll have some fun week three. Same thing. We'll actually, um, uh, we'll have a good Friday night game next week to talk about bill, because we got Arizona, Kansas State, the fall week three, the fall Friday, right? Yeah, that's a huge big 12 game. So it goes quick. We'll enjoy it. Yep. Absolutely. Well, thanks for joining me, Bill. Hey, if you guys want to find his work, obviously you can follow Bill on Twitter. I'll have him give you his Twitter handle in a second. You can always find his work at sporting news.com. Definitely check that out. And Bill does a weekly show at CFB Nation. So go to the CFB Nation podcast and you subscribe there. You get his work. They'll always kind of preview the upcoming games. Once we get into the season, they'll also recap some of the games that were played. And then of course, on Thursdays here, Bill will be live right here with me at ours, breakdown.com, where we will preview and discuss and have plenty to talk about on the big games. We always said, I'll be around 45 minutes, right? But, you know, we'll go an hour. You and I, I'm sure we'll go an hour. Always get an extra 15, 20 minutes on the time that I always tell you when we run together. And that's fine. And that's great. Yeah, I'm at Bill Bender 92 at sporting news. And we have like just, if you want to do a quick predictions, we've got them all up. And again, very thankful for this opportunity. And yeah, we're going to have fun all season. I appreciate it. I believe you have three Notre Dame guys in your first team, all preseason all American defense. It did, Howard and Benjamin and Xavier Watts. Can't say Xavier Watts if he was the first team or last year. So again, another reason why I think they'll be fine. That defense travels on Saturday night. Absolutely. Absolutely. Father David Penny did bring up a great question, Bill. He said, Brian, have you ever had a conversation? Short conversation for someone? Lots. But it's usually people I don't want to talk to. I love talking to Bill. So, and I'm trying to remember what was the game we first met at? Was it? Trying to remember what it was. Movie Bill Notre Dame 19. Down there on Labor Day. Like this weekend. Down there in Labor Day 19. And I think that's what it was. He came at me with something and then we ended up talking about it. And it was just like you said, you were something I wrote that you didn't agree with. We didn't fight. I was like, got into it as far as the discussion. It was a fun discussion. Okay. And I'm like, sweet, let's do it. And then we've been able to do that. And I remember, that was a Louisville got off to a quick start and Notre Dame took over second half-type games. So, we have a ton of passion for this. To answer the question, no, Brian has never had a short conversation. But neither have I, and I am one of those guys that I enjoy. So I'll go to my son's practice or I'll go to my daughter's practice. I do enjoy talking to people at the practices about football. And I, you know, some of the dads, I'm not sure if they don't want to do it. And then others, I'm like, man, we've been talking for an hour. So we have a lot of fun with it. We have some really passionate dads. We're really excited about Grant Scrimmage tonight against Baxley. He's playing some corners, some tight ends, some quarterbacks, some receivers. So, for the Irish fans out there, I always picture that this would be best, best, best case scenario. He always, he reminds me running around on the field. Not nearly as good, but he reminds me of a Jeff Scrimmage on the football field, just the way he runs and catches and those kinds of things. So, we're very thankful here. Well, Bill, thanks for joining us. Kyle Berry, thank you. We're best of luck to you, expecting your first child this weekend prayers for one healthy baby and mom and an Irish win. We will absolutely do that, man. Couple quick super chats that we got to get out of the way, Bill, you can take off. I'm going to answer some of these questions. I don't, I looked at them. None of them are directed at you. So thank you for that. We had a super chat from AST12321. Brian, when can we win? When we win? Can you please go on a rampage on all the doom and gloom or type saying their aim doesn't win these games? And we do. Yeah, I'll have a lot to if they win, I will certainly have a lot to say about that. I will try to be, you know, good about it, but we'll see how the game kind of plays out. Tyler Evans with a super chat. Thank you, Tyler, very, very much. Tyler says, give me Notre Dame 31 and A&M seven. The offense will show out and the D will be locked down. Let's go Irish. I had another one Kenny Moore. Thank you for super chat. Kenny 28, nothing Irish. I tell you guys, if you two are right and Notre Dame wins convincingly, that is like, that's the only kind of statement that I think Notre Dame can make. I think if Notre Dame goes on the road and wins this game, it's like, okay, that's what they should do. I mean, Notre Dame should go on the road and win this game. I mean, that's just kind of, you know, it's just that's just how I see it, right? My wife jumping into the conversation for Brian is under 40 minutes. My wife even coming at it and she I can't get mad at her. I told her, my wife, I'll never get mad at you for speaking the truth. And so she