Notre Dame must perform well on offense this weekend if the Irish are going to earn a victory at Texas A&M. Bryan dives into the on paper matchup between the Irish offense and the Aggie defense.
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George Clooney and Brad Pitt's new movie, Wolfs, is on Apple TV Plus, September 27th. That's where I want you to be now. So if you want to see George Clooney and Brad Pitt, go to Apple TV Plus. You got to start the story there? Or if you want to see Brad Pitt and George Clooney, go to Apple TV Plus. I am enjoying the show. And if you want to see their new movie, Wolfs. You can't do it, win help yet. I can do it. Do it. Definitely go to Apple TV Plus. The minute is cool. Okay, fine, it's very cool. Wolfs, streaming September 27th on Apple TV Plus. We are. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile unlimited. Premium wireless. 10 bit to get 30, 30 bit to get 30 bit to get 20, 20 bit to get 20, 20 bit to get 15, 15, 15, 15, just 15 bucks a month. So. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes detail. I be nation. Welcome back to another edition of the Irish breakdown podcast. It's Wednesday, which means we're about halfway through the week. Getting ready for Notre Dame versus Texas A&M. Notre Dame enters sort of a Wednesday practice period today, which is sort of a, it's kind of the big week. The big day at your last full practice or full padded practice. It's your last day where you're doing more team situations. And then, of course, tomorrow, Thursday is a lot of situational football. Friday will be travel day walkthroughs and then Saturday's game day. So Notre Dame is getting closer and closer to being where they need to be to know whether or not this team is going to be ready to go out there and win this football game on Saturday. So it's a big one, obviously, from a perception standpoint, I'm going to have a show on Friday. I'm going to go live on Friday. And one of the things I'm going to talk about is what does this game mean for Notre Dame? Because there's a very interesting debate going on where, especially on the board, and I'm assuming it's on other channels as well. I don't read that and I'm not on social media as much as I used to be. This notion that all of a sudden, Texas A&M is this loaded, talented team and people in the chat that are obsessed with recruiting rankings and all these other type of things. And it's going to be this and it's going to be that and all this hand ringing and complaining about how Notre Dame doesn't win games like this. And A&M is really good. And then you point out like, hey, they beat NC State. They beat Duke. They beat Syracuse. And they're like, oh, those teams suck. And the reality is all three of those teams have better record than Texas A&M in the last two years. And so there needs to be a proper understanding of what this game means. It is a big game. I'll dive more into it during the week. It is a big game. It is an important game for Notre Dame. It's not an end all be all game for Notre Dame, win or lose. And beating Texas A&M does not mean that you're now going to go beat Georgia or Ohio State. They are not that program. Losing to Texas A&M doesn't mean it's the end of the world. It's not good. There's no good spin. But as I've said before, we've seen teams win championships the same season. They lost the teams that are just like A&M, if not worse, right? I mean, Clemson the first year they won the title loss at home in November to an eight and five pit team. And if you look at 17 Clemson who made the college football playoffs, number one seed lost on the road to a four and eight Syracuse Ohio State in 2014, lost at home by two touchdowns in September to a Virginia Tech team that finished seven and six. This game is not the end of the world whether you lose and it does not mean bring on Georgia, bring on Ohio State when you win. This is a game that will be a battle. This is a good football team. Yes, they have talent. So does Notre Dame. Yes, they have good coaches. So does Notre Dame. This is an opportunity for Notre Dame to go out there and make a statement. And unfortunately, in my opinion, the biggest statement that needs to be made is to some Notre Dame fans who just for whatever reason have just convinced themselves that this is just a game that it's going to be almost impossible to win. I don't agree. And I'm going to talk about some of those reasons why today. And then, of course, tomorrow we'll have our prediction show. But I've been disappointed at how much negativity there is among the Notre Dame fan base heading into this game. I'm actually shocked by it. I really thought that Notre Dame fans were going to be more excited. I think Notre Dame fans were, I thought they would be more of, hey, yeah, you've got to show me. I mean, I'm in show me mode. Marcus Freeman's got a lot to prove. The Notre Dame coaching staff has got a lot to prove. Notre Dame players have got a lot to prove. But man, if you're not excited now, it's disappointing to be completely honest with you that there's been that much of that. And maybe it's just that the negative people are the loudest, and most people are encouraged. But I just don't understand, you know, there even someone in the chat right now talking about A&M's rankings or this. I like if you're constantly going to be looking for the, you know, things to be upset about and sad about and disappointed