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Get IPVanish now for 70% off a yearly plan with this exclusive offer at IPVanish dot com slash audio. Let's dive into the defense fellows and this is the side of the ball where I think Notre Dame has the advantage and I think it's a pretty significant advantage but you now need to execute and make sure that the on paper advantage and they perceived advantage becomes a practical advantage and that's really going to be an important part of this game because I don't know that Notre Dame can win this game if the defense takes a step back or doesn't bring it which we saw a couple of times last year. I mean that's going to happen right there. Nobody's elite for 12 games in regular season. You're going to have your off games and the problem Notre Dame has had is when their defense did take a step back their offense wasn't good enough to pick them up like the way that the defense would pick up the offense when they had their down games. So the defense is going to have to play to its capabilities in this game especially early and it really starts up front and it's not just because well football is one of the trenches and it's not just because you know any it's just about this is what this team is about when this D line plays well Ryan you and I talked about it all year last year when this D line plays well you aren't moving the football on Notre Dame when the D line didn't play well that's when they would get in trouble you've got a big fit big massive offensive line that you can't allow to get into a rhythm you may have potentially three new starters for them in this game center right guard right tackle depending on you know who they finally go with that center obviously Mark Naboo started last year they're talking about the kid from Utah is number one of the depth chart this year you've got the Kansas transfer Adams reads it right guard and Ruben father he's hurt so it looks like they're going to go with crown over at right tackle at least that's what the depth chart says so they're going to have their own new set of starters in there as well right can't let them get confidence Ryan the front the Notre Dame front has to dominate the line of scrimmage which means don't let them run the football don't let Connor Wegman get into a rhythm because if if they can force and him to be a in a lot more passing downs I don't know that they have much of a chance to to move the ball and score but if they stay in on schedule if they stay ahead of it get into second and short get into third and shorts that's where that offense can feast because now Colin Klein has his whole repertoire play action movement all that stuff quarterback runs screen game it's all it's all there for him to go to if you get in those downs and you've got to get him into pure passing downs because that's where his offenses have struggled in the past prize picks is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active members prize picks is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports unlike other apps on prize picks it's just you against the numbers all you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll in get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize picks community today you can now win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks you can turn ten dollars into a thousand dollars i'm a bears fan so this one gets me really excited one Caleb Williams passing yard gets you one win on prize picks every week in September that's right only one yard gets you an automatic win every football weekend in September four weeks of free w's don't miss this deal on prize picks because it's gone when September ends think Tyreke hill get more than 90.5 yards in week one Aaron Jones runs for more than 66.5 yards cook up hot takes with your friends and win real money this football season when you and your crew run your game on prize picks prize picks also has college picks all ready to go for you as well get in before game one hits and you can predict how many passing yards your favorite college quarterback will hit for me i think Riley Leonard's gonna go above two thousand five hundred and fifty and a half yards so i'm gonna take that one and i'm gonna combine it with Quinn yours to throw two thousand nine hundred and ninety nine and a half yards put those together and bang bang boom baby i'm gonna be a winner you just wait and see i'm coming up on my one-year anniversary of depositing my first ten dollars and i received an instant ten dollar bonus if you have the skills you can play for a shot at turning your ten dollars into a thousand dollars download the prize picks app today and use code irish for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars that's code irish on prize picks for a deposit match up to a hundred dollars prize picks run your game you've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce but have you had them covered in sauce Wendy's new saucy nugs takes the crispy and spicy nugs that you love and turn them up to eleven choose between flavors like buffalo honey barbecue garlic parm or if you're a real heat seeker try spicy ghost pepper only on Wendy's signature spicy nugs i dare you that's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love pick a flavor grab some extra napkins and prepare to nug like you've never nugged before for a whole new way to nug it's gotta be Wendy's at participating u.s. Wendy's well i would i would say this too is that we spent so much time obviously on the neuter games side of things but even the national side of things talking about neuter games offensive line and the six career starts and Anthony nap and all those types of things people have forgotten that like texan am also has a lot of questions on the offensive line as well i mean like we just haven't talked as much about that trays soon is a good player at left tackle but he might be the only player that is playing the position that he started at last year for the majority of the season right because even chase bassantas is moving to left guard and from right tackle where he played mostly as a true freshman so this is a new offensive line for the for lack of better term like this is a first game in a new alignment of an offensive line and Notre Dame is bringing back one of the better interior duos in college football with Howard