speaks the truth there. But if you guys are correct, then this game isn't close. You know, that that's the statement win. Just Notre Dame winning 24 16. My prediction bill's got 27 19. That's like, okay, good job. You did what you're supposed to do. Good job. It's a good win. It's something you say, hey, you built on something. But it's not a Notre Dame has arrived. They beat A&M on the road. Yay. By its field goal. It's a good job. You do what you're supposed to do. Now let's keep keep going forward. A blowout win would be the only thing that they could do that's like, Oh, wow, Notre Dame made a statement today. That's, uh, that's kind of where I'm at on that one. So, um, got another super chat from my guy, Pete Weber. Thank you. Pete Weber very, very much. Congrats on the wedding to the Trevor honeymoon fund. I will make sure that Trevor gets that message and that cut of the super chat absolutely. So we appreciate you. Pete, then Michael S, super chat in the past. Did no name ever started an O line with his little experiences, this O line and what was the result. The last time that I remembered Notre Dame starting an offensive line with this little of experience was 1988. And I believe they had four career offensive line starts. Andy Heck made some tight end starts. Um, Tim Grunhard made a couple late season starts in 1987 sort of like what Billy Schrauth and Ashton Craig did, but it was between like four to five or six career starts coming back. They lost all five starters from the year before in 1988. And, uh, the result was Notre Dame beat Michigan and the opener, a ranked Michigan team who finished the year ranked, I believe fifth overall, beat a ranked Michigan state team, I believe the next week, beat number one Miami, beat number two USC, and then beat number three West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl to win the national title. So yes, Notre Dame has in the past had a season where they went into the season with a very inexperienced offensive line and a young group of young players that 1988 Notre Dame team started two true freshmen on offense guy by the name of rocket is male. Don't know if you remember him. And they started another freshman by the name of Derek Brown. They started a true sophomore on that team by the name of Ricky Waters. Uh, their quarterback had very little experience was a guide. It was a very athletic player with a big arm, but you know, criticized for his accuracy in that instance, and they ended up being pretty good, but they had a very veteran defense mixed with some really talented younger players. Todd Light is a true sophomore just saying. So yeah, they've done this before 1987 they had or 2007, they had a very inexperienced offensive line, but it had actually more experience than this one because you had Sam Young coming back and Sam Young was a two year starter or no, it was a full year starter the year before. So that unit had a lot more experience than this one did. So that's, um, that's where yeah, so the last time they had a season, I believe the last time was 1988 where they went into a season with fewer than 10 career starts on their offensive line and that season turned out okay. So I would say, um, I would say that that, you know, it's not what you want to be, but if the talent's there and, you know, defense can carry you for a little bit and your skill players can step up and make some plays, you'll be all right. You'll be all right. So that's going to do it for today. So everybody, I'll be back tomorrow one o'clock live tomorrow before I head to the airport. So I'll finish the show and then head straight to the airport to head down to Texas. Very much looking forward to that. And of course, we'll have our post game show about probably have Vince launch it probably start 10 minutes after the game ends. So we'll get that thing settled there towards, pardon me towards the end, get that ready to go be Vince Ryan Trevor and I believe Sean Davis will all be with you on the post game show. And then I'll be back Monday night with at seven o'clock with the upon further review breakdown. And then I'll also have some video breakdowns that will be on the the message board on Monday before the show that will be for premium members only. I'm going to break down several aspects of the game in video form and some stat breakdowns, some different things along those lines. You're going to check that out on Monday. But you got to be a premium member folks to go to boards@arsprayton.com and sign up for monthly membership. You can sign up for, I saw on three was offering a special rate of $4.99, which means you pay $4.99 now and it goes up next year at Irish Breakdown. It's just $4.99. That's all it is. And so you sign up for there. It's $49.99 for a year or you can join one of our booster clubs and give us a little extra support. You do get some cool merch if you do join the booster club. So check that out all at boards@arsprayton.com. Have an awesome rest of your day. I've been nation sports talk of five o'clock tonight for all those going to the game. Travel safe. Enjoy yourselves. Represent Notre Dame the way that you know that we can represent Notre Dame and I'll see you guys again here very, very soon on the Irish Breakdown podcast. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