about, it's like, dude, I mean, that's a you problem. You might want to talk to somebody about that. You know what I mean? And, you know, they got more five stars. You know, they also have almost twice as many three stars or unranked players in their starting lineup as what Notre Dame has. So if you want to look for something to be upset about, you're going to find it most weeks. And we're not going to do that. We're not going to have emotional arguments today at Notre Dame. We're going to have factual ones. And we'll give analysis and opinions, and you'll know the difference between what is fact and what is opinion as we dive into today's show. Today's show is going to be, it's a midweek rundown. So we kind of go through a lot of different things. Part one in part two are going to be looking at the on paper match up between Notre Dame and Texas A&M, which is made increasingly harder. When you look at not only game one, it's always difficult to sort of do a statistical analysis of the first game of the year because teams are naturally different from what they were in previous seasons. It's even more difficult nowadays because so many teams are in situations where they're just, their rosters are completely different. Not only just from like it has in the past, we have to replace some guys, but you just have this giant influx of portal guys. What makes this match up even more challenging is the idea that you've got three new coordinators in this game. Notre Dame has a new offensive coordinator and obviously Texas A&M has two new coordinators on defense and obviously on the offensive side of the ball. And that's another area where there's this kind of this panic about how good Colin Klein was at Kansas State. And he was while ignoring the fact that Notre Dame brought in the offensive coordinator who led the number one offense in the country last year. But I'm to believe, according to some, that Colin Klein's going to have a huge impact on Texas A&M's offense, but Mike Denbrock coming to Notre Dame is not going to have much of an impact because reasons. So that's just been kind of what I've been dealing with today. So yeah, I'm a little bit kind of done with it, to be honest with you. So I'm going to be a little bit chippy today. I'm just letting you guys know because it's kind of struck my last nerve, to be completely honest with you. That doesn't mean I'm guaranteeing Notre Dame is going to win the game. Of course, Notre Dame could lose this game. It's just the constant focus on negativity that I'm seeing. And I just don't quite get where it comes from, right? Like if they lose, then be negative, then focus on what happened when they lose. But how about enjoy these last moments before the season starts? That's what I'm going to do. And then we can deal with whatever happens on Saturday when it happens, and we can deal with it. So now that's kind of where I'm at about where this team is going to be. So we're going to stack up those things. Part three and part four of the show are going to be looking at game records. It's going to be a discussion of who are the players for Notre Dame that I think need to be the game records for this matchup. And it's something that I'm going to do kind of on all the Wednesday shows. I think it's going to be a little bit of a different look of the guys that I think, whether it be talent-wise or match-up-wise, need to be those impact players for Notre Dame. And then on the same side is who are the players for Texas A&M's defense that you need to make sure don't become game records for them? And it's not always the same. It's not always this guy versus this guy. My game records may be these guys, but they may not be matched up against the game records for the other team. And then part four, we'll be looking at it from the opposite side. It'll be the Notre Dame defense. And then looking at it from the standpoint of the Texas A&M offense, and who they need to stop. And then the final segment of today's show will be our buy-so-hold. As always, the buy-so-hold is on Wednesday, is going to be at the end of the show. This is going to kind of start the time of the year when the buy-so-hold will not be every submission gets responded to, because otherwise I'll be doing a five-hour show. And I just don't have the voice to do a five-hour show. So I picked some of the ones, like there were some that were really good, but they were more like down the road thinking to 2025. And I'm just not quite ready there. So a lot of great submissions that I had to turn down today, which I do never feel great about. But I do have a lot of work to get done the next couple of days before I fly down to Texas. And I just didn't feel like I could do a five-hour show today. But I promise you, there's going to be lots of good stuff in today's show, lots of discussion, and then, of course, get to your guys' great submissions at the end for our buy-so-hold. 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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 11. 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 got to be Wendy's at participating U.S. Wendy's. So I want to kick off part one of today's show with a discussion about the match up on paper match up between Notre Dame and Texas A&M and the on paper match up is then built around the guys that are actually playing right. And I'm going to try my best to give some really good context of this conversation because as I said it is it is a challenge to do this type of thing in week one anyway and it's even more challenging when you're trying to do it with so much turnover from all these teams. You know Notre Dame coaches talked about it but I mean just tinking off top my head if you're trying to evaluate the players that you're going to go against you're not only watching Texas A&M film to evaluate the players that are coming back and then the Duke film to evaluate what they did defensively and then you also have to evaluate Kansas State film to see what Colin Klein did there. You may want to evaluate some Florida film under Jay Bateman but I don't know that I'd spend a whole lot of time evaluating the Florida film. You have to consider evaluating Louis in a tech film to watch Cyrus Allen. You have to watch Kansas State film on defense to evaluate Will Lee. You have to watch UAB film. You have to watch Florida film. I mean there's so much film you have to watch of Kansas from Oline, Utah for the Oline. There's so much that you have to evaluate when looking at this type of thing and it's the same thing that's true for for Texas A&M to a degree. Although the head coach obviously has a pretty good idea with about a couple of the the main transfers from Notre Dame as far as what they can do. So it's going to be very interesting to see kind of how this how this holds up and or how the shakes out but I do think there are some baseline discussions that we can have about this statistical matchup. And so we'll get things started by looking at the Notre Dame offense against the Texas A&M defense. So there's two reasons why I'm starting on this side of the ball. Number one is I normally start an offense. I'm an offensive guy. The other one is like this is obviously the matchup that is has got people talking the most. And this is the matchup that has people the most angst. I don't know a lot of Notre Dame fans even the most pessimistic ones who are thinking that A&M is just going to go out there and rip Notre Dame up. I mean that that's just not happening a whole lot. There are some concerns obviously about the Notre Dame defense is from a new line backers in this guy because apparently Notre Dame is the only team in college football that lost starters from last year and lost starters to the NFL. So that's obviously going to make winning tough apparently this year because nobody else lost anyone to the NFL last year apparently. I'm sorry I'm being a little salty today. It's just going to happen. You're just going to have to accept it. But I hope that you can accept it I should say. But looking at this matchup with the Notre Dame offense and the Texas A&M defense and the run game is a very intriguing matchup even as much as in NY list as yes Brian you are offensive. There's no doubt there's no doubt I am an offensive guy there's no doubt about it. But looking at this run game matchup this is an area where there's a lot of things about Notre Dame's offense last year that were very perplexing because the paper numbers didn't always back up what your eyes told you. And when you look at Notre Dame's rush offense last year it was good. I mean it was an offense that finished 28th in the country in yards and even better numbers yards per temp Notre Dame finished 13th in college football last year in yards per temp which is a very good average especially when you consider that they're starting quarterback provided very little running ability I mean I think Sam Hartman had minus 200 yards rushing last year which makes that an even more impressive number. And so you look at it tackles for loss allowed they've ranked 13th and fewest tackles for loss allowed but it didn't always feel like and I don't know maybe you guys feel it differently about this but it didn't always feel like they were very good running the football especially in some of the bigger games you know they risk for 183 yards against Clemson which on paper looked good and they ran really well in the first half but there's two long runs by the quarterback that were one was off of a just a busted coverage by Clemson the other one was on a scramble so it wasn't really a run play and that patted the numbers a little bit which is one of the benefits of having a mobile quarterback for this season it didn't really do that much last year and Notre Dame ran for 176 against Ohio State which is a pretty good number and you know ran for 170 against NC State 4.6 per carry but like 80 that came on one carry and there just was a lot of time so like so after central Michigan they ran for 6.4 yards per carry against central Michigan but after that they didn't go over five yards a carry until they got to the Clemson game and went for 5.9 so I mean that's a stretch of five games where you didn't get to five yards per carry closest they had was the Duke game where they were at 4.97 and a lot of that came at late in the game so I never felt like the run game was quite as good as the statistics showed because I never felt like this was another game run team that could establish itself when it wanted to very often and then part of it you could argue is they didn't always enforce their will in maybe ways they could have or should have and that's an interesting dynamic and then you look at the flip side and you look at Texas A&M and Texas A&M last year for all their struggles is was a very good rush defense last season finished 14th in the country in yards per game now you could say well they weren't very good at defending the past which factored into that that's fine but they also finished 18th in yards per play which sometimes you got to look at at at at raw numbers of like yards and say well there's a lot of things if you go into yards you know what if you are a team that has a great starting field position I've shared this before with you guys in who are longtime listeners I coached in a team one year we won 10 games and averaged about 40 points a game but we only averaged about 350 yards per game why our average starting field position was the 48 yard line because we had a great defense and great special teams and so even though our numbers wouldn't knock your socks off we were a very good offense but if we get the ball at the 40 going in we can only give 40 yards I mean that that's the best we can do we can't ask our defense to spot us at you know hey can you guys let them get down to the 21st before you force a turnover so that way we can have longer fields and pile up yards you know I think those are things that you have to take into consideration so how do you gauge how good they were whether you look at the yards per attempt and when you look at yards per attempt then counter that with how many big plays you gave up so Notre Dame was great in yards per attempt but not you know they were good but not elite and in 20 plus runs of so they were at 26 so I mean you were a pretty efficient offense when you did run the ball and that's obviously something that this this Notre Dame team is going to have to try to continue and even get better at but that's also same it was true for A&M last year you know they were not a team that gave up a lot of big runs last year but you know gave up 12 and 13 games so that's less than one a game finished 18th in yards per play so obviously there was a lot of success there and then when you look at their their numbers they had a couple games where they they got ripped up relatively decently really mainly mainly one Texas LSU ran for 154 yards on them last year which numbers wise isn't great but they did average 5.5 yards per per game and Jayden Daniels had 120 yards rushing but Tennessee ran on a pretty good last year Tennessee ran for 232 yards last year just gashed them all game but outside of that I mean they held six of their opponents to minus 100 yards rushing that includes Miami that includes Auburn that I mean excuse me that includes Alabama that includes Arkansas South Carolina Abilene Christian they played Oklahoma State in the in a bowl game and that was against Ollie Gordon who was one of the top brushes in the country last year they held Oklahoma State 134 rushing yards 4.6 yards per attempt and then there are other games 131 to Ole Miss but 3.97 per carry 3.69 per carry against Mississippi State held them 133 yards Auburn had 144 yards but only 3.5 yards per carry so this was a team that all season only once I'm looking at the make sure I got that correct there's only one game last year we're at where Texas A&M gave up over five yards a carry only one game all year it's a different story from where they were the year before when they allowed five teams to go for over five yards a carry now the team that did that against them last year was LSU who obviously is offensive coordinators now at Notre Dame so this this matchup to me is a very intriguing matchup it's a matchup that that pits a Notre Dame team that is very different looking than what it was a year ago when you come to the to the run game they lose a 1,300 yards of Russia and Aldrick Estimae they lose a first round draft picket left tackle they lose a talented although inconsistent right tackle and Blake Fisher and you're starting an offensive line with six career starts that's the concerning part the positive part is that the the reason that Notre Dame has 27 starts on the bench right is because they got beat out by what the staff believes to be better players or players that performed better so there's that balance and I'm going to have a show segment coming out that I did with the guys at CFP Nation and we talked about the CFP All-America Show and we talked about you know the offensive line and there's the there's the rub of do you go with the veteran players that that you know you at least kind of know who they are in game one and then you know make some decisions after that or do you just if the younger guys are the better players you just play them and just take your chances and that's obviously the the direction that Notre Dame went and you know heck I just I look at it and say that you don't really know what Notre Dame is going to be there's a lot of understandable angst about the offensive line especially going against a very good defensive line for Texas A&M that that also adds Nick Skowartin although Purdue didn't have a a very good run defense last year despite having Skowartin and and a couple other guys that were were very productive and tackle for lost guys they finished 45th in the country last year in rush defense but it's a team that that was you know pretty good stopping the run last season Mike Elko's defense last year was a little inconsistent stopping the run if we're being honest it was a team that at times looked pretty good stopping the run they certainly did a pretty good job against Notre Dame and shut Notre Dame down for most of that game but then there was other games where they struggled to stop the run you know Clemson ran the ball very well on him in that game yards wise Louisville ran for over 200 yards against the North Carolina went for almost 200 yards against him you know Wake had a decent amount of yards against them last season so there were some moments where they did struggle to run the football last season especially against better opponents does that a talent thing is it a scheme thing there's just so many different ways to look at it but at the end of the day the on paper matchup in my opinion clearly favors Texas A&M not only does it favor Texas A&M statistically based off last season but it it favors them in regard to looking and projecting what these what we know about these teams now going in and and that regard that that kind of gives in goes into the aspect of you do have so much unprovenness to the Notre Dame offense when it comes to the run game Hey Irish breakdown listeners it's Urban Meyer this fall the game changes join me Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram and broadcaster Rob Stone as we bring you a new perspective on football and culture every week we will be joined by the biggest name in sports and talk about everything inside and outside of the lines let us guide you through a new era of college football watch triple option on YouTube or listen on apple podcast spot-of-fire or wherever you get podcasts this episode is brought to you by Honda when you test drive the all-new prologue EV there's a lot that can impress you about it there's the class leading passenger space the clean thoughtful design and the intuitive technology but out of everything what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda visit Honda.com/ev to see offers now what are the reasons to have optimism about Notre Dame in this matchup even though I do give advantage Texas A&M in this particular part of the matchup it's that while Notre Dame loses the big you know bell cow in audric estimate from last season what they do have is a lot more speed they will be throwing a lot more speed out there not only in Jeremiah love and jadarion price but also when you add the quarterback into the mix there's a lot more dynamic playmaking ability how you defend the Notre Dame run game has to change if you're Texas A&M you can look at these numbers and then you can focus on what Notre Dame lost and that's fine but you also have to now think about okay what's different the run scheme is going to change you have more dynamic playmakers at running back you have more dynamic playmaker quarterback you have to defend outside anymore you can't hard crash the edge like you did last year when Notre Dame was so much of a you know a between the tackles and pen and pull team where they were just trying to crash the edge and either blow up the inside runs or force audric estimate of bounce and that's not where you want an audric estimate to be if you were a Notre Dame coach you did not want audric estimate being forced to spill and bounce you had you want him playing downhill and so that's what teams did if you crash the edge against their name this year you leave yourself very vulnerable to the speed up the middle but you also leave yourself very vulnerable to Riley Leonard and getting hit with you know getting hurt by Riley Leonard so you have to just you have to look at Notre Dame differently than you did last year just like you have to look at A&M somewhat differently but this is going to be one of in my opinion the toughest test the Notre Dame run game is going to face all year and we're going to learn a lot about this run run this team early on and it's diving about can they have 200 yards big thing for me is do they compete that that's really what we're going to see is do they compete I don't expect them to consistently run the ball down Texas A&M's throat I don't expect that at all what they need to do however is find ways schematically and what they're blocking to generate big plays you can get beat on two plays in a row but if you can just do your job on that next second down run and get a body on a body you've got running backs and a quarterback then go out there and and make big plays in the run game and that's going to be the key is can they avoid the drive killing mistakes in the run game if you can avoid the drive killing mistakes and just stay on track to some degree and even if your first two runs and on first and second down only get you three yards third and four is a good place to be it's much better than being there in third night because you got four yards on the first play and then minus two on the second play stay on schedule and that that's going to where you're going to see Riley Leonard have a big impact because when you've got a quarterback like Riley Leonard in the speed they have a third down in anything less than third third and five or less is not a given that that's a passing situation even and even in passing situations you have to be able to defend the run so it's it that just staying on track staying on track staying on track is going to be key from during this matchup and that the yards may not be pretty and the yards per attempt may not be pretty but if they can have some level of efficiency in this game and just avoid the negatives that's going to give them an opportunity to to then hopefully keep sustain drives which the more you can sustain drives the more opportunities you have to get your dynamic playmakers going in the run game and and the key is not gash them gash them gash them the key is generate enough of those big play opportunities in a run game that it really alters what Texas A&M is trying to do and and that's really where we're going to be at and that's what I'm looking forward to seeing in this football game but this is a matchup that on paper and and then just what we expect to see is a matchup that that favors Texas A&M as of right now now let's go to the matchup of the Notre Dame pass game against the Texas A&M pass defense this is an interesting matchup because A&M doesn't have very impressive numbers Notre Dame actually has pretty impressive numbers they only finished 49th last year in total passing yards but they were a top 10 team in in pass efficiency ranking ninth and they were a top 15 team in yards per attempt yards per completion and passing touchdowns they also ranked 30th and 30 and gains of 30 yards or more and they were decent at avoiding sacks last year at times the problem is they didn't they gave up too many pressures in big moments you look at Texas A&M on the flip side you know they've ranked outside the top 50 and passing yards per attempt per completion touchdown to loud fewest interceptions they ranked 87th in interceptions I should say 76 and pass efficiency defense and they ranked 76th after giving them 20 pass plays of 30 yards or more last season the one thing they could do is get after the quarterback and I fully expect that to be the case but for all those who think hey you know if they get after the quarterback pass game is gonna stink well look they got after the quarterback last year they ranked eight in college football last year in sacks and they still ranked outside the top 75 in almost every category that I have mentioned here and this is going to be the aspect that's going to be key for Notre Dame now the counter argument that you can make against Notre Dame is that a lot of those numbers for Notre Dame that ranked you so high came in moments where you were clearly the superior team from a talent standpoint you know Notre Dame last year in the past game really ripped up their bad opponents the first four games of the year against Navy Tennessee State and NC State and Central Michigan where NC State was the only good team they played they were at least 10.1 yards per attempt in each game they were the 11.9 yards per attempt against Pitt who was not very good they were 9.2 against Stan Wake who wasn't very good 9.3 against Stanford it wasn't very good 12.2 against an Oregon State team who's half their secondary didn't play in that game because they were transferring out so against the better teams in the schedule which I think we would all agree NC State Ohio State Duke Louisville USC and Clemson were the six best teams in the schedule last year I that's not arguable in my opinion it's a NC State game was good 11.9 yards per attempt but seven against Ohio State seven point two against Duke six point seven against Louisville six point three against USC four point nine against Clemson so they weren't great against some of the better defenses and the better teams the question is is Texas A&M one of those better teams and then the next question is is this the same Notre Dame team that it was last and the answer is no it's not that doesn't mean it's going to be better doesn't mean it's going to be worse it means we don't know and that's what makes this part of the matchup so intriguing and so interesting is because there is so much turnover in these two units you've got a brand new coordinator for Texas A&M you've got a brand new offensive coordinate offensive coordinator for Notre Dame you've got a brand new quarterback for Notre Dame a lot of new receive more there's going to be more receivers in the rotation that didn't play much last year or weren't on the team last year then there will be guys that that matched up in against in you know four Notre Dame last season and then you look at the offensive line that's very different and you you ask yourself well can they can they hold up enough to allow them to make some of those plays and then you look at the secondary for Texas A&M and you've got Tyreke Chapel comes back you've got Dalton Brooks comes back who's a regular Bryce Anderson played a lot last year but a lot of their secondary or new players you've got will lead transfer from Kansas State B.J. Mays from UAB as Ricks came from Alabama you've got a and that's that's just part of the new new faces that they're gonna have in the secondary this year they've got new light you know Tory New York comes back but his he's supposed to be flanked by a guy that transferred in from another school from last season so you're gonna have a lot of new faces at Texas A&M too and so the question is is who who more quickly adapts to the offense that's the question does the Notre Dame offense with the newcomers and the new system adapt quicker than all the Texas A&M players in their new system that's going to be the interesting part of this matchup and there's a lot of things that that I believe give Notre Dame an advantage in this and I do have this being advantage Notre Dame because when I look at this matchup I evaluate the Texas A&M players and I look at what they did at their old stops and I say you know Will Lee was a solid player at Kansas State he was not a world beater at Kansas State when I look at B.J. Mays at UAB it's a good player there he was not a world beater there he was a guy that I think fits this system very well and and they'll both be very good there Des Ricks was a highly ranked player but didn't do a whole lot in his first season at Alabama and his one season at Alabama so there's a lot of different aspects to this that you've got to kind of ask yourself a little bit like okay how good are they really how talented are they really and in the answers we really don't know but you know when you look at a guy like B.J. Mays for example at UAB last year a good football player gave up 24 completions last year allowed 51.1 percent completion percentage he gave up he allowed 276 yards he had one touchdown allowed two interceptions eight breakups according to pro football focus it's pretty good numbers but again it was it was one of those situations where you know who did they play how did he perform in some of the bigger moments he gave up three completions on four attempts for 31 yards against Georgia against North Texas he gave up eight catches for on 11 attempts for 142 yards and you know so he had some very good moments and some moments that maybe weren't so great so how good is he going to be in this system I don't know the answer to that question his film's good but he's a guy that you know you have to be willing to to go after an attack you look at will Lee in Kansas State who again very good football player I like will Lee he's six three he's a good football player but is he a guy that you know Notre Dame is just in a situation where you know they can't throw in this guy we'll find out I don't know the answer to that there were some transfer players that Notre Dame's receiver struggled against last year you look at what they did against Louisville you look at what they did um I'm trying to remember the other game there was another oh Duke is another one where Duke had new new corners and they the receivers had some moments where they didn't play that well in that game so they're gonna have to step up and they're gonna have to perform will Lee again good player gave up 23 completions last year on 36 attempts 63.9 percent completion right gave up 406 yards last year four touchdowns had two picks and six pass breakups he's a good football player you know I think he's gonna he fits this system really well that's something I do like about him and and he had some some good moments against some good teams and he had some struggles against some some teams that were were pretty good though in the football so so what's Notre Dame going to do against him I don't know the answer to that we're gonna find out but I like the matchups and here's the other thing I will say I do think this is a defense that is is vulnerable to success between the numbers and when you look at what Mitchell Evans did to this defense last year for example they had no answers no answers for Mitchell Evans last year Notre Dame didn't have Jaden Greathouse in the matchup against Duke last year I think that could have had an impact in that game absolutely could have an impact in that game because he was really starting to kind of come into his own last season and now you're you've got to take advantage of that but at the end of the day if you're gonna really hurt Duke or hurt Texas A&M throwing the football you're gonna have to win some of those outside matchups and honestly I like the matchups that of Bo Collins and Jaden Thomas and Chris Mitchell and and even Jordan Faison again some looks against this this can't this Texas A&M secondary so it's it's gonna be an intriguing matchup and and some you know Andrew Gilmore just said I bet A&M will play press man on the wide receivers I would expect that they tried to double Evans if they try to double Evans that's great for Notre Dame it's very because if you're doubling a tight end who's who's playing it you know from the basically from the hashes inside that that's a lot of guys inside we're just going to leave you some opportunities on the outside if you know you try to to press a guy like Chris Mitchell for example you better hope it works because you do not have four four guys at cornerback you've got tall long guys and if you don't win that press on the outside against Chris Mitchell your toast especially if you're doubling against Mitchell Evans so to your point Andrew is I don't think that you're incorrect there I think they will press the Notre Dame receivers I do think that they will will try to say hey look we're not gonna let Mitchell Evans beat us I would absolutely do that if I was Texas A&M so then the question is you know as you said can the Notre Dame receivers make them pay that's gonna be a big part of this matchup and if they do get open can Riley Leonard hit him if I'm if I'm Texas A&M and I knew and I know Riley Leonard like I do the one thing I'm going to say is I'm going to force Riley Leonard to throw the ball down field and there's gonna be two reasons for that number one I know that that's the part of his game where he can be the most inconsistent number two I don't think he's gonna have enough time to get the ball down the field that's what I'm banking on I'm playing aggressively with my outside corners I'm gonna I'm gonna press them I'm gonna come up I'm gonna take away quick game I'm gonna try to take away some of the screen game I'm gonna force them to throw the ball down the field does Notre Dame have the playmakers on the outside to hurt them I think they do but having them on paper is different than executing but I do think this Notre Dame receiving core with Chris Mitchell with Jordan Faison with Jaden Greathouse with Jaden Harrison with KK Smith with Bo Collins has a lot more playmaking ability than what Notre Dame had on the outside last year and the other part is Notre Dame had top to add bias marry whether open twice for big plays last year Hartman missed him the first time to bias dropped it the second time do they make those plays this year that's that's gonna be a big part of this conversation and I'm looking forward to seeing if they're gonna be able to do that but on paper I certainly believe this is an advantage for Notre Dame based on the numbers from last year and the personnel match up of who they are this year I do think Notre Dame has the I think Duke actually had a a better cornerback situation last year than than than A&M has this year in my opinion especially if they move Tyreek Chapel inside and we'll talk more about him later let's look at the let's wrap this up with a final look at the Notre Dame offense against the Texas A&M defense you look at it and if you compare last year's numbers Notre Dame was better in points per game their offense ranked seventh A&M's were a defense ranked 36th A&M was better in yards they ranked 19th in yards Notre Dame ranked 29th but the Irish ranked 9th in yards per play Tex A&M ranked 40th in yards per play allowed Notre Dame's red zone offense ranked 47th A&M's ranked 69th on defense Notre Dame's red zone touchdown offense ranked 16th A&M's ranked 40th A&M as the advantage on third down they ranked 18th but Notre Dame was 24th Notre Dame ranked 29th last year in most plays of 30 yards or more A&M ranked 46th Notre Dame ranked 13th and few as turnovers lost A&M only ranked 112th in turnovers four so on paper Notre Dame has the advantage I believe that Notre Dame has the advantage from a skill standpoint A&M is adding a defensive staff that will be led by their head coach and it's a defense that was good last year but not dynamic not an elite defense last year Duke gave up 19 points per game which again was a a good number they were a good team last year on defense that ranked them last season foot sixteenth in scoring defense so obviously that was improvement over what Texas A&M was last season the Duke defense also ranked last season 42nd in yards allowed per game obviously Tex A&M was better there's reasons for that and then Duke last year ranked 28th in yards per play so the two most important numbers of those three I believe that points per game in yards per player more important than total yards Duke's adding a system that was more effective last season there's no doubt about it Notre Dame is also adding an offensive coordinator that was more effective so Notre Dame's offense ranked seventh and ninth last year in points and yards per play they're adding the offensive coordinator who led the nation in both of those categories last season and also led the nation I believe in total offense last year yes number one in total offense by 12 yards and they were also number one in yards per play and of course they ranked number one last year in scoring so both teams have added coaching has have added a system or it coached the top that led better units of what they have on paper then you have to look at okay what about the new additions obviously A&M's new additions up front were very good their perimeter additions are upgrades for them but I don't know that there are more upgrades than what Notre Dame will have in regard to their upgrade so it's going to be a very interesting very interesting matchup but I believe that you can't it's really hard for me to argue that Notre Dame doesn't hold the advantage here they hold the advantage statistically the new coaches that they added for Notre Dame were more effective than the coaches were for for Texas A&M obviously A&M didn't the current players they held their own against LSU last year but they certainly and they did a pretty good job two years ago when they beat they beat LSU two years ago or it would them rock there last year LSU won 42 to 30 they gave up only a 389 yards but they gave up size 7.5 yards per play they just didn't have the ball a ton in that game because the LSU defense was a hot mess and couldn't get off the field in that game but obviously he's a coach that went against Jay Bateman last year Mike or Mike Dembrock did and had a lot of success against Jay Bateman's offense at Florida last season they scored 52 points had 701 yards of offense and 11.5 yards per play so I don't know that Jay Bateman's going to add a whole lot of value to hey how do we stop this this Mike Dembrock offense because they were not able to do it the last couple of years so the year before LSU scored 45 points on Florida had 528 yards of offenses 7.5 yards per play so I just think it's advantage Notre Dame the the one and we've talked about this a lot the one potential caveat is the offensive line versus the defensive line that could be the great neutralizer if Notre Dame can just hold their own there then I think that they're gonna be okay but we'll dive more to that tomorrow so that's it for the offensive breakdown and next I'm going to dive into a breakdown of the Notre Dame defense. 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