karles and Riley mills they're also bringing in rj obon they also have jordan betelho who's hopefully going to take a nice step but they also have booba cartreori and joshua bernaman this defensive line is one of the best in the country and texan am offensive line could end up being a solid to good units by the end of the season i think they have that type of upside but not game one game one they're gonna have the same it the same inconsistencies that we're talking about with Notre Dame as far as like there's gonna be some miscommunication at times maybe there's gonna be some pre-snap stuff there's gonna be some jitters there's gonna be some nerves like that stuff is going to be there for the texan am offensive line you have a clear advantage up front Notre Dame needs to take that and make the pundits the analysts and everybody out there saying Notre Dame's defensive line should dominate the texan offense line you need to make them right if Notre Dame's defense line does not just i don't want to say destroy if they don't dominate this football gamer at least win handedly against the offensive line then that's trouble for Notre Dame that means that Notre Dame probably didn't play a very good football game defensively so they need to show that their strength is a strength and that their strength is a strength over the texan am offensive line in this game Trevor i'm gonna kick i'm gonna kick part two to you because this this ties into it and it's something that you and i have talked about step number two to me in this game kind of involves the line but also the linebackers and that is when breaking down calling client you talked about it in your article today you and i have chatted about it he is great at using multiple tight ends motion shifts two backs and and doing things to create extra spacing extra gaps extra they call surface area right in the run game and then using that where they put two tight ends to one side motion that side and they're running away from it right you have to you cannot allow yourself to get out leveraged by texas a and m and you have to be disciplined i think that's really the what the only thing that could prove to be a kryptonite to this front seven is if they are allowed if they don't handle that those things well so if it just comes down to mono a mono like ryan said i think this Notre Dame D line handles this matchup and they've played against really big offensive lines before and been fine because they're athletic that's the that's the concern right there right is don't let call and climb due to you what we talked about what mike dembrock needs to do to the texas a&m defense which is use motions use shifts use personnel to create mistakes or or line alignment mistakes assignment mistakes execution mistakes whatever that can then generate the big place for them the majority of my concerns in the front seven live in the line backing core and again not from a skill set perspective they're longer this year i believe that they're more athletic this year but with how complex colon client's offenses very similar to how complex mike den brock's offenses especially pre snap it's going to be very important that they play assignment correct to your point don't get out leveraged don't put yourself in a scenario where you're out of position too much in an ideal world they play a perfect snap or play a perfect game on every snap right but minimize the mistakes and make sure that you don't get out leverage that to me is the biggest thing because once you get into that position colon client counterwegman they're going to start getting into a rhythm which is dangerous especially being on the road hey iris breakdown listeners it's urban mire this fall the game changes join me Heisman trophy winner mark engram 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 jewelry isn't a gift you give just once it's a way to remind your loved one of a beautiful moment every time they see it blue Nile can help you find the gift that says how you feel and says it beautifully with expert guidance and a wide assortment of jewelry of the highest quality at the best price go to blue Nile calm and experience the convenience of shopping blue Nile the original online jeweler since 1999 that's blue Nile dot com to find the perfect jewelry gift for any occasion blue Nile dot com let's dive into to point number three Ryan because these all i think segue perfectly into each other what does all of that mean that we just talked about defensive line dominating being gaps gap sound not letting them out leverage you not letting them out number you not letting them kind of pin you inside on one of their toss plays or their counter plays or things like that as i'm watching Colin Klein's offense from last year run game wise he's a very creative play caller in the run game he's very creative when it comes to sneaking out his full back on a power action into the black and run a corner route for a big play where you're like how did that guy get that wide open and that's a lot of their tight end led their team and catches last year Ryan i just counted in the five or six games i broke down 1213 catches at least though he's catching them all out of the backfield as almost like he's a full back or in a wing position can't can't the state has done that for ever even without him you remember like the Gronkowski brother that everything's 20 something yards a catch as well each back full back yeah make any sense yeah but it comes down to this Ryan it's don't let them get cheap yards make them earn everything no turning guys loose no missing tackles if you get a guy in space bring him down no no you know over running plays no turning you got you you have to make them go on long drives because if they have to sustain long drives against this defense they're just not going to score a lot what a and m is going to need to do is generate big plays just like Notre Dame both offenses are going through a lot of similar things so if you're Notre Dame Ryan make him work no cheap yards that i mean that's huge in this game i mean because there's only a couple guys in this text statement offense that i would call like guys that can create big plays ultimately right like you got the Cyrus Allen kid you might have the Terry Bussy kid who's the true freshman the five star other than that no autonomous is a six six outside i mean like he can run a double move occasionally but like he's a he's a possession guy like he's going to win a lot of contested catch situations should a walker six foot four you have a couple good tight ends but like again you're talking about guys that are more what the the impact they create is going to be before the catch and at the catch more than after the catch like you just don't have that some guys at running back lady on moss is a really tough physical runner but like he's not a game breaker like you got a guy that's going to bust off like a 60-yard run a Kate more dolphin than not so for me it's like you have it to offense that i think is lacking in a lot of big play ability at least from a full spectrum perspective can't let him create big plays in his football game right like there's two guys that if i'm Notre Dame i'm really worried about creating big plays on this offense that's it and one of the guys i have no idea how the heck they're going to use them like i have no idea what Terry buss is going to do on Saturday zero so though but those are the only two guys i look at him and Alan and say like that guy might be able to create a big play on me might be able to create an explosive otherwise you know if if Benjamin Morrison at some point gets out leveraged for 50-50 ball against Noah Thomas that's fine man like it's okay right because the guy six six i mean ultimately but you got to make everything hard and you got to make everything difficult no easy ball no bad misses in space that like i go for 60 no second effort runs like keep it keep it what keep them what they are ultimately and that should be a methodically oriented offense that is not an explosive offense on paper and they i don't know that they can beat Notre Dame that way unless the Notre Dame offense just gives them points i really don't think that they can here's here's the last piece Ryan because i don't think you're going to completely shut this offense down where they don't move the ball they don't cross midfield you just completely obliterate them the way that they did teams like pit and wake forest last year they're going to have some some drives that that get into your territory two years ago Notre Dame had one of the worst red zone defenses in college football they were only a spot away from having the worst the absolute worst red zone defense completely flipped the script last year they had a top five red zone defense so what's what they were second right in in red zone and then what were they said second or third in red zone touchdown or the other way around easy top five red zone defense and they did it all year what's the truth right like which one's truer is the truth somewhere in the middle i think that's going to be a big key in this game too right because if they do get a couple early drives as you're getting used to the motions and shifts and the movement and the tempo and all those different things how they're going to use this guy how they can use this guy if they do put some drives together they do hit a couple big plays a make sure you don't you don't let those big plays result in touchdowns right they get a 40-yard game the flips of field fine but hold them to field goals red zone defense is going to be huge in this game because when they do put those drives together you got to hold them to three when i look at this game Trevor that's going to be a big part of it is if it may take them a little bit to get used to what this offense is going to do there are some players that can hit some big plays if you do make some mistakes make sure they don't get to six and when they get into the red zone hold them to field goals if this if this becomes a situation where Texas has five or six scores and they're all field goals so flipping what no they're even going to win the game that's a big big part of this game especially especially early on if they're able to hit a couple plays yeah continuing their dominance in the red zone is going to be huge let's let's be realistic as awesome as it would be to say they're not even going to cross the 50-yard line they're going to it's just going to happen so being able to play assignment correct sound football once they get into your territory i think is going to be crucial Notre Dame had a really good red zone defense last year they returned a lot of the key pieces on that defense this year the interesting thing for me for Notre Dame's defense is almost on the flip side of Ryan's point about how big their receiving core is is how they're going to fare in the red zone specifically i like Benjamin Morrison he has shown that he can play against bigger receivers in the past Marvin Harrison jr was six four and we all know what he did a whole lot of nothing against Notre Dame when they went to south bend but six six is pretty big and historically cam heart was that guy cam heart was long he was six three and right now your tallest corner is Leonard Moore i believe at six two so gonna be interested to see how they handle that but handling yourself in the red zone field goals are always going to be wins so that's that's the defensive breakdown guys again it's a very very big game for Notre Dame in many many ways and when you are playing in this type of big moment your best has to play at its best and the best part of Notre Dame is what we know right now is its defense and so they're going to have to get that i think this is also a great momentum builder for this team too and honestly i this is the side of the ball that i do have the most confidence that will play well if i'm being honest because it is so experienced and because there is so much continuity this is the one part of both teams three new coordinators out of four the only thing that didn't change this last soft season was Notre Dame's defense and i think that's the why i do believe that it is and what is it Ryan that you said was that you said this to me or during the show or when we were talking earlier defense travels right i mean then that's got to be true for this game so that's going to do it for the keys to victory and we're going into predictions next folks but before we do hit that like hit that subscribe hit the notification bell share this podcast give us a five star review we'd greatly appreciate that and as always make sure that you have